Context-awareness and real-time information in an intelligent smartphone application

Abstract

With the constant increase in smartphone sales, integrated sensors and map navigation have now become available to the average user. This allows for mobile applications to use context-awareness to provide more relevant information. An interesting use-case for such applications is a route information system for buses. The paper describes an application which interfaces over a mobile phone to Bus- TUC, a natural language-based reasoning-system for bus routes in Trondheim. By combining user context, BusTUC reasoning and real-time data from the bus service provider, the user-interaction is simplified, compared to a standard information system. We discuss issues on supporting context-awareness and real-time information in this system, comparing it to other available route information systems. Feedback from beta-testers indicates that the application suits the needs of typical bus travellers well.