From GIS to LBS, An Intelligent Mobile GIS 1 From GIS to LBS An Intelligent Mobile GIS

Location Based Services (LBS) is a relatively new, growing technology field that fo-cuses on providing information via mobile and field units based on individual spatial positions. In contrast, Geographic Information Systems (GISs) is a well-established field of technology, which incorporates decades of academic and industrial research and development. GISs contain many of the components necessary for LBS as they provide the basic tools and, hence, make LBS functionally possible. Three additional fundamen-tal aspects, however, are required for GISs to provide added value services: mobility, distributiveness, and egocentric awareness. In this paper we investigate these three as-pects, illustrate how they close the gap between a GIS and a LBS, and finally propose an intelligent mobile GIS that conforms to the definition of LBS