Use of a WiFi Location Estimation Service as a Tool for Presenting Real Time Information During a River Cruise

This paper highlights the use of ubiquitous technology to effectively enable location estimation in a system that promotes the display of surrounding information during a sightseeing cruise. The proposed system stands on the applicability of WiFi signal strength to grasp current location and on the use of web-tagged place information on the contents of riverfront places and its revival processes. The effectiveness of system in both technical and social aspects was verified promoting a river cruise in downtown Osaka in cooperation with volunteer citizens, experts and a cruise company. The accuracy provided by the WiFi location estimation presented some failures at certain points but was satisfactory enough to guarantee the display of nearby information at certain level. The proposed web navigation was testified positive by respondents, although additional adjustments of its design and improvements of the WiFi server were pointed out as necessary steps