Context-sensitive and location-based services
Urs is currently exploring Location-Based Services (LBS) in particular. LBS can deliver useful information to your cell phone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or laptop, informing you of a shoe sale, where your friends are or if your child’s cell phone travels outside a predefined area. “LBS reveal your location to a service provider,” notes Urs. “Privacy issues include protecting your identity and ensuring you derive benefit from the service without leaking information about your exact location, such as your home, or your movement patterns. Especially to a third party.”
Conversely, you might need to, but cannot communicate exactly where you are. This uncertainty is another aspect of LBS that Urs is addressing. “If a cell tower covers a huge area, it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact location of a phone. If you leave your laptop in your office, but carry your cell phone with you, the two devices will report conflicting locations. I’m also looking at protocols that take uncertainty into account.”
Urs is looking forward to further cultivating industry contacts who have shown interest in applications of his research. “I hope companies will use the tools I develop in my research to create exciting services,” concludes Urs. “I want to be involved in the creation of some prototypes. That would be a great challenge.”
University of Waterloo Mathematics, Annual Report 2006