MCE - Mobile City Explorer

The project aimes at developing and demonstrating a pilot system of an intelligent mobile GPS/GALILEO-based travel assistant, which both guides tourists to interesting routes and provides them with information on the sights they see or photograph.

Short Description

The Mobile City Explorer also acts as a multimedia travel diary and thus spares the traveller the onerous task of documenting, cataloguing and editing photos and travel experiences. Users can thus fully concentrate on experiencing and exploring the special features of their environment instead of reading the map or searching for addresses.

R&D activities focus on developing a pilot system of an innovative GPS/GALILEO based value added service for urban tourism, which has a large market potential, demonstrates the benefit of location-based services for the tourism sector and has been tested under real-world conditions. The pilot system consists of a cameraphone, a GPS/GALILEO receiver and a server for mobile services.

Central innovative features of the project include image based object detection, which allows tourist objects captured by the cameraphone to be automatically identified, and the electronic travel guide, which creates thematic routes tailored to the user’s interests, supplies targeted information, and reacts adaptively to user movements. A multimedia geo-server provides the tourist with a map of his/her location determined by GPS/GALILEO, enhanced with multimedia tourist information.

The integration platform serves as a central basis for mobile services and is responsible for communication between the systems and components connected as well as for central data storage. The system uses standardised technologies, protocols and interfaces, which enable simple porting and integration of mobile network operators and content partners.

Project Partners

Coordinator

ARC Österreichisches Forschungs- und Prüfzentrum Arsenal GmbH/ Human Centered Mobility Technologies - Siegfried Wiesenhofer

Partners

JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH - Lucas Paletta
Institut für Fernerkundung und Photogrammetrie, TU Graz - Mathias Schardt
three united mobile solutions AG - Paul Beyer
Vienna Tourist Board - Karin Schmollgruber

Contact Address

ARC Österreichisches Forschungs- und Prüfzentrum Arsenal GmbH
Human Centered Mobility Technologies
Siegfried Wiesenhofer
Faradaygasse 3
A-1030 Vienna
E-mail: siegfried.wiesenhofer@arsenal.at