The Handheld Revolution: Towards Ubiquitous GIS

A Chapter in Advanced Spatial Analysis: The CASA book of GIS
(eds. Longley & Batty), ESRI Press, Redlands, CA: pp 193-210

Chao Li & David Maguire

Introduction

Since the early 1990s, information and communication technologies have continued to develop rapidly. The last decade saw the innovation of the Internet, the advent of the World Wide Web, the near ubiquitous application of networked PCs in business and also in recreation, the growing use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and the maturation of geographic information systems (GIS) for the management, analysis and visualisation of geographic data. There have also been rapid developments in wireless telecommunication networks, the advent of high-level communication protocols, handheld mobile and mass production of small-size wireless devices. GIS have converged with other information and communication technologies such that the potential now exists for GIS to become ubiquitous as 'mobile geographic services'.

The number of mobile device users increased dramatically during late 1990s. More than 40% of the population in Europe and nearly 70% in the UK owns a mobile device. There are nearly 800 million mobile phone subscribers world wide. This number is predicted to reach 1 billion by 2003 and 1.3 billion by the year 2005 (source: www.idc.com). In the USA, further usage growth will be stimulated by the US Federal Communications Commission enhanced 911 (E911) mandate. This requires reporting of the location of mobile phones used for emergency calls. It will also provide the basis for a wide range of additional, value-added location-based services. There is also considerable market drive for providing such services in Europe. The new areas of application for providing such location related information and services in real-time are more focused on networks of individuals and in mobile contexts. In view of this prospect, there are substantial research opportunities concerning communication and interaction between individuals through such applications.

In this chapter we describe how we believe these developments herald a new age in behavioural geography (Golledge and Stimson 1997), particularly with regard to measuring and monitoring individuals' cognitive abilities, their spatial awareness, the ways in which they acquire spatial knowledge and wider expertise in use of mapping in wayfinding. Current projects in CASA are at the forefront of this revitalised approach to behavioural geography (cf. Clarke 1998 for the general case of field computing). We begin by considering how handheld devices and mobile location services which offer the potential for making GIS a near ubiquitous technology. We then go on to discuss the spatial cognitive processes that are important in acquiring spatial knowledge through using technology. This leads us finally to focus on a number of research issues that are raised concerning location based services applications in current research at CASA. There are also links between the material discussed here and other drivers towards ubiquitous GIS, which are covered elsewhere in this book (e.g. Hudson-Smith and Evans, this volume). Related hardware developments, which are not discussed here, include wearable GIS, with which people have wearable hands-free input devices and direct display into the human vision field, and transportation telematics such as in-car navigation.