SBIR Phase II: Scalable Location Data Management

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project aims to design, implement, and test scalable methods for providing location-based services, with a special emphasis on mobile cell phone applications. Examples of such applications include continuous monitoring of static and dynamic geo-fences, building dynamic mobile social networks, and mobile e-commerce. The Phase II effort will develop methods to push the efficiency of the location-based computation techniques, and develop methods for more sophisticated features such as privacy management and mobile power management, which will be crucial for the wider adoption of location-based applications. Location data is currently generated by continually moving physical objects equipped with location-based sensors, such as GPS and Wi-Fi based tags. Data management methods for these datasets require dealing with high update rates, large volumes of historical location data, and location-based triggers that raise an alert when the location of a moving object meets certain criteria (for example, if an object is beyond a well-defined boundary). Existing methods for supporting applications that have these requirements are not scalable. The broader merits of this project include the development of a technology that has a potentially large commercial value and addresses an emerging market need. For example, for the cell phone market, these location-based services are projected to grow from $464M in 2007 to over $11B by 2011. If successful, the potential impact in both consumer and enterprise markets for location-based services could be substantial.