Enabling Platform for Mobile Content Generation Based on 2D Barcodes

As context-aware (and more specifically location-aware) computing enters the scene of Internet computing, different location determination techniques are widely accepted. Although accuracy of some of them is quite good for finegrained location data gathering, none of these techniques provides a good balance between cost of ownership (infrastructure), accuracy and ease of use. In this paper we present an enabling platform targeted at mobile phones to perform focused retrieval of locationdependant content. As it is difficult to perform exact location determination of mobile users using a single technology, a wrap-up of 2D barcodes and the camera and connectivity of a mobile phone is used to obtain a perfect fix of the user’s location-aware interest while reducing necessary infrastructure to the bare minimum. Using this information, very specific user generated content for a certain object on a certain place can be returned to the user. As an illustration, an interactive city guidance application was implemented and evaluated.