On the Potential Use of Mobile Positioning Technologies in Indoor Environments

A great deal of attention is recently being paid to the potential of mobile communication technologies to redefine and extend the world of traditional eBusiness by rendering its applications available to mobile users. The term Mobile Business (mBusiness) has been coined to denote the ways in which mobile George M. Giaglis, Ada Pateli, Kostas Fouskas, Panos Kourouthanassis, Argiris Tsamakos 414 communication technologies can be applied to address the requirements of mobile users that need to access a varied range of applications and services through wireless access devices. However, the ongoing discussion on mBusiness is restricted almost solely to ‘macro’ applications in outdoor settings. In this paper we extend the definition of mBusiness to include a complementary set of ‘micro’ applications in indoor environments (such as museums, exhibitions, hypermarkets, and others), where location awareness can become a crucial parameter of valueadded service provision. We contend that a wide number of indoor environments can benefit from location-based applications and services, albeit only after overcoming a number of technological and application challenges that exist today. The paper identifies such challenges through the discussion of ongoing research work investigating the potential applicability of indoor location services in the exhibition industry.