LocaPhone - Location-Aware Group Communication for Mobile Groups

In the context of the Deep Map virtual tourist guide, we present the Lo- caPhone application which is based on an agent architecture providing virtual group management, group communication facilities over low-bandwidth GSM connections and group member location services using GPS. In the scenario of Deep Map, one typical situation is a group of tourists walking through the city. Since not all of the group members are interested in the same sights, the group might split up from time to time. Still, group members should be able to keep in touch, therefore an application is desirable that on the one hand allows for voice communication, and on the other hand enables the visual localization of other group members. As a result of these thoughts, we developed the LocaPhone application. In this paper, we identify the problems and show how they are solved in our agent-based approach. We discuss both parts of the application (the voice communication and localization) and the agent architecture.