Presence Zone for Contextual Presence Location Information

Presence Zones Enriched Location data with contextual information. 

 

Presented by IBM research in Haifa. They have run a research project trying to enhance presence information by adding context to the location where I am and then set presence status based on that.

 

The concept is based on defined zones with certain attributes. There can be automatic zones and there can be zones set up by a restaurant that pushes out information about menu and offers together with presence info. A zone can be identified using different location technologies like GSM triangulation, cell-id, GPS, Bluetooth, RFID and generic near field communications.

 

In the case of a restaurant owner he puts in a bluetooth device that identifies guests as they enter and leaves and sends that information to the presence server.

 

On top of this enhanced context aware location information there can be applications created that utilize the automatic presence information. The most obvious example would be enabling end-users to create their own mashup between presence and other sources like restaurant guides, astma information, etc.

 

Other applications can be call routing, pre-call presence information, targeted advertisements, offers, quiet zones and what-have-you.