Context-aware Mobile Gaming

17.06.2005

Abstract:
Mobile devices and technologies become more and more sophisticated. Mobile devices have already developed from intended for voice communication to really “multi-purpose” that nowadays are also used for mobile shopping, entertainment, positioning and many other services. New capabilities of mobile devices and technologies open new opportunities for many business actors as they offer new interfaces for access to services, advertisement and can be a platform for development of new services.

Use of contextual information in software applications satisfies the increasing users’ expectations about personalized services and services where just-in-time information is required.

This master thesis illustrates one possible way of how state-of-the-art mobile devices and technologies can be applied in the business area of tourism. Particularly, it shows how context-aware mobile gaming can be used as an additional “meeting channel” between tourists and tourism actors, contributing to the value creation in a business network of infrastructure and equipment vendors, application developers and service providers and to the enrichment of travel impressions for tourists.

Specification of the context-aware mobile game Geopuzzles and its first prototype design and implementation details can be found in this report.