An implementation of location-based service system with cell identifier for detecting lost mobile

Abstract

This paper presents a software development on Android Platform which applies cell identifier method for improving the accuracy of indoor localization. The objective of this research is to provide a detectable system, "Mobile Detective", for tracking and finding clues of lost mobiles. In general, the location-based service, a software application which retrieves information about where a mobile device is located, uses GPS (Global Positioning System) to indicate the geographical position of the mobile device. Though GPS provides efficient outdoor localization, it does not work well indoor and not all mobile devices have built-in GPS receiver. Therefore, GPS may not be suitable for tracking lost mobiles. In order to solve this problem, cell identifier which indicates mobile device position by using station base information is introduced in this research. The location tracking process is run as background process by using Android service and it automatically repeats sending this information in an interval of time. The results from this process composed of position and mobile's particular information: SIM code and IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity), are sent from the lost mobile to the recipient. The results are displayed in two interface modes which are text message and GUI on Google map. User can use these clues to notify mobile provider and police in order to retrieve the lost mobile © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.