隨著網路電子地圖、車用衛星導航系統等技術廣泛被大眾使用,各家廠商紛紛推出多樣性的LBS服務,各種室內外定位技術也更加蓬勃發展。每個LBS服務都有許多可重用的共通基本單元,位置管理平台是一個介於定位技術與LBS服務之間的中介軟件,提供了服務所需的基本服務,包含位置資訊取得、隱私權管理、電子地圖服務、經緯度與地址轉換、MSN即時通訊軟體界接等等功能,使得LBS服務開發者可直接存取平台提供的基本服務,而不用再重複開發功能相同的元件。平台提供各種室內外定位技術的介面,並且整合了地理資訊系統,提供室內與室外的地圖資訊,使LBS服務由室外延伸到室內,提供更多的可能性。
With wide-spread use of web maps and car navigation systems, the industry launches various location-based services and indoor / outdoor positioning technologies, which are getting more popular. Each location-based service has common software components that can be re-used. The location management platform is the middleware between positioning technologies and location-based services. It provides basic components that most LBS applications need, including location acquisition, user privacy policy management, mapping service, geo-coding, MSN interoperability and so on. LBS providers can access basic components on the platform, and need not to reinvent the wheel. The platform provides interfaces to access indoor/outdoor positioning technologies and integrate with geographic information systems to provide indoor/outdoor mapping service to extend functionalities of LBS from the outdoor environment to indoors.