Location Linked Information Project

Location-based project by Matt Mankins at MIT Medialb:

Location Linked Information (LLI) is a project that attempts to merge virtual spaces and communities, such as those that reside on the Internet and in traditional databases, with the physical world, the world of atoms.

LLI uses geography, measured in degrees latitude and longitude as the primary key linking the two realms.

LLI is similar to augmented reality systems which overlay digital information on top of the physical world. Whereas augmented reality systems typically concentrate on solving the user interface problem, LLI attempts to solve the data access and search infrastructure issues. In LLI users navigate the physical world with a variety of XML-speaking devices, discovering and leaving "handles" to information nuggets.

A distributed network of databases manage the information nugget pointers which are URLs to actual information. Information nuggets themselves are position/time/url tuples that lead the viewer to further sources of data.

People use client devices to peer into the virtual world around them. Client devices can come in many different form factors and be specialized for finding particular types of information.

LLI clients integrate position sensing (currently with GPS), Internet access (GPRS/CDPD), and a browser user interface.

The LLI system uses the Jabber protocol to tie togeter devices across the earth. Clients communicate with trusted "home servers" via Jabber encoded XML Streams. Relaying through a home server (such as is done currently with email) provides users with a more anonymous location browsing environment.

LLI clients search for information via the Jabber asyncronous discovery protocol, which relays search requests to other servers across the Internet.

In LLI, the world has been divided up into latitude/longitude based cells. Location-keyed data nuggets are then published to individual cells.

Applications that can take advantage of this system include both those that wish to permanently tag an area (static nuggets), as well as dynamic object presences (dynamic nuggets). Dynamic systems could be used for vehicle tracking (air,car,boat,etc.), friend tracking, or on anything else that moves. :)