Locating Friends and Family Using Mobile Phones
With Global Positioning System (GPS)
Ghaith Bader Al-Suwaidi, Mohamed Jamal Zemerly
Computer Engineering Department
Khalifa University for Science, Technology and Research,
PO Box 573, Sharjah, UAE
g.b.alsuwaidi@gmail.com, jamal@kustar.ac.ae
Abstract— This paper presents a mobile application based on
providing Location Based Services (LBS) using Global
Positioning System (GPS) as a location provider. The main
objective of this work is to design and implement a client server
system that helps users to locate their family members and
receive alerts when friends are nearby. The mobile application
was implemented using J2ME where the most recent APIs and
other older APIs were combined together in order to make the
application reliable on all types of mobiles. The server was
implemented using PHP since PHP guarantees that the server
would not be overloaded. The type of the Database used in the
system was MySQL. The average location accuracy of the
application is about couple of meters.
I. INTRODUCTION (HEADING 1)
According to a new report from the research firm Berg
Insight; “revenues from mobile location based services (LBS)
in the European market will grow by 34 percent annually to
reach €622 million in 2010”. This number shows how
important LBS applications are becoming to mobile users [1].
LBS are the mobile services in which the user location
information is used to provide a service. The user location
information consists of X-Y coordinates generated by any
given positioning technique such as Cell-ID, GPS, etc.
The GPS is the most efficient positioning technique. It was
developed mainly to be used in navigation systems. Because
of the reduction in the size of the GPS receivers and because
of the integration of GPS with some mobiles; GPS became
one of the most important service providers in the LBS.
There are not many projects that are carried out in the LBS
field. This is because this type of application was somehow
exclusive for mobile service providers because they use
mobile cells information to get the location of the mobile and
then provide a service to get it. But the introduction of GPS in
this field will make designing and implementing LBS services
open to researchers all over the world.
II. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
The internet is the medium that will be used to transfer
user data and service request from the mobile to the server and
978-1-4244-3806-8/09/$25.00 © 2009 IEEE
Authorized licensed use limited to: Bharat University. Downloaded on August 31, 2009 at 13:23 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
then the requested information back to the user. Figure 1
shows the main 5 elements that construct the system which are
the GPS, the client tier, server tier and the database tier.
A. Client tier (Mobile)
The mobile requests its location from the positioning
system periodically and sends it through the communication
network to the server. The user can request the location of a
family member at any time from the server. Also an alert can
be received whenever the user and a friend are in the same
location.
B. Server
The server receives users' location and alerts two friends if
they are in the same location or update the user about the
location of family members.
C. Database
The database contains all users subscribed in the service
with their location, a list for each user that contains friends
and family members that can be located, and a table that
contains locations with their coordinates.
D. GPS
Every time the mobile phone updates the user location in
the server, it requests the location of the user from the GPS.
The GPS determines the longitude and the latitude and sends
them to the mobile phone.
III. FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATIONS
A. Mobile Functions
1) User Registration: In order to use the service the user
should register by providing a username and password. This
information will be sent to the server.
2) User Login: If the user is already registered, he/she can
login to the service by entering his username and password.
Information will be sent to the server in order to decide
giving the user a permission to use the service or not.
555

Figure 1. System Architecture
3) Add Member: The user can add any other registered
user to his/her list. Also the user must specify whether to
consider the added user as a friend or as a family member.
4) Family/Friends Request: After adding a user to the list,
the request goes to the outgoing requests list of the user and
to the incoming requests list of the added friend or family
member. The friend or family member can choose whether to
accept the incoming request or reject it. Also the user can
cancel the request at any time.
5) GPS Connector: After adding a user to the list, the
request goes to the outgoing requests list of the user and to
the incoming requests list of the added friend or family
member. The friend or family member can choose whether to
accept the incoming request or reject it. Also the user can
cancel the request at any time.
6) Coordinates Retriever and Update: This function gets
the coordinates of the location of a user from the GPS
receiver (either Bluetooth or built-in GPS receiver) and sends
them to the server periodically where the period can be
specified by the user.
7) Get Member Location: A user can retrieve the location
of a family member at any time with the distance between
both of them and the last time the family member updated the
server with his/her location. This is done by sending a request
to the server.
8) Get Friend Alert: Every time the application updates
the server with the location of users, it retrieves the friends
that are within 1km away from the user.
556
Authorized licensed use limited to: Bharat University. Downloaded on August 31, 2009 at 13:23 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
B. Server Functions
1) Registration Processes: The Server gets the
registration information and saves them into users table in the
Database.
2) Login Processes: The Server gets the login
information, and makes sure that the user has an access to the
system or not by checking the information with ones stored in
the database.
3) Member Addition Processe: The Server gets
information from the application, and then it adds the new
member to the user list.
4) Requests Processe: The Server sends the incoming
requests list and outgoing requests list to any user when ever
he/she requests. Then it gets the user response on any user in
the list and performs an action (accept, reject, cancel request).
5) Updating Location Processes: The Server gets the
coordinates of a user location and stores them in the database.
6) Getting Location Processes: The Server provides the
application with a family member location of a user list with
the location update time and the distance between the user
and the family member.
7) Alerting Processes: The Server calculates the distance
between two friends according to the coordinates stored in the
database and alerts the friends if they are nearby.
C. Database Functions
1) Users Table: This table stores all the users with their
login information and location.
2) Users friends and family lists Table: This table stores
the lists of all users that use the service.
3) Locations table Table: It contains Locations name with
their corresponding coordinates.
IV. THEORATICAL FOUNDATION
A. GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is the only fully
functional Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). It uses
around 24 medium Earth orbit satellites that transmit precise
radio signals. The system enables a GPS receiver to determine
its location, speed and direction.
1) Calculating Positions: In order to calculate its position,
a receiver needs to know the precise time. The satellites are
equipped with accurate atomic clocks while the receiver uses
an internal crystal oscillator-based clock that is continuously
updated using the signals that are coming from the satellites.
The receiver identifies each satellite's signal by a distinct
Coarse / Acquisition (C/A) code pattern, and then measures
the time delay for each satellite.
To measure the time delay for each satellite, the receiver
produces an identical C/A sequence using the same seed
number (number used to initialize a random number
generator) as the satellite. By lining up the two sequences, the
receiver can measure the delay and calculate the distance to
the satellite. The orbital position data from the Navigation
Message is then used to calculate the satellite's precise
position. Knowing the position and the distance of a satellite
indicates that the receiver is located somewhere on the surface
of an imaginary sphere centered on that satellite and whose
radius is the distance to it. When three satellites are measured
simultaneously, the intersection of the three imaginary spheres
reveals the location of the receiver as shown in Figure 2. The
location is represented as coordinates; the coordinates are
represented in numbers. These numbers represents the
longitude and the latitude of a location [2].
Figure 2. GPS Positioning
2) Coordinates format: The coordinates that are retrieved
from the GPS can be represented as one of the following
formats: DD˚MM’SS.SS, DD˚MM.MM, or DD.DD˚, where
D is for Degrees, M is for Minutes and S for Seconds.
3) Calculating distances using coordinates: In order to
calculate the distance between two points where the
coordinates of each point is given; an equation that calculates
the distance between two points on a circle surface should be
used [3]. If the distance between point A (LongA, LatA) and
the point B (LongB, LatB) wanted to be calculated, then the
distance in meters is:
⎡cos( latA ) × cos( latB ) × cos( lonB − lonA ) + ⎤
D = a cos ⎢ ⎥×R
⎣sin(latA ) × sin( latB ) ⎦ support the JAVA location API and some have built in GPS
where D: the distance in meters, latA: Latitude of point A,
longA: Longitude of point A, latB: Latitude of point B, longB:
Longitude of point B, R: the radius of the earth in meters
geographic location and orientation of the terminal and
accessing a database of known landmarks stored in the
terminal [4].
C. JAVA Bluetooth API
The JAVA Bluetooth API is a package that enables mobile
to connect to other devices that support Bluetooth connection
and exchange information with them.
V. IMPLEMENTATION
The mobile application was implemented using J2ME
while PHP was used for implementing server functions and
MySQL was used for the database.
In order to make sure that the application can run on
almost all mobiles, two different methods for dealing with
GPS receivers were used. The first one is for the new mobile
that are coming to the market and have built in GPS receivers
or the mobile that support LBS services, where the JAVA
location API was used in order to connect and retrieve
coordinates from the GPS receivers.
The second method is for mobiles that do not support the
location API where the Bluetooth API was used for
connecting and getting coordinates from the GPS receivers.
VI. TESTING
A. System validation
The purpose of validation is to show that the implemented
system satisfies the initial requirements. The requirements can
be divided into four categories for the purpose of validation.
These categories are the purposes of the system, portability,
techniques and functions.
The main category was the system portability where the
(1) system was tested on several mobile phones some of them
receivers. The results of this test are shown in Table 2.
TABLE II. MOBILES CAPABILITIES AND SYSTEM PERFORMANCE

4) GPS sources of error: There are several sources that Mobile model Capabilities
System
may affect the accuracy of the GPS. These sources are shown Performance
in Table I below. Has a built in Bluetooth receiver
Nokia N95 System worked well
and supports the location API
Nokia N73 Supports the location API System worked well
TABLE I. GPS SOURCES OF ERROR Sony Ericsson
Does not support the location API System worked well
W880
Source Effect Sony Ericsson
Does not support the location API System worked well
Ionospheric errors ± 5 meters K800

Ephemeris errors ± 2.5 meters B. System Verification

Satellite clock errors ± 2 meters The purpose of verification is to ensure that the system
Multipath distortion ± 1 meter
correctly performs its functions and produces the correct
results. For the purpose, different types of scenarios were used
Tropospheric effects ± 0.5 meter to test the functions of the system. All of the test results came
Numerical errors ± 1 meter or less positive.

B. JAVA Location API C. Evaluation

The Location API for JAVA is an optional Package that The main part of the evaluation was the quantitative
enables mobile phones to get information about the present assessment where the average error in meters of the locations

557
Authorized licensed use limited to: Bharat University. Downloaded on August 31, 2009 at 13:23 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
provided by the system was measured. This is done by • GPS does not work indoor. This problem was solved by
calculating the distance between a point and itself where the always storing the last location updated by the application.
coordinates are retrieved from the implemented system for one
of the points and Google earth for the other one [5]. Google • The system provides the user with the member time of
earth was considered as a reference for the system coordinates update whenever a family member location is requested.
for this assessment. By calculating the error of several points, This will help the user to know whether the location is
the average error was calculated. recently updated or not.
The new JAVA location API supports both types of GPS
TABLE III. MEASURING COORDINATES ERROR (POINT A)
(built in, Bluetooth) but the problem with this API is that not
all available mobiles support it; also not many resources were
Point A Longitude Latitude Distance found because the API is still new. To overcome this problem,
both ways of getting the coordinates were used, the new API
System 5520.2381 2517.7348
1.22 m and the function that deals with the Bluetooth GPS receivers
Google earth 5520.2386 2517.7358 were used. The application was implemented to check if the
mobile supports the implemented class that uses the location
TABLE IV. MEASURING COORDINATES ERROR (POINT B) API or not. Therefore, if the mobile supports the API, then it
use the class, otherwise it uses the Bluetooth connection class.
Point B Longitude Latitude Distance
System 5523.9225 2521.2527 VIII. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
2.1 m
Google earth 5523.9242 2521.2516 A J2ME mobile application based on providing Location
Based Service using Global Positioning System (GPS) as a
TABLE V. MEASURING COORDINATES ERROR (POINT C) location provider is presented. The application is implemented
as a client server system that helps users to locate their family
Point C Longitude Latitude Distance members and receive alerts when friends are nearby. The
System 5520.329 2518.5686 location average accuracy using this system is believed to be
1.09 m within couple of meters. The application works in open space
Google earth 5520.330 2518.5682
areas only since it relies on GPS. Future extensions may look
at other options such as getting the location from the service
From the three calculations, the average error is 1.47m. provider. In this case the location accuracy will be reduced
and will depend on the size of the cells where the user is
Another assessment was done where the distance
located. Other future extensions can be summarized as
calculation equation accuracy was tested. This is done by
follows:
defining two points on the ground then measuring the distance
between the two points using a measurement tool. After that, • Include maps, to send a map with a family member location
the GPS receiver was used to get the coordinates of both rather than just sending the location name. Also a map that
points and then the distance was calculated (using Equation 1). shows the path from a friend to another.
• Provide a Mobile SOS (Save Our Souls) facility to mobile
TABLE VI. DISTANCE CALCULATION BETWEEN TWO POINTS
users. GPS satellites can be used to find the location of the
Points Longitude Latitude Distance user, and send the coordinates via SMS to a server.
A 5520.2381 2517.7350 • Provide religious needs such as making the application to
19.82 m
B 5520.2280 2517.7503 calculate the five Muslim prayer times using the GPS
coordinates. Also determine the Qiblah (Makkah) direction
The measured distance using measurement tool was 21 using the coordinates provided by the receiver.
meters while using GPS coordinates gave a distance of 19.82
• Allow the users to create other lists rather than just using the
meters, so the error in measuring the distance was 1.18 meters.
friends and the family members list. This will help in using
VII. DISCUSSION the system in organizations that need to know the location
of their employees during working hours.
Based on the tests that measure the system performance,
the system has some strong and weak features: REFERENCES
• The system built is portable and can run on any mobile [1] Axel Küpper , Location-based services, fundamentals and operation,
WILEY, 2nd edition, 2005.
phone that supports J2ME whether they support the new
[2] Joel McNamara, GPS for Dummies, For Dummies, 1st edition, 1998.
JAVA location API or not.
[3] Rick Broida, How to Do Everything with Your GPS, McGraw-
• The system can run on mobiles that have a built in GPS Hill/Osborne, 2nd edition, 2004.
receiver or mobiles that support Bluetooth which can be [4] Qusay H. Mahmoud "J2ME and Location-Based Services". Sun
used to connect the mobile to external GPS receivers. Developer Network, 2004.
[5] “Google Earth software”. http://earth.google.com/ September 2008.
• On the mobile side, the application size is small because all
user lists and other data are stored in the server.

558
Authorized licensed use limited to: Bharat University. Downloaded on August 31, 2009 at 13:23 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.