ABSTRACT
Location-based applications provide services based on the geographical location of the device. In order to provide enhanced location-based services or to provide the services in a more efficient manner, location-based information systems perform some data processing to transform that data into information and run algorithms to improve its performance. The decision on where to do the processing depends on the application, the service, and the resources needed. Some applications require local processing to provide immediate feedback to the user. If the elapsed time is greater than a time threshold, then the last valid coordinate is marked as critical and sent to the server. Of course, different policies and threshold values could be implemented. The beauty of the critical point algorithm presented above is that it is totally customizable, as these values can be easily changed according to the specific needs of the application.
