| Enabling New Mobile Applications with Location Proofs (2009) | |||||||||||||||
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| Location is rapidly becoming the next “killer application ” as location-enabled mobile handheld devices proliferate. One class of applications that has yet-to-emerge are those in which users have an incentive to lie about their location. These applications cannot rely solely on the users ’ devices to discover and transmit location information because users have an incentive to cheat. Instead, such applications require their users to prove their locations. Unfortunately, today’s mobile users lack a mechanism to prove their current or past locations. Consequently, these applications have yet to take off despite their potential. This paper presents location proofs – a simple mechanism that enables the emergence of mobile applications that require “proof” of a user’s location. A location proof is a piece of data that certifies a receiver to a geographical location. Location proofs are handed out by the wireless infrastructure (e.g., a Wi-Fi access point or a cell tower) to mobile devices. The relatively short range of the wireless radios ensures that these devices are in physical proximity to the wireless transmitter. As a result, these devices are capable of proving their current or past locations to mobile applications. In this paper, we start by describing a mechanism to implement location proofs. We then present a set of six future applications that require location proofs to enable their core functionality. 1. | |||||||||||||||
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