Personal task reminders have been indispensable
for modern people, in order to remind them of their
tasks at specific circumstances. Traditional paper-based
reminders are still useful, but they cannot be organized
efficiently. Electronic reminders based on the calendar in
cell phones are more efficient and gaining popularity, but
such reminders are mostly triggered by time. In many situations,
tasks are only meaningful to be performed at a
specific location, so it would be useful if reminders for
those tasks can be triggered only when the person to be
reminded is physically near or located at that location.
Therefore, in this research, we develop a location-based
personal task reminder for Android-based smartphones and
tablets. To distinguish our work from existing ones that
rely solely on the GPS technology, we take advantage of
the ubiquity of IEEE 802.11 WLAN infrastructure to
compliment the ‘‘blind spots’’ of GPS location sensing.
Combining the two technologies makes it possible for the
personal task reminder to be effective in both indoor and
outdoor environments. We also propose two operating
models for the personal task reminder to boost the usability
of the application. Furthermore, as long as the WLAN
infrastructure is available, our work as a foundation of
location-based services can easily be extended to be used in
many other scenarios, such as guiding in public transportation
systems or tourist attractions, location-based learning,
and even caring of the Dementia residents.