PARAMOUNT – Experiences and Results of a LBS Prototype ... - IFEN

PARAMOUNT – Experiences and Results
of a LBS Prototype for Mountaineers
Erwin Löhnert, Heiko Mundle, Elmar Wittmann, Günter Heinrichs
IfEN Gesellschaft für Satellitennavigation mbH (IfEN GmbH), D-85586 Poing, Germany
BIOGRAPHIES
Erwin Löhnert received a diploma in Aerospace
Engineering in 1993 from the Munich University of
Technology. In 1994 he joined the Institute of
Navigation and Geodesy of the University of the
Bundeswehr Munich as a Research Associate,
working mainly for aerogravimetry and GPS/INS
integration. In 2000 he joined IfEN GmbH as a
Project Manager for integrity determination. Since
2001 he is Head of the Mobile Applications & Services
department, managing the PARAMOUNT
project.
Heiko Mundle has received his Dipl-Ing(FH) in
Geomatics from the University of Applied Sciences
in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1999. From 2000 to
2002 Heiko Mundle was working for blaxxun
interactive, Munich and was involved in the
development of Internet communities and virtual
worlds software. Since July 2002 Heiko Mundle
has been working at IfEN GmbH focusing on
software development for location base services.
Elmar Wittmann received a diploma in surveying –
major subject geodesy and satellite geodesy – in
2000 from the Munich University of Technology
and then joined the IfEN GmbH, where he is now
working as a project engineer in the field of
GPS/Galileo satellite navigation and software
development for mobile applications.
Dr. Günter Heinrichs received a Dipl.-Ing. degree
in Communications Engineering from the
University of Applied Science Aachen, a Dipl.-Ing.
degree in Data Processing Engineering and a Ph.D.
in Electrical Engineering from the University
Paderborn. In 1996 he joined MAN Technologie
AG where he has served as the head and R&D
manager of the satellite navigation department from
1999 to April 2002. In May 2002 he joined IFEN
GmbH, Poing, Germany, where he is currently the
head of business development and R&D
management.
ABSTRACT
The rapid development in the fields of mobile
technologies – regarding hardware as well as the
corresponding infrastructure – provides a strong
basis for the establishment of new appropriate
services aiming on the special needs of people on
the move, in particular tourists visiting unfamiliar
places. Those needs include for instance up-to-date
information and further support concerning e.g.
guidance or help in critical situations.
This paper gives an overview on the EC funded
project ‘Public Safety & Commercial Info Mobility
Applications & Services in the Mountains’
(PARAMOUNT), in which such a location based
service (LBS) prototype was developed, focusing
especially on the needs of mountain tourists in the
Alps and Pyrenees. A so-called electronic
TourGuide – consisting of Personal Digital
Assistant (PDA) and other hardware components –
wirelessly connected to the PARAMOUNT service
via Internet assists the mountaineer in the position,
orientation and navigation task, delivers environmental
and additional information and helps in an
emergency situation or even prevents it. In order to
provide the hiker with relevant information and to
support him on his way e.g. to the mountaintop,
three different core services have been developed
within the project, namely INFOTOUR,
SAFETOUR and DATATOUR.
INFOTOUR provides valuable information.
SAFETOUR aims to increase the safety of the user.
Finally DATATOUR involves the users in updating
and completion of the service database.
Beside the presentation of the overall system
architecture the paper will focus especially on the
experiences and results obtained during the

project’s test and demonstration phase of the
prototype service in a regional test area of the
Bavarian Alps.
INTRODUCTION
PARAMOUNT is a mobile navigation and
information system prototype. It has been designed
focussing especially on the needs of hikers and
wanderers on the one hand and the mountain rescue
services on the other hand. This includes also a
support tool for controlling and coordinating the
SAR (Search-and-Rescue) missions of the
mountain rescue teams.
The prototype is funded by the European Commission
and has been developed by an international
consortium of 5 partners. The project has started in
02/2002 and will be finished in 10/2003.
OBJECTIVES AND MOTIVATION
The project is driven by the motivation to
contribute to the improvement of user-friendly
info-mobility services by combining technologies
from the fields of satellite navigation,
telecommunications and geo-information. This
includes the following main objectives:
Figure 1: PARAMOUNT System Overview
- Development of a Location Based Service
(LBS) prototype providing appropriate information
and features for mountain hikers and
wanderers
- Integration of support and control facilities for
mountain rescue services
- Demonstration and proof of feasibility of such
a combined system especially for mountainous
areas.
THE PARAMOUNT SERVICES
The location-based service prototype integrates
positioning, navigation, communication, coordination
and information services based on compact
hardware components and mobile communication
technology. The service demonstrator shows that
state-of-the-art technology can be used to establish
user-friendly services, which can lead to a
significant improvement of comfort and safety of
millions of people, who are going to the mountains
of the Alps and Pyrenees.
Three different kinds of core services were
developed within PARAMOUNT (Figure 1):
INFOTOUR is for guiding, routing and informing
the user. It provides fundamental services, which
allow the user to access dedicated information at

home and in particular on the mountains. The user
requests maps of different scales and extent from
the INFOTOUR server. He/she can also ask for so
called points of interest – touristic relevant destinations,
e.g. summits, public transportation stations,
huts and hotels.
After selecting a destination the service determines
the best route. If the user gets lost for example due
to poor weather visibility the user can request the
route back to a trail. If the weather becomes too bad
for walking or if the user is exhausted and needs to
rest, the system even finds the route to the nearest
hut. The hiker can choose to be guided along these
routes to find his/her way more easily.
Besides the user will have access to local weather
forecasts as well as common tourist information
depending on his/her position. For more intuitive
view of the chosen trail, the user can request from
the server a 3D picture of the surrounding hills with
an emphasised trail on it.
The contents are at different dynamic levels. Firstly
long-term data like 3-D geographic data (trails,
height data…) and restaurants. Secondly mediumterm
data like local (cultural) events, timetables and
opening hours of mountain huts. Thirdly short-term
data in particular avalanche prediction and weather
forecasts. Last but not least instant content. ‘Off-
Board’ routing belongs to that.
Figure 2: Screenshot of SAR Centre Client
SAFETOUR provides in addition to the information
described above especially safety relevant data.
The usual mountaineer can send an emergency call
including his/her current position in case of
emergency. If a hiker becomes witness of an
accident he is enabled to send a call and define the
position of the victim on the map. Furthermore
SAFETOUR tracks mountaineers in critical environments
and in dangerous terrain.
For the support of the search-and-rescue (SAR)
organisations a so-called ’SAR Centre client’ (see
Figure 2) was developed. Using this application a
coordinator in the SAR centre can track the
movements of his rescue teams on a map as well as
in a 3D environment and access several information
concerning the status of the operation.
It's understood that the rescue teams can use all of
the INFOTOUR features for routing and guidance,
as well.
To allow for an efficient and appropriate help for
the tourist in case of an emergency it is useful for
the rescue people to have some relevant
information on the general state of his health, e.g.
an existing cardiac insufficiency or the need for
special medicine. Willing users can store this
information on the server
In the Pyrenees additional to these safety features
avalanche forecasting has been implemented to

give back country skiers more regional and up-todate
avalanche hazards. The generation process of
an avalanche hazard bulletin has been systematized
and semi-automated. In-field user observations,
which will be done by many PARAMOUNT users,
are used as extra local input data. Above all the
avalanche path maps are integrated with the
temporal information of the bulletin. To solve the
geographic interpretation difficulties the bulletin is
represented in easy readable diagrams and maps
(see Figure 3). The user can choose to overlay the
avalanche prediction layer onto the topographic
maps.
Figure 3: Avalanche forecasting map
DATATOUR directly involves the PARAMOUNT
users in the data acquisition and maintaining
process. As this is a critical and security sensitive
matter this service will only be available to a group
of registered users. This group will collect the
following information:
- Logging the used trail to update the trail
network and derive new trails
- Information on severity of trails (personal
evaluation) to perform a more specific routing
- Capturing/updating information on Points of
Interest to ensure an up-to-date INFOTOUR
service
The processing and verification of the collected
data will be performed partly-automatically on
server side. DATATOUR allows reducing the
maintenance costs of database necessary for all
other services.
The hiker accesses these services with the mobile
client called TourGuide. Its hardware is based on
common-of-the-shelf components in order to allow
for a configuration as flexible as possible. The
basic ‘terminal’ for the TourGuide application is a
Pocket PC with additional modules for the
navigation and communication tasks. These modules
can be attached to the Pocket PC or already be
integrated (e.g. a smart phone with integrated communication
module).
Basically the following components are required:
- Pocket PC resp. Pocket PC Phone. Depending
on the model an additional expansion pack
may be necessary for inserting the external
modules
- GPRS communication unit, either already
integrated in the Pocket PC or as separate
device. This can be e.g. a GPRS capable
mobile phone with Bluetooth interface (for a
wireless communication) or a GPRS modem
card to be plugged into the Pocket PC.
- GPS navigation unit
Two of the tested arrangements are shown in
Figure 4. The first one is the standard hardware for
leisure hikers. It consists of an iPAQ, a GPRS
modem and GPS receiver CompactFlash card. The
second one is designed for professional use of the
search and rescue teams. The small Bluetooth GPS
receiver can be put into a pocket or backpack. The
more robust PDA with integrated GPRS modem is
shock- and waterproof.
Figure 4: Standard Hardware (left),
Ruggedised outdoor HW (e.g. for SAR teams)
(right)
The TourGuide application software (Figure 5) has
been developed for the Windows CE based Pocket
PC operating system of Microsoft. All components
have been implemented in C++ using the development
environment Microsoft embedded Visual C++
3.0. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the
application has been designed for three different

user languages: English (original version), German
and Spanish.
Figure 5: TourGuide software screenshots
RESULTS OF AVAILABILITY ANALYSIS
Since the provision of the PARAMOUNT services
requires the availability of GPS, GSM/GPRS and
GIS (summarized as G3), investigations and
simulations for the Alps and Pyrenees have been
performed in order to identify potential pilot areas,
where PARAMOUNT can be demonstrated. The
GPS availability resp. visibility analysis for the
Alps, using the digital terrain model (DTM)
DTED0 with a grid resolution of about 900 m and a
computation grid of about 2 km resulted in the
Figure 6.
Some more detailed simulations have been
performed on local level for a few particular
‘candidate areas’. Given the used high resolution of
30 m (for the DTM as well as the computation grid)
the significance of the obtained results is
understandably higher than the less detailed overall
results. The simulation outcomes for the Sudelfeld
area (Bavaria, Germany) that has been finally
selected as the German test area are depicted in
Figure 8. As it can be easily seen from the left hand
image there are in fact some areas with a limited
availability of GPS for certain time due to the
rough terrain. This poor coverage could be
completely remedied with the additional use of the
future Galileo system (full operation targeted for
2008) according to the results depicted in the right
hand figure.
Figure 7: Test area of Sudelfeld (GER)
map and terrain model
Figure 8: Minimum number of satellites:
Local GPS (left) and GPS + Galileo (right)
availability simulations for Sudelfeld area
Figure 6: GPS availability analysis: minimum number of GPS satellites visible in the Alps

Figure 9: GSM/GPRS coverage in the Alps (Fig. I) and overall ‘G3’ availability (Fig. II)
Summarizing the results of the provider-based
GSM/GPRS availability analysis over the whole
areas of interest, i.e. the maps/data used are based
on the estimated coverages supplied by the mobile
phone providers, it can be stated that wide parts of
the mountainous regions of Alps and Pyrenees are
covered by the mobile radio signals. However,
there are of course also a considerable number of
significant gaps, especially in areas with very rough
terrain (Figure 9). In general the availability is very
well in the valleys and along the flanking slopes
and is partly decreasing sometimes in more remote
areas in the high mountains.
Especially in areas of high touristic relevance the
availability is mainly quite satisfying. Furthermore
many mobile phone providers continue to expand
their networks also in the mountainous regions by
installing additional base stations due to the
increased attractiveness of this region by people
searching for recreation and fun. However, a
complete availability of terrestrial GSM signals will
probably never be achieved.
With respect to Figure 9 it has to be noted that the
relatively low overall G3 coverage is due to the fact
that it was assumed that all required GIS data for
PARAMOUNT must already be available in digital
form, i.e. trails and points of interest like huts,
summits etc. This is, of course, not the case for
significant portions of the Alps (the areas not
shown in green Figure 9/II). However, the GIS
availability investigation performed showed that
the required digital terrain models, vector and raster
based data is widely available throughout the Alps
and Pyrenees. In order to actually provide the
service, additional data on trails and points of
interest will have to be acquired for certain areas in
the Alps.
FURTHER EXPERIENCE AND TEST
RESULTS
The analysis of the GPRS availability showed, that
there are of course gaps in remote mountainous
regions. But for areas of high touristic relevance
like hiking and skiing resorts with a lot of visitors
GPRS is available to a large extent. In the test area
Sudelfeld (German Alps) there are only gaps in
very rough terrain. To avoid lack of service it has
been necessary to make an effort in the
client/server trade-off.
During the tests a good overall GPS availability
was observed. Problems encountered in very severe
environment like steep canyons or ravines etc.
could be remedied in the future with the additional
use of Galileo. The use of common-of-the-shelf
GPS receiver modules allows to extend a Pocket
PC for a convenient hardware solution. Modules in
Compact Flash format as well as Bluetooth
receivers can be connected easily via COM port
and the NMEA interface standard. GPS heading
values are sufficient at normal hiking speed; the
hiker only needs to walk a few foot steps to receive
a good heading accuracy. Of course the heading
information is not reliable when the hiker stops and
turns left/right, because then he has a velocity close
to zero. Tests undertaken with an additional digital
compass serially connected to the TourGuide
hardware in fact eliminated this behaviour and
yielded good results. However, any use of
additional hardware increases costs and decreases
e.g. the run-time of the battery. Thus, pros and cons
have to be traded-off thoroughly.

The G3 analysis performed showed that the
concurrently availability of GPRS, GPS and GIS is
quite promising for many areas of the Alps and
Pyrenees, especially in the areas of high touristic
relevance.
PARAMOUNT was extensively tested in the test
phase between March and July of 2003. Not only
internal test by the consortium were carried out but
also with interested hikers as well as with SAR
representatives. The external testers embraced the
TourGuide hardware and software and liked the
functionality and the compact size of the
equipment. During the test phase it was
experienced that the battery capacity is in fact well
sufficient for day trips, however for multiple day
trips it is necessary to recharge the batteries for
each further day.
The SAR members attested that the SAFETOUR
features implemented in PARAMOUNT are very
well suited to make SAR missions faster and more
effective. Especially the transfer of exact position
coordinates of the distressed person within the
emergency call message is of paramount
importance for the rescue teams. In addition, the
functionality that the position of the casualty is not
only shown on the SAR Mission Control software
but also appears on the displays of the SAR
TourGuides used by the SAR team members,
increases also an effective rescue mission. Finally,
the SAR Mission Control client with its
collaboration functionality of coordinating,
controlling and communicating to the SAR
TourGuides turned out to be a very valuable and
helpful tool for supporting emergency missions.
However, we also realized that further efforts are
necessary to improve service robustness and
reliability. Especially the operation system features
like connecting to the Internet were sometime
tricky to use.
CONCLUSION & PERSPECTIVES
Within the PARAMOUNT project a running prototype
LBS system for hikers was successfully
established in two particular test areas of the
German Alps and the Spanish Pyrenees. Following
this prototype phase it is intended to build up a
regular PARAMOUNT pilot service in a dedicated
tourist area in the Alpine region.
Regarding the SAFETOUR functionality a transfer
to applications for other public areas, such as fire
brigade, police etc., is also well considered.
Further information on the project can also be
found on the official project web page:
www.paramount-tours.com.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The PARAMOUNT consortium gratefully
acknowledges the funding of the project by the
European Commission (within the IST programme,
CPA3).
The project consortium includes 5 partners from
Germany, Austria and Spain:
IfEN GmbH is a privately owned company, which
is strongly involved in satellite navigation system
studies related to GNSS including GNSS research
and development. In recent time, IfEN GmbH is
also engaged in mobile applications and LBS. IfEN
GmbH acts as the project coordinator.
AGIS (Arbeitsgemeinschaft GIS) of the University
of the Bundeswehr Munich is a study group
focused on research and development activities in
the fields of geoinformation systems.
ICC (Institut Cartografic de Catalunya, Barcelona,
Spain) is an entity of public jurisdiction of the
Generalitat de Catalunya and produces and
distributes cartographic/geodetic data.
Especially for the definition of the user requirements
and the system test the following two
organisations have been involved in the project: the
Bavarian Mountain SAR Service (Bergwacht
Bayern) and the Austrian Mountain SAR Service
(OEBRD).
REFERENCES
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Eisfeller B., 2002: Enhancing mobile
applications by combination of GNSS and W-
CDMA. In: GPS Solutions, No.6, pp. 161-168.
Springer-Verlag. Heidelberg/GER
[2] Sayda, F.; Reinhardt, W.; Wittmann, E., 2002:
GI and Location Based Services for
Mountaineers. In: Geoinformatics, Vol.5,
March 2002. Emmeloord/NED
[3] Reinhardt, W; Sayda, F; Kandawasvika, A;
Wang, F; Wittmann, E., 2002:
Geoinformation and Location Based Services
- Priciples and some Experiences with
Applications for Mountaineers. In:
GeoBIT/GIS Magazine, 6/2003. Herbert
Wichmann Verlag. Heidelberg/GER
[4] Loehnert, E., Wittmann, E., Pielmeier, J.,
Sayda F., 2002: PARAMOUNT. Proceedings

of the International Locellus Symposium, 10.-
11.04.2002, Munich, Germany. DGON