A Location Based Advertisement Scheme using

OpenStreetMap
Md. Rashidujjaman Rifat, Shubrami Moutushy, Hasan Shahid Ferdous
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

AbstractLocation Based Advertisement (LBA) has become

todays most personal and direct marketing channel that provides
customers more relevant information, personalized message,
targeted offer about products and allows marketers to reach
a specific target audience by creating campaigns. Location-based
advertising (LBA) is a new form of advertising that integrates
mobile advertising with location based services (LBS) to provide
location-specific advertisements on consumers devices. With the
help of LBA, it is possible to target population at the right place
and the right time. By taking advantage of a consumers real
world position, location based advertising delivers relevant ads
for products and services. In this paper the features and usability
of the application, Location Based Intelligent Advertisement
using OpenStreetMap are explained and how this type of
OpenStreetMap (OSM) based LBS application is effective for
Bangladesh is discussed. The application helps the registered
shop owners to introduce the offers to a consumer who is in
close proximity to make them take those final steps to enter
his store and let the consumer know what is around him with
audio and map support. Additional feature of this application
is for visually impaired people so that they can shop easily. We
also focus on the benefits of using an open source map over a
commercial one in this respect.
Keywords: LBA, LBS, OpenStreetMap, Android, Visibly Impaired People.

I. I NTRODUCTION
As advertisement of product is one of the vital parts of
commerce, business organizations spend a significant amount
of their investment for advertisement. Being an integral part of
the marketing media mix, the booming smartphone adoption
and increasing mobile media consumption is accelerating the
process. The increasing integration of location-sensitivity is
one of the key developments in mobile advertising [1]. It
releases the full potential of the mobile channel. Real-time
location targeting uses location information while delivering
an ad to a mobile user. Integration of location in advertising
greatly enhances the relevance of mobile advertising. It has
been demonstrated that location targeted ads generate considerably higher return than conventional mobile advertising.
On the other hand, from our local perspective, this type
of application is significant considering some facts. In the
developed countries, price of a product may vary in different
locations. It is convenient for them to buy a product from a
location where product can be bought with relatively low price.
But in our country, products price is almost same everywhere.
So, location based ads bear more significance in this situation
without creating any mess of the price of a product. It is also
convenient for them to buy a product from their nearest shops

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or stores. In case of emergency, location based advertisement

helps to find the desired product suggesting the nearest store.
Considering these local facts and significance, an easy,
customized, and effective solution Location Based Intelligent
Advertisement (LIBS) application has been developed. It is
an android based mobile application that is mainly designed
to advertise the restaurants, fast-food shops, fashion houses,
etc. by finding the current location of the user using mapping support. The software can be described as a two way
communication. From users perspective, they can find the
advertisement advertised by nearby shops. This real time
advertising facility helps them to save time in shopping. On
the other hand, shop owners have the flexibility of updating
their product information any time. So consumers can get latest
information about any product through advertisement.
One of the main focusing points of our research is to
facilitate the application for visually impaired people. About
15 percent of the worlds population, i.e., some 785 million
people have a significant physical or mental disability. According to World Health Organization (WHO), 285 million
people are visually impaired worldwide [2]. Among them 39
millions are blind and 246 millions have low vision [3]. Due
to growing populations and aging, the number of people who
are blind is likely to increase to 75 million by 2020 [4]. The
visually impaired people face tremendous challenges daily
in accessing the information while shopping. Some visually
impaired and blind persons do their shopping with a sighted
friend, and/or ask for assistance from a store employee. Many
visually impaired and blind persons will frequently visit the
same stores, which increases their familiarity with the layout of
the store and item availability. Considering this, our proposed
system is designed such a way so that the visually impaired
people can get guideline for shopping with additional facilities.
Online map services play a vital rule for any location based
services and advertisements. Use of open source and free
map services instead of commercial ones is becoming more
notable in different applications day by day. Free, editable,
and open source OpenStreetMap is used in this application to
avoid the restrictions in commercial ones like Google maps.
OpenStreetMap is, as the name suggests, an open source map
of the world [5]. It is a Wiki-Style project for digitally
mapping all over the world. It is called the free wiki world
map, a collaborative project to create a free editable map of
the world. A digital map is always handy for various purposes.
It can be used in navigation, research, and development of

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location based applications, among its other uses.

We have organized the paper in the following sections.
Section II discusses about some related projects and their
facilities with corresponding drawbacks. Section III focuses
on the demand and scopes of location based services in our
country. Section IV presents the platform and other methodologies we have used in our project development. We discuss the
system prerequisites, features and technical details in Section
V. Then we discuss the associated challenges of location based
advertising and challenges of developing an OpenStreetMap
based project in this region in Section VI and some proposal
to mitigate them in Section VII. Finally we conclude our
discussion after presenting a guideline for the future LBS and
OpenStreetMap based project that we are now working on in
Section VIII.
II. R ELATED WORKS
Location based advertisement has drawn the attention of
users in past years. It has come in various forms for different
platforms. Hao et al. introduced a request-response based
advertisement system in [6]. In this system, the user first
requests for information related to the location. In response
s/he receives one or more advertisements related to that
location. Matthew a Guido et al. [7] proposed a system
where geographic database contains data entities that represent
geographic features, such as roads, located in a geographic
region, etc. Advertisers are allowed to associate advertising
messages with advertising zones.
Regarding customization of LBA, Xu et al. [8] showed that
multimedia LBA messages lead to more favorable attitude,
increase the intention to use the LBA application, and have
significant impact on purchase intention. They performed an
exploratory study that empirically examines the effects of
multimedia advertisements vs. text-based advertisements on
consumer perceptions and behaviors in a simulated LBA
environment. Aalto et al. [9] introduced a novel B-MAD
system for delivering permission-based location-aware mobile
advertisements to mobile phones using Bluetooth positioning
and wireless application protocol (WAP) push. Another study
performed by Barwise et al. [10] which specifically explored
the effectiveness of SMS text messaging as an advertising
medium for reaching young adults. The results suggested
that, with the right execution, the mobile channel has the
potential to benefit both advertisers and consumers. Rashid
et al. presents a system [11] that can be used with any
current mobile phone system to provide location based information/advertisements to any mobile phone equipped with
Bluetooth technology without any necessity of installing client
side software.
Nowadays, many of the embedded advertisement applications - both the web applications and mobile software are
location sensitive. Though LBA [12], applications are available
with many new features and almost all the applications are
customized for the respective local demand and perspective.
LBA applications can be one of the effective tools for flourishing business activities if it is customized according to our

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local needs. On the other hand LBA applications can be useful

from the client perspective as this type of location sensed
advertisements make marketing more convenient for them.
A. POIdo:
POIdo [13] is the first and market-leading location-based
advertising (LBA) platform in Russia, launched in March
2010. POIdo delivers ads of brands, local businesses, and
services to the targeted audience of people who are either
geographically close to the location, or are interested in the
area. POIdo provides ads targeted to users precise location,
context and behavior. POIdo is useful for both large companies with numerous locations such as gas station chains and
small businesses serving local clients, such as restaurants, car
services, and shops.
This application covers many attractive and necessary features, but there are some added facilities in our application. We
have used free, editable, and open source map OpenStreetMap.
The commercial mapping services used in these applications
impose restrictions on use and limitations in features for using
their map data. According to their license agreement they have
also rights to stop their services any time. By using OSM all
these restrictions has been avoided.
Our application provides audio support to make it usable
and helpful for the visually impaired people. It is one of the
significant improvements over almost all the LBA applications.
There are also some ways to automatically start the application
for the visually impaired people that makes the software more
usable and effective for visually impaired people.
B. Info160:
Info160 [14] is a free information service and location
based advertising system. Users create accounts either online
or by SMS and subscribe to information categories of their
choice. The categories include jokes, quotes, market prices,
MDG facts, breaking news, and more. The users receive the
information at a daily frequency at no cost whatsoever.
Each SMS received is appended with a short location based
advert. Users can also choose to create adverts within their
accounts and make them location sensitive if they want.
Advertising starts at $1 for 50 ad views making it one of
the cheapest & effective ways to advertise.
The main limitation of this software is its SMS service. User
has to spend SMS cost for getting an advertisement frequently.
On the other hand, though it is a location based app, it is
not a real time location based app. When a user registers
with this service, he/she has to provide location information.
The advertiser has the option of making the advert location
sensitive. In that case they have to specify which county their
adverts are intended for otherwise they are sent to any user.
As a user get an ad via SMS, so s/he gets small amount
of information in Info160. But in our application when a user
comes in a location, he/she gets a list of advertisement in the
GPS enabled smartphone advertised by commercials. User can
choose any of these advertisement and view details.

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Considering all the demand and making more usable for

both normal and visually impaired people, Location Based
Intelligent Advertisement is an effective and customized
solution for our country.
III. L OCAL PERSPECTIVE OF LBS
From the statistics of mobile phone growth, it is seen
that its advancement brought about a revolutionary change
in different fields including major fields like finance, health,
education and agriculture. But still people are deprived of most
of the advance mobile based technologies due to the following
constraints:
1) 3G network is still not easily obtainable.
2) Number of smartphone users are about to count in hand.
Now lets have a glimpse at the current situation. The
free digital mapping interface are being made and the OpenStreetMap of Dhaka is almost updated just in 6 months. The
OSM group of different universities has made it possible and
targeting to update the whole Bangladesh in 1 year. Voluntary
OSM teams have been formed in different universities and
contributing to OSM since formation. The interface have been
created and initiative has already been taken to implement
different location based services considering local constrains
and facts. Some mobile operators have already launched 3G.
Again the number of smartphone users, especially android
based phone users is increasing rapidly which has started from
just few month back and it is accelerating. As a consequence
some companies has brought their android phone in market at a
reasonable price. It is no longer confined only in style rather
for daily necessities. With the increasing number of smartphone users, the demand of LBS application will increase. So
there is huge scope for LBS application to gain popularity in
this region.
IV. M ETHODOLOGY
Android is an open source operating system for mobile
devices such as mobile phones and tablet computers developed
by the Open Handset Alliance led by Google. Nowadays
demand of android phone is increasing. If smartphones market
is considered then demand of android phone can easily be
found out. Here is the share of worldwide 2010 smartphone
sales to end users by operating system, according to Canalys.
[Fig. 1]
Android phones are now at only $80 [15]. Leading mobile
phone companies are stepping forward to bring smartphones
to the users at lower prices . Cheaper phone from different
Chinese brands are also available starting from BDT 7000
only [16].
It has been already mentioned that Location Based Intelligent Advertisement using OpenStreetMap has used OpenStreetMap. OpenStreetMap is free, so its usability is guaranteed for everyone. And as OpenStreetMap is open source,
its development is rapid and dynamic. OpenStreetMap (OSM)
was founded in July 2004 by Steve Coast. In April 2006,
the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) was established to
encourage the growth, development, and distribution of free

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Fig. 1.

Smartphone market share.

Fig. 2.

Baily road map.

geospatial data and provide geospatial data for anybody to

use and share. In December 2006, Yahoo confirmed that
OpenStreetMap could use its aerial photography as a backdrop
for map production. OpenStreetMap has helped in a number of
projects conducted worldwide. The most prominent of those
are the Map Kibera Project and Wiki Project Haiti [17].
In the Map Kibera project the largest slum of Kenya was
mapped with full details [18]. And in Wiki Project Haiti,
OpenStreetMap helped to a great deal after the devastating
earthquake of 2010. OSM community also actively worked for
the flood victims of Brazil and Pakistan and the earth-quake
victims of Japan in recent days.
In Bangladesh, the activities of OpenStreetMap started in
2010. Five GPS units were donated by the OpenStreetMap
foundation. The first mapping project was done at Bangladesh
University of Engineering and Technology, the top engineering
school located at the capital of the country. In this application
we have used OpenStreetMap. The tested areas are also
updated by our OSM team in OpenStreetMap.
V. D ESCRIPTION
For testing purpose Location Based Intelligent Advertisement is implemented first for New Baily Road in Dhaka.
As the New Baily Road is well recognized for its numerous
boutiques, shops, schools, fast foods, restaurants, and various
hangout places, this place has been chosen for testing purpose.

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A. Prerequisite
1) The software is based on android version-2.2. It will run
on android 2.2 supported mobile phones and upgraded
versions.
2) The cell phone should have GPS enabled. To enable the
GPS unit, the following procedure should be followed:
menu >settings >location. GPS can be enabled and
disabled here.
B. Software Overview
After activation, this application searches for satellite signal.
When signal is found it is ready to track user location. Its
general features are:
1) The main feature of this software is ADVERTISEMENT
option. Depending on users current location s/he can get
all the available name of restaurants, fast-food shops,
fashion houses, etc. Selecting their desired restaurant,
fast-food shop, or fashion house they can get detail
information like menu for restaurant and fast-food shop
and address of other showrooms of fashion houses.
2) Provides a complete map under map option with the
indication of a users current location on the OpenStreetMap.
3) Another most powerful feature of the app is the search
option that helps the user to find any information easily.
For example, if an user wants to have Chinese food, all
he has to do is type Chinese in the search option then
he will get all the names of restaurant on that location
where Chinese food is available. Selecting his/her desired
restaurant he/she can get the price menu. Here both image
and textual help is provided.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 3.

Advertising boutiques shop.

4) And the Save option is to be contributed by both users

and shop authority to notify the central server if any
information have been changed. If the location or any
products information is changed, the authorized person

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Advertisement.

Showing location map.

of the respective shop provides changed or new information through this option that is updated in the central
database.
5) There is an option for adding friends phone number who
can start the application by sending a SMS. As blind
people cant see mobile phones menu, it is difficult for
them to find out the application from menu. As starting
the application from the menu is difficult for a blind
person, so the software can be started if an added friend
sends an SMS writing <start>.
C. Technical Reviews
1) The software is based on android 2.2 which support the
API level 8 or above.
2) For location detection GPS Provider and Wireless

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Fig. 8.
Fig. 6.

Adding new friends (special feature for visually impaired people).

Search option.

etc. Both image and textual information about shops and

products are provided here. For blind people the app has
an option to get audio information help using Text to
Speech.
5) Search is done using EDIT TEXT of android. Users
keyword is sent to database and after query the graphical
and textual information will be provided to user.
VI. C HALLENGES

Fig. 7.

Updating Information.

Provider has been used. It should be mentioned that if

GPS is enabled then battery charge is reduced quickly.
On other hand if location update is requested more
frequently then battery consumption process accelerates.
To reduce battery consumption we set an optimal time
empirically to update location. Some criteria has been
defined and based on these criteria the app selects the
suitable provider.
3) In map attribute a marker has drawn to show users
current position on OpenStreetMap. It has built in zoom
control as well as two finger zoom to make easier view
of the map. Experimentally it shows a very clearer and
quick map in spite of our 2G network of internet.
4) A central database has been maintained containing just
textual information of restaurants, fast foods, boutiques,

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Location based advertising gives control on what, when,

how, and where customers receive ads. Unlike traditional
media, LBA can be used for advertising as well as an effective
medium of research. Companies can conduct mobile surveys
along with their marketing campaign. Marketers can also use
customers past purchasing patterns and predict their future
patterns and can send special offers to them. In spite of having
these facilities in the LBA application like Location Based
Intelligent Advertisement using OpenStreetMap there are
some challenges to overcome. Some of our specific challenges:
1) Most mobile aggregators and networks are just now
launching or will launch their location based advertising
initiatives. It is easy to count all ad inventories but
drilling down to location and any associated metadata is
very difficult, particularly within free form text of usergenerated content.
2) Early local advertising networks could match an advertiser to a pre-screened/pre-approved site; however, we
were distributed across the web on about 500,000 sites
per month and millions of blogs, profiles and websites.
There were no APIs for controlling a sub network within
their network.
3) Location based applications like ours use OpenStreetMap.
But in undeveloped countries like Bangladesh, the activities of OpenStreetMap have just started. There are very
few GPS devices used actively in Bangladesh. Very few
people have a GPS device, because people here still have
not coped up with GPS.

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4) People of underdeveloped or developing countries are not

used to consult maps for the daily needs. They do not
consider a map as an important gadget. This reluctance
is also making the progress of OpenStreetMap slow.
5) There is a lack of technically skilled volunteers for
OpenStreetMap contribution. The lack of volunteers is
causing the slow progress.
6) Local government has not taken any initiative to promote
open source development. All the actions on OpenStreetMap have been carried out by individuals or small
groups.
VII. P ROPOSED I DEAS FOR E NRICHMENT OF OSM
Some initiatives should be taken for promoting update and
use OpenStreetMap.
1) The main initiative for rapid growth of OpenStreetMap
is decentralization. Currently there are seven divisions
in Bangladesh. It will be enriched in short time if each
division has its own mapping organizations with active
volunteers.
2) OpenStreetMap needs volunteers so that the trained volunteers can spread their knowledge to others to build up
OSM by arranging different workshops.
3) Every renowned university can contribute to develop
OSM by establishing OpenStreetMap group by their
own and arranging mapping party every week to cover
different area of their city.
4) Developers should show interest to develop OSM API so
that more and more LBS application can be introduced
using OpenStreetMap .
VIII. F UTURE SCOPE
Now a days very few map based applications like the one we
discussed is developed and used customized for local demands.
When these applications will gain popularity among the users,
the software firms and industries will show their interest in this
field. This will serve two purposes: it will help the growth of
OpenStreetMap, and it will open a new field with various types
of useful services. Focusing on that, there are few proposed
ideas for future implementation:
1) Fire Service helper - Showing the path on map and giving
audio massage about the path before a transition point to
reach the destination in shorter possible time.
2) Health Services - Audio massaging system for the location of nearest hospital and also showing the shorter and
convenient way on map to reach there from any place.
3) Effective Learning of Children - Reduces the burden of
books for a child. Just using the smart phone, children
can learn practical things. For example standing before a
cage of an animal if an audio can be provides informing
about the animal it will be much easier to teach a child
about animals. It will be enjoyable for a child.

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IX. C ONCLUSION
The application described in this paper is an attempt to
aware people of our country about LBA applications and
OpenStreetMap so that they can realize the importance of
using map and location based service to keep moving with
the advanced world. Considering the three main potentials of
LBA, i.e., reach, relevant, and result, Location Based Intelligent Advertisement is helpful for our region. The chance for
updating product information easily has made the application
more flexible for the advertisers. Using this greatly accountable medium of advertisements, the shop owners can better
understand their customers with real time market research
resulting in a higher advertising impact. In addition user will
get a purpose to use OpenStreetMap through this application
and it will help them to build up the habit of using open source
map instead of commercial one. In future we would like to add
an option for selecting local language to make our application
more convenient for the native users.
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