10
Alberto Belussi, Barbara Catania, Eliseo Clementini, and Elena Ferrari
Part III of this book considers the three above-mentioned areas from the perspective of spatial data management. In particular, Chap. 9 discusses new access control
requirements of spatial data by mainly focusing on location-based services (LBSs)
and presents GEO-RBAC, a role-based access control mechanism particularly suited
to location-aware applications. Then, it discusses a decentralized implementation of
GEO-RBAC.
Chapter 10 addresses the security issues arising when geographical data are outsourced to a third party instead of being managed by the data owner. In this case, additional security requirements arise, because data must be protected not only against
unauthorized access by users but also against malicious misuse by the party to which
they are outsourced. In the chapter, a solution based on non-conventional signature
and encryption techniques is presented and an application of the proposed framework
to geographical data is discussed.
Finally, Chap. 11 addresses the issue of information hiding for spatial and geographical data. Information hiding can be applied for the protection of intellectual
property as well as to convey secret information to authorized users. After introducing watermarking and stenography, which are the most widely used information
hiding techniques, the chapter presents a watermarking and stenography model tailored to digital maps. Additionally, the chapter illustrates some experimental results
that demonstrate the robustness of the proposed methods.
1.4 Innovative Applications for Mobile Devices
In recent years, there has been a technological evolution of geographic information
systems, mobile devices (PDA, smart phones, cellular phones), wireless communication systems (GPRS, UMTS, Wi-Fi), and positioning systems, which are now commonplace (GPS, EGNOS). This evolution made possible the emergence of LBSs in
the mobile-geographical information system (GIS) [25]. Such systems have many
applications in many fields, such as people safety (e.g. management of natural or
industrial crises), in which localization of the event and fast acting are priorities. Besides, LBS has become a part of everyday life in applications like traffic forecasting
or mobile phone services and also in the extension of satellite navigation systems
toward “context-aware” systems [4], in which user position and context are used to
provide information and services. In developing mobile-GIS applications, the user
position is the starting point to develop services and it is necessary to study a model
of the space surrounding the user [1, 23]. There is a very important distinction to be
made between user’s position and location [21]: the first one is just the absolute x,y
coordinates of the user in the reference space, while the second one is the “surrounding” area of the position, the shape and the dimension of which is established by the
application context.
Even if the natural application field of LBSs is the mobile and wireless world,
significant benefits could be obtained by applying LBSs to desktop systems, for
instance, in trip planning or warehouse asset management [8]. Technological support
Alberto Belussi, Barbara Catania, Eliseo Clementini, and Elena Ferrari
Part III of this book considers the three above-mentioned areas from the perspective of spatial data management. In particular, Chap. 9 discusses new access control
requirements of spatial data by mainly focusing on location-based services (LBSs)
and presents GEO-RBAC, a role-based access control mechanism particularly suited
to location-aware applications. Then, it discusses a decentralized implementation of
GEO-RBAC.
Chapter 10 addresses the security issues arising when geographical data are outsourced to a third party instead of being managed by the data owner. In this case, additional security requirements arise, because data must be protected not only against
unauthorized access by users but also against malicious misuse by the party to which
they are outsourced. In the chapter, a solution based on non-conventional signature
and encryption techniques is presented and an application of the proposed framework
to geographical data is discussed.
Finally, Chap. 11 addresses the issue of information hiding for spatial and geographical data. Information hiding can be applied for the protection of intellectual
property as well as to convey secret information to authorized users. After introducing watermarking and stenography, which are the most widely used information
hiding techniques, the chapter presents a watermarking and stenography model tailored to digital maps. Additionally, the chapter illustrates some experimental results
that demonstrate the robustness of the proposed methods.
1.4 Innovative Applications for Mobile Devices
In recent years, there has been a technological evolution of geographic information
systems, mobile devices (PDA, smart phones, cellular phones), wireless communication systems (GPRS, UMTS, Wi-Fi), and positioning systems, which are now commonplace (GPS, EGNOS). This evolution made possible the emergence of LBSs in
the mobile-geographical information system (GIS) [25]. Such systems have many
applications in many fields, such as people safety (e.g. management of natural or
industrial crises), in which localization of the event and fast acting are priorities. Besides, LBS has become a part of everyday life in applications like traffic forecasting
or mobile phone services and also in the extension of satellite navigation systems
toward “context-aware” systems [4], in which user position and context are used to
provide information and services. In developing mobile-GIS applications, the user
position is the starting point to develop services and it is necessary to study a model
of the space surrounding the user [1, 23]. There is a very important distinction to be
made between user’s position and location [21]: the first one is just the absolute x,y
coordinates of the user in the reference space, while the second one is the “surrounding” area of the position, the shape and the dimension of which is established by the
application context.
Even if the natural application field of LBSs is the mobile and wireless world,
significant benefits could be obtained by applying LBSs to desktop systems, for
instance, in trip planning or warehouse asset management [8]. Technological support