Enabling Opportunistic Navigation in Location-Based Notification Systems

Device-assisted navigation is rapidly becoming a major topic in computer science. PDAs and other small devices are enabling the introduction of navigational assistants to many different spaces. These areas are generally filled with points of interest with which users may choose to interact with. The natural behavior of users in such a space is to explore, interacting with objects the user deems worthy of further interaction. We call this behavior 'opportunistic navigation.' In this paper we define the challenges associated with and put forward several criteria for enabling opportunistic navigation in location-based notification systems. Our criteria have been implemented in the form of a prototype navigational assistant, SeeVT-ART, and have undergone a preliminary field test.