MULTIMEDIA PLATFORM FOR MOBILE TOURIST
GUIDANCE AND SERVICES IN THE CITIES OF UBEDA AND
BAEZA (SPAIN)
Damián Martínez Muñoz, Nicolás Ruíz Reyes, Pedro Vera Candeas
Department of Telecommunication Engineering, Universidad de Jaén, C/ Alfonso X El Sabio 28, Linares, Spain
Luis Alcántara García
Rigel (Grupo Calidad y Tecnología), Paseo de la Castellana 182 Planta 10, Madrid, Spain
Keywords: Multimedia, Tourist guidance, Proactive, Mobile device, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Ambient-intelligence, Context-
awareness.
Abstract: In this paper we describe an innovative multimedia system that has been installed in the Spanish cities of
Ubeda and Baeza whose Renaissance monumental ensembles has been declared World Heritage by
UNESCO. The system offers an advanced information service and tourist guide to the visitors, and ensures
that every tourist, just carrying an appropriate commercial mobile phone, gets the right information to enjoy
and make the most of his visit in town in a personal manner. The service offered by the system to the user is
proactive and personalized, taking into account the specific circumstances affecting each user: exact
location, track followed, time and date, mobile terminal employed, etc. The user carries a personal device
that becomes a new interface between him or her and the surroundings. The platform detects the presence of
the user when he or she gets close to specifically determined location points. As a function of the users’
context (location, time, track, etc.), the system sends them personalized relevant information. This project
has been funded by the “Ciudades Digitales” Program of the Ministry of Industry, Junta de Andalucía,
Diputación de Jaén and the City Councils of both cities.
1 INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, 85% of the population in Western
Europe uses mobile phones regularly, which truly
means that they have become another element in our
routine, and of course, when we are on a trip,
holidays, weekend, etc.
City and cultural tourism has become a popular
choice for the population and the number of tourists
in this category is increasing every year. However, it
is developing in a way that doesn’t allow making as
much profit from the heritage of our towns and
places of interests as it can offer. This means a
limited stay of the visitor, a poor quality of the
experience and, as a consequence of that, the city
may lose economical potential of the cultural and
leisure heritage.
Nowadays the visitor may choose between two
methods of tourist information: checking brochures,
maps and other materials or hiring a human guide.
The first one involves a short and superficial
stay, which is insufficient to take full advantage of
all the surroundings can offer. In the second one, the
visitor loses flexibility to enjoy his visit on his own
way. It may be impersonal, especially if he travels
with a group, or it can be extremely expensive.
Ubeda and Baeza, two neighbouring cities in the
Province of Jaen (Andalucia), are considerated as
two of the best examples of Renaissance town
planning in Spain. The 16th-century examples of
architectural and urban design in Úbeda and Baeza
were instrumental in introducing the Renaissance
ideas to Spain. Through the publications of Andrés
Vandelvira, the principal project architect, these
examples were also diffused to Latin America. The
central areas of Ubeda and Baeza constitute
outstanding early examples of Renaissance civic
architecture and urban planning in Spain in the early
16th century. In Ubeda, the aristocracy, exalted to
161
Martínez Muñoz D., Ruíz Reyes N., Vera Candeas P. and Alcántara García L. (2009).
MULTIMEDIA PLATFORM FOR MOBILE TOURIST GUIDANCE AND SERVICES IN THE CITIES OF UBEDA AND BAEZA (SPAIN).
In Proceedings of the International Conference on Wireless Information Networks and Systems, pages 161-167
DOI: 10.5220/0002188901610167
Copyright
c
 SciTePress

the highest of the imperial Spanish administration,
behaved as real Renaissance patrons, and imitating
Italian families as the Medici from Firenze, wanted
to be surrounded of beauty, filling Ubeda with
sumptuous palaces. Baeza, on the other side, had got
a powerful town council that decided to show this
power with beautiful public works, such as the
pósito (public granary), the alhóndiga (corn
exchange), the meat market, the prison, etc. The
Catholic Church also decided to embellish his more
important buildings, like the Church of St. Mary in
Ubeda or the Cathedral of Baeza, besides several
transformations suffered by other churches. The
result was a so pure clasicism that has been
compared to the one of the northern italian cities.
UNESCO declared its Renaissance monuments a
World Heritage Site in a cultural unity in 2003
(UNESCO, 2003).
Digital Cities Program is a program of
telecommunications whose goal is the promotion
and implementation of Information Society in a local
environment, including topics such as
teleadministración, e-commerce / e-business,
teleworking, distance learning, telemedicine,
applications for groups with special needs, culture,
tourism and leisure, home environment and
mobility. The Program is driven by the Ministry of
Industry, Tourism and Trade with the collaboration
of the Autonomous Communities and Local
Governments.
Úbeda and Baeza participate in the Digital Cities
Program in the Plan Avanza (Avanza, 2009). Its
budget is 3.2 million and is funded by the Spanish
Ministry of Industry, the regional government of
Andalucía, the provincial government of Jaén and
the councils of both towns. The program was
initiated in late 2005 and it was finished in October
2008. In total, 12 initiatives have been carried out
which have sought to involve citizens, businesses
and administrations in the use of the Information and
Communication Technologies. One of this initiatives
was the installation of a guiding system through the
mobile phone in the historic centers of Ubeda and
Baeza.
In the following section we describe this system.
2 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
2.1 General Characteristics
The guiding system installed in Ubeda and Baeza
guarantees a complete and a high quality visit, but at
the same time it is economical and provides freedom
to the visitor. The system makes the most of the
cultural, economic and leisure potential that the
cities are able to offer.
It is important to point out that the system
doesn’t want to compete against the traditional
human guides. Far from that, the aim of the system
is to ensure that the quality service of these
professional may reach as many visitors as possible
in a practical way.
The system is primarily focused on those tourists
who don’t take the services of human guides (most
of them), but also on those who take their services as
a complement during the visit. It offers an advanced
information service and tourist guide to all visitors
of a place or surrounding with historic, artistic and
leisure heritage.
The system ensures that every tourist gets the
right information to enjoy and make the most of his
visit in town in a personal manner. Besides, it is a
business platform for the commercial and cultural
activity of the sector.
It is also a bet for the use of new Information
Technologies for the citizens, with the appeal that
the tourist experience is revolutionized.
Even more, all the information that the system
generates may be used to re-adapt the system itself
for possible needs in the future.
The system creates an innovative tourist
experience for the visitor and eases his visit to help
him enjoy the cultural and leisure offer as much as
possible. The features of the system are:
 Freedom: The visitor has his or her own personal
guide everywhere and always.
 Proactive: The system automatically contacts
with the registered tourist to inform, guide,
provide advices, announce events and offer
options to continue the visit.
 Intelligent: The service adapts to the tourist’s
context, in accordance with his or her
circumstances: who, where, when and how.
 Interactive: The tourists can ask for information
and go deeply into a subject. They can manage
their visit freely, choosing the options that best
suit to them.
 Convenient: The format of the information and
the interaction with the service are intuitive,
making it suitable for all people.
 Multimedia: Tourist information includes any
digital contents that can be shown or played by
the user’s handset: audio, text, images, links, etc.
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Mobile
Operators
User
Data
Central
Serve r
Ge ner al
Info
Local
Service s
Local
Business es
Urban
Data
Recordings , Translation ,
Design
, ...
Statistic s
IP Access
Network
Bl ueTooth
Dual
Ga tewa y
Management
Figure 1: Overall architecture of the system.
2.2 General Structure
The system consists of a computing and
telecommunication (cable and wireless) platform
that must be deployed where the service will be
offered.
The final system, result of a R+D+i project, is
the solution to the problem of realising the full
potential of cultural tourism and providing the most
complete information and tourist guide service.
The requirements of this system are quite
sophisticated, being necessary to fall back on the
most advanced technologies and to use them jointly
to give a friendly and comfortable service to the
visitor.
The platform structure, represented in figure 1, is
complex too, but it is interesting to describe how its
main parts actually work: the central server, a
wireless network and the terminals (mobile phones).
2.2.1 Central Server
The entire operation of the system is coordinated by
this brain (central server), fitted with a wideband
Internet connection. It manages every tourist’s visit
as long as he/she is registered.
All the information that the tourist needs is
loaded into the server, including not only cultural
information but also related to services, business,
advices, etc…. These contents are structured in the
form of special multimedia messages with audio
clips, maps, graphics, links, etc…
The administrators introduce the guiding rules
that establish the behaviour of the system depending
on tourist circumstances. These norms associate the
messages with specifics situations, both present and
past. The rules may be as elaborated as required.
The central server is always listening, so that it is
aware of certain movements of the visitors and their
queries. Upon these events, and according to the
tourist’s profile and the guiding rules, the system
decides whether or not sending a message, which
one is the most appropriate and how to do it.
2.2.2 Terminals
The handsets carried by the tourist and a special
software application running on them are a key part
of the system. It makes the service comfortable and
intuitive, very easy to use for everyone. The
program loaded into the terminal is in charge of
managing all communication procedures with the
networks and the server so the tourist does not need
to do anything at all.
Even the presentation of the messages and the
audio clips is carried out automatically so the tourist
only has to listen, see and enjoy the visit.
The client software of the system is currently
available for mobile phones with either Symbian or
Windows Mobile Operating Systems. The number of
these phones increases everyday. They are provided
by manufacturers such a Nokia, Motorola, Samsung,
Panasonic, Sony-Ericsson, HTC, etc.. However, in
order to enlarge the compatibility support to most of
the handsets in the market, a new version is being
developed based on the Java platform (J2ME).
Figure 2: Examples of terminals.
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2.2.3 Communications Network
In order to offer the services of the system, you need
to deploy a special communication infrastructure,
which has two functions:
It acts as a permanent link, in both directions,
between the tourist and the server.
It is an active environment that detects the
presence of tourists at certain places, is aware of
their situation and reacts to it (“ambient-
intelligence”).
The system uses two wireless communication
routes to ensure a quality service at any time and
anywhere:
The main one is installed just for the system.
Communication through it has no cost. It gives
coverage only at the chosen areas.
The second one uses GPRS over GSM/UMTS
cellular networks from the mobile operators to
ensure a full coverage in town. Its use involves a
cost and therefore the system uses it only when
necessary.
The main network makes contact to mobile
telephones through Bluetooth technology
(Bluetooth, 2008). To do that, it uses certain tracking
devices that are installed on strategic places and,
thanks to the system software, they detect the
presence of each visitor. Electric supply may come
from regular connections or from the street lighting
with special batteries. The deployment in the cities
of Ubeda and Baeza comprises of 64 of these
devices.
Why Bluetooh?
 It provides an economical communication
channel under our control to access the mobile
phones.
 Transfer speed is fast enough to offer a
multimedia service.
 It is standard, which guarantees inter-working
and availability from many manufacturers
 It is widely-extended among current mobile
phones
 Low power consumption and small size
equipment
The tracking devices have to be always
connected to the Central Server. This is achieved by
means of an IP network (either private or the
Internet) and some kind of access technology, such
as Ethernet, 3G or WiFi.
Deploying WLAN hotspots at some locations to
provide access to the transport network is being
useful. Why Wi-Fi?:
Access
Network
Bluetooth
Cell
Figure 3: Networks deployment.
 It allows placing tracking devices in places
where laying cable lines is not appropriate,
because of being difficult places to reach or
because of aesthetic concerns.
 It allows modifying the number and location of
these devices at any time.
 Infrastructures costs are reduced because there is
no cable network installation.
 It constitutes a multi-purpose public network that
can be re-used for other services.
2.3 Operation
2.3.1 Rules and Logic
The system is fitted with special abilities (“Artificial
Intelligence”) in order to take its own decisions. The
professionals of the local tourism are in charge of
teaching it how to guide and give advices. These
instructions are captured in a set of guiding rules or
logic.
The platform responds to the events occurred in
its control area, which fall under two categories:
 Geographical events are originated due to the
situation and the movement of the tourist.
 Time events, which are programmed alerts.
As a response to any event, the system checks
the rules and also the knowledge accumulated for
each tourist. After that, the system decides whether
or not sending a message and which one is the most
suitable.
It is necessary to indicate several parameters for
each rule:
 The event that activates the “rule”.
 Any group of conditions: geographical, temporal
and related to contents.
 The specific message that must be sent if all
conditions are met.
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Context
Messages
Rules
Marie walks past the fountain
It’s 16:45
Message 364 to Marie
Msg. 238 to all that
didn’t visit cathedra
l
EVENTS MESSAGES
•Event
•Conditions
what, where,
when, …
•Consecuence
Message ID
•Web-style
Web format
with links
•Unlimited
•Multimedia
Figure 4: Rules and logic of the system.
2.3.2 Multimedia Content
All the information that is loaded into the system to
be sent to the tourists has to be structured in the form
of special multimedia messages. These messages are
much more powerful than the traditional SMS and
MMS. Each message consists of:
 A representative information icon
 Title and basic description of the message
 Audio records in any language
 One or more pages with texts and links, as in
the Web
 Several images (photos, graphics, etc..) placed
into the web pages
 Direct links to telephone numbers for single-
click dialling
When the mobile phone receives a message it
starts vibrating and playing a ringing tone. The
visitor, then, only has to press one button to listen to
the audio clip. When it is finished, the user can have
a look on the screen at the pages received and
navigate through their links to other pages. These
may have been previously downloaded or can be
fetched on-line via the most appropriate
communication channel: Bluetooth, if available, or
3G otherwise. All the messages received are kept in
the mobile and arranged in a list, sorted by the time
of reception. The user can later browse the list for
any received message and then play it again or
remove it.
The administrators of the service may add and
modify the messages that the Central Server
manages at any time to update the tourist, leisure
and services guide.
2.3.3 Basic Processes
In spite of its technical complexity, the system
presents a comfortable service both for the user and
for the administrators.
The regular service is divided in four basic
processes:
 Reception and registration: Curently, the visitor
applies for the service at the Tourist Office of
Ubeda or Baeza or another similar place. The
attendant needs to check out if the mobile phone
of the tourist is suitable for the system. If it is
not, an appropriate handset can be offered,
subject to presentation of any proof of guarantee
(credit card). Finally, the visitor details must be
entered into the system data-base over the
Internet. With the new version, which is being
developed now, almost every recent mobile
phone will be supported and registration will be
possible by the tourist himself via Bluetooth or
sending a SMS.
 The visit: The tourist is ready to go and walk
freely round streets, monuments, museums and
anywhere within the surroundings. The system
sends the first message to welcome and guide the
visitor and it starts managing the visit using
guiding rules that were entered previously. When
the visitor hears the ringing tone, he only has to
press a button to listen to the audio clip in his
language.
 Queries: The visitors may interact with the
system too, to apply for information or to go
deeply into specific subjects. The tourist just
needs to select the link that he wants and the
downloading process and the presentation are
done automatically by the platform.
 End of the visit: The length of the service may be
configured by the administrator. Once it is over,
the system says goodbye to the tourist who, in
case he rented a mobile, will have to return the
handset. Subsequently, the system may allow the
user to access for consults, even if he is far from
the city.
2.4 Exploitation
2.4.1 Installation and Operation
Before the service is given to the visitors, it is
necessary to carry out a platform installation
process. This process consisted of several stages:
 Economic analysis: Initial assessment of
volumes (rough number of visitors expected and
their composition, size of the area to cover,
number of points of interest and monuments,...)
and making of qualitative decisions such as the
type of business model to be applied (types of
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fees for tourists and the industry, types of
services, professional co-operations, …)
 Tourist inventory: A list comprising all points of
interest that the cities have and want to show to
the visitor. It is also necessary to get in touch and
gather with those who manage the places of
interest (City Councils, other administrations,
museums, the Church, etc…) in order to reach
agreements of participation or consent and the
rights to use information and installations.
 Guide design: Design of routes and sub-routes,
storyboards, information flow, advices,
procedures of response to tourist behaviour,
etc… and the making of guiding rules and initial
lists of messages.
 Content production: Out of collected information
(texts, photos, street maps, etc.) and the guide
design, it is possible to elaborate the messages.
This includes several duties such as scripts
elaboration, translations, audio records, editing,
etc.
 Deployment: It includes several tasks: selection
of equipment, fixing and adaptation to outdoor
places, connection to electric sources (permanent
or from batteries), orientation of aerials, setting
up and configuration of software programs,
loading of data-bases and files, service and
coverage tests, etc…
Figure 5: Examples of installations.
Figure 6: Example installation of a gateway.
3 FUTURE EVOLUTIONS
The system was originally conceived as a tool to
offer an advanced information and tourist guide
service. However, during its design and
development a much larger view was adopted,
specially to enable a wider scope of applications. It
is necessary to understand the main features of the
system to see the new ideas of exploitation:
 It provides an economical and high quality
network for communication with mobile phones.
The versatility of the network is such that it
allows its own structure to change continually
and even its components may move around.
 The system is aware of whatever occurs in its
control area, it knows all the past and present
circumstances of the users and it may react to
any event. The reaction can be programmed in a
sophisticated way, even on the fly.
The flexibility of the system is based on its open
design and the technologies used. The platform is an
investment for the future and it may support as many
different applications as it becomes necessary.
3.1 Technological Evolution
Apart from the current development of a Java
version of the mobile phone application, other works
are under way in the software and hardware to
expand the possibilities of the system and improve
its features. These are a couple of examples:
 Precise and complete positioning with GPS: The
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current system does not need to know the
accurate location of each person to offer a high
quality guided service. However, the increase of
the location capacity of the platform may be
useful for other applications. In those cases, GPS
satellite positioning technology may be used.
The enhancement is achieved by equipping the
user with a GPS receiver that communicates with
the mobile phone via Bluetooth and provides its
geographical references. This information is sent
to the central server for processing and decision
making. It is important to be aware that the
location service with GPS only works in open
areas. In other places, such as inside buildings or
in narrow streets, the current tracking
mechanisms of the system are the best solution.
 Voice Interface, specially for sightless people:
Our intention is to make it even easier to access
and control the services provided by the system
by adding a voice-recognition mechanism. It is
necessary to use techniques of natural language
processing. This way, the user would not need
either a joystick or the keypad of the mobile
phone to carry out any operation.
3.2 Services for Sightless People
The way we perceive this world is a mix of the
information we receive from all our senses. If one of
our senses fails, we lose part of that data. This
becomes a mayor problem when the lack of
information is visual and becomes critical when it
requires an action to be taken by the individual.
The main target of the system for visually-
impaired people consists in creating a smart
environment around the person that conveys to him
or her in audio format all the relevant information
related to the surrounding objects and places.
The service may be extended to people with
other sensory or physical loss. The mobile phone
becomes a new interface with the environment that
takes the advantage of the healthy senses.
A number of tracking devices need to be
strategically installed in certain places or vehicles to
detect the location of the users. By making use of
this network and the knowledge accumulated of each
user, the system decides whether to send messages
and chooses the most appropriate ones.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper we have presented a system for mobile
tourist guidance and services installed in the Spanish
cities of Ubeda and Baeza. Nowadays, we are about
to start its exploitation. Therefore, there are no real
statistics of usage or feedback from the tourists. It is
not possible yet to carry out an analysis of technical
performance or service success and no experimental
results of mass usage can be published.
The system is very innovative and uses a variety
of technologies (Bluetooth, Wi-fi, GPRS, UMTS,
Internet,…). The architecture used is very versatile
and allows increasing the number of services offered
(for example, for sightless people).
Several projects have been carried out before that
make use of Bluetooth technology and mobile
devices to offer tourist guidance services. However,
none of them can be truly compared to this project
since they don’t have several key features that make
this system unique: web-like multimedia
interactivity over Bluetooth, full context awareness
with Artificial Intelligence, urban-wide wireless
network deployment. Therefore, no references are
made to specific projects (mostly commercial
products).
We invite anybody who may be interested in this
project to visit the cities of Ubeda and Baeza in
order to know the system.
REFERENCES
UNESCO, 2003. Report of the 27th Session of the
Committee 1st International Conference, 27COM
8C.42.
Plan Avanza, 2006. Boletin Oficial del Estado (BOE num.
297, 13
th
December 2005).
Bluetooth, 2008. The Bluetooth special Interest Group.
http:/www.bluetooth.com/
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