PLASH: a platform for location aware services with human computation

The PLASH platform is designed to help location- aware service providers deploy their applications easily so that users can contribute their efforts and location-related data by using the services, which is the main difference from traditional location-aware services. The collective efforts and data that may be generated by humans or sensors (or both) can be used to help solve difficult location awareness problems, such as realtime surface traffic estimation, city panoramas, and social networking analysis. The PLASH platform comprises three layers: communication, data, and service. An LAS application developed on PLASH can exploit the functions provided in each layer by using an application specification language provided by PLASH. In addition, application builders can contribute their mature applications as a service accommodated in the service layer for other application builders to expand and create more sophisticated applications.