Research And Implementation Of Android-based Location Sharing System

With the development of the smart phones, the scenario of communication has changed.Initially mobile phones were developed for voice communication but now days, voicecommunication is just one aspect of the application of mobile phone. After the release ofAndroid based open source smart phone a user can access the hardware directly and designcustomized applications and test directly. Many applications has been developed usingAndroid platform. Using the features of GPS service in Android, various location basedservices have been developed and implemented. However with the existing Android-basedlocation and message sharing system requires input of the personal information which hasfailed to protect privacy of information, lack of centralized database has caused the problemssuch as data management and portability, lack of security of information during exchange innetwork and one main drawback is that there is not a secured two way communication betweenwebserver and Android based application. Therefore maintaining the centralized database,preserving the privacy of location information as well as message during exchange and havinga secure communication between Android and webserver are prime concern of the research.To preserve the privacy of location data and message, the approach of symmetriccryptography is used. While integrating the concept of symmetric cryptography some set ofrules need to be followed. At first, all the information before sending to the network should beencrypted with some encrypted key. Second, same key should be used to decrypt the originalinformation. The concept of using external database is introduced instead of using the Androidbuilt in database, to maintain the centralized database so that its data can be used in otherpurposes as well. All the information between Webserver and Android are encrypted beforesending and decrypted before retrieving which ensures a secure communication betweenWebserver and Android in the network.Thus, this thesis focuses on the design and implementation of an Android-based locationand message sharing system (ALMSS) which provides the function of sharing the user’scurrent location, sending message among users and viewing location on Google map in web.ALMSS not only integrates Google map with GPS, but also support sending location towebserver, establishes a secure two way communication between webserver and Android platform. The location data and the messages send by the user as well as webserver are inencrypted form. Only authorized users who hold a decryption key are able to access theinformation.ALMSS uses Java language for the developing of Android-based user end application,PHP language is used to program at the webserver end, JSON is used as intermediary betweenAndroid platform and webserver, and MySQL as external database to maintain centralizeddatabase to store the information. Use of symmetric cryptography in communication betweenAndroid device and webserver ultimately assures the protection of private information of theusers.