Ad Loc

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ad Loc is a system for mobile users to collaboratively tie persistent virtual notes to physical locations without the need for any servers embedded in the environment or accessed via the Internet. Instead, all notes are proactively cached solely on the mobile devices of passing participants and served up to others in the vicinity via ad hoc wireless protocols like WiFi. By making use of any of the increasingly ubiquitous positioning technologies, such as GPS, devices attempt to ensure notes remain cached at the physical locations they were published.

Ad Loc takes its name from the abbreviation of the Latin phrase Ad Locum meaning "To/At the place/location." Which describes the approach of Ad Loc, aiming to cache data at the location it is relevant.

Ad Loc can be categorised in the following ways:

Localised: notes are specific to physical locations.
Persistent: notes remain in the environment.
Asynchronous: notes are published and retrieved without requiring the concurrent presence of both publishers and consumers.
Collaborative: anyone can publish or read any notes.
Infrastructure-free: no servers or Internet connections are requried.