Monitoring Reverse Top-k Queries Over Mobile Devices

Location-based queries are widely employed to retrieve useful information based on the user's geographical position. For example, a tourist that walks around a city may seek points of interest (e.g., restaurants) in her vicinity that satisfy her preferences (e.g., cheap and highly-rated). A top-k query defined by the user preferences can be employed to return a ranked set of the k best points of interest that are nearby her current location. The provision of location-based services is facilitated by the technological advances in hand-held devices and wireless communications, since they enable the widespread usage of mobile devices that can report their current geographic position.