Toward the Design of Smart Travel Guard

Abstract

Nowadays, travelers usually search, collect, identify, and preserve valuable travel information from large amounts of online data sources before the trip. Meanwhile, during the trip, travelers can use smart devices to seek help according to particular circumstances. However, thefts, robberies, and scams always happen during the trip. One of the major issues is that travelers cannot collect all of the related travel information and identify important messages efficiently. In addition, the assistance provided by smart devices is not timely enough. Thus, in order to protect travelers from potential risks or dangers, a framework named ‘Smart Travel Guard’ is proposed in this paper. The smart travel guard helps to continuously collect, identify, classify, and annotate travel information from different online data sources. The related travel context and travel information can be identified, classified, and preserved, and a safety index for a travel attraction can be calculated and summarized. The smart travel guard also acquires particular travel information from smart devices carried or wore by travelers in real time. The acquired information will be recognized and analyzed together with the existing travel information and used to retrieve the historical safety index. Based on the analysis result, the corresponding message based on the safety index can be generated, and associated travel information can be provided for travelers to prevent potential risks or dangers in advance. After the assistance, the confirmation and feedback from travelers will be collected and preserved. Thus, the information can be accumulated in the smart travel guard for further reference. It is anticipated that the proposed smart travel guard can complement current recommendation systems and achieve quality and safe travel effectively and efficiently.