CNet reports that Palo Alto Research Center -a subsidiary of Xerox that was the birthplace of the computer mouse and Ethernet–has developed a context-aware mobile travel guide codenamed “Magitti” that displays listings based on your GPS location, time of day, past preferences and behaviour.

The more you interact with it–showing preference for things and rating them–the more it learns about your personal tastes, reflects suggestions accordingly. The application uses collaborative filtering to recommend things that others with similar tastes like and allows people to input their own ratings and reviews. On the listing page, there is a handy option to capture a snapshot of the current point of interest with your mobile camera.

The system can also analyze e-mails and SMS text messages stored on the mobile device for clues and recommend personalized points of interest & listings based on the analyzed information. And before you think about privacy, rest assured that all processing is done locally on the mobile phone, not on the server.