The influence of off-screen landmarks on user orientation

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.Maps displayed on hand held devices, such as smartphones; provide limited visibility due to their small screen display. In order to overcome display limitations, researchers have developed new techniques that point users to objects and landmarks located off-screen, which is known as an “off-screen interface”. Since this is a new type of map interface, there is little information regarding the effect it has on the user’s perception of the environment and spatial orientation abilities. This thesis investigates the relationship of a map display to the user’s orientation in the environment. A field experiment was conducted in an urban environment, where twenty-four participants were individually guided along an unfamiliar route. All participants were provided with a map displayed on a smartphone, whereas only half were additionally equipped with the off-screen interface. Tasks involving user’s orientation knowledge were preformed along the route and at the end point. In addition, user’s interaction with the map was monitored. Results were compared between the two interface groups and individual difference, such as gender and sense of direction abilities, were taken into account. The results do not indicate a significant difference between the two interfaces in relocation to orientation abilities. However, considerable differences among the interface groups were found with relation to gender and senses of direction. Moreover, a significant difference was found between groups in relation to user-map interaction. Based on the results of this study, a relation between the off-screen map interface and its user’s orientation abilities can be observed

A novel visualisation paradigm for three-dimensional map-based mobile services

Estágio realizado na NDrive Navigation Systems, S. A.Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informátca e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200

Multipurpose Map Designs for GPS Surface-Vehicle Navigation: Spatial Knowledge and Advisory Functions

Current car navigation systems primarily utilize track-up maps with spatial turn arrows, which facilitate turn decision-making but do not facilitate acquisition of spatial knowledge of the region. North-up maps do facilitate acquisition of regional spatial knowledge, however, these displays sometimes have arrows heading in directions misaligned with a driver\u27s forward view, such as when the car is heading south. Drivers have difficulty making turn decisions in these misaligned maps because of stimulus-response reversals (Chan and Chan, 2005; Levine, 1982; Levine, Marchon and Hanley, 1984; Montello, 2010). A new display was designed using a fixed orientation north-up map and added a verbal cue to the traditional turn arrow. People are able to concurrently process verbal and spatial information (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974; Paivio, 1971; Paivio, 2006). The new verbal north-up map was compared with traditional north-up and track-up maps, and a no map aid with auditory turn instructions. Participants drove through a simulated environment and made left or right intention-to-turn responses to the map indicator or the auditory instructions. Following the driving simulation, participants drew a sketch map of the region, which was scored to evaluate configural spatial knowledge. Results showed participants using the verbal north-up map acquired more accurate configural spatial knowledge and showed no evidence of decrement in performance for intention to turn times

Multipurpose Map Designs for GPS Surface-Vehicle Navigation: Spatial Knowledge and Advisory Functions

Current car navigation systems primarily utilize track-up maps with spatial turn arrows, which facilitate turn decision-making but do not facilitate acquisition of spatial knowledge of the region. North-up maps do facilitate acquisition of regional spatial knowledge, however, these displays sometimes have arrows heading in directions misaligned with a driver\u27s forward view, such as when the car is heading south. Drivers have difficulty making turn decisions in these misaligned maps because of stimulus-response reversals (Chan and Chan, 2005; Levine, 1982; Levine, Marchon and Hanley, 1984; Montello, 2010). A new display was designed using a fixed orientation north-up map and added a verbal cue to the traditional turn arrow. People are able to concurrently process verbal and spatial information (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974; Paivio, 1971; Paivio, 2006). The new verbal north-up map was compared with traditional north-up and track-up maps, and a no map aid with auditory turn instructions. Participants drove through a simulated environment and made left or right intention-to-turn responses to the map indicator or the auditory instructions. Following the driving simulation, participants drew a sketch map of the region, which was scored to evaluate configural spatial knowledge. Results showed participants using the verbal north-up map acquired more accurate configural spatial knowledge and showed no evidence of decrement in performance for intention to turn times

Augmented paper maps : design of POI markers and effects on group navigation

One popular and wide use of augmented-reality based application, is the projection of points of interests on top of the phones' camera view. In this paper we discuss the implementation of an AR application that acts as a magic lens over printed maps, overlaying POIs and routes. This method expands the information space available to members of groups during navigation, partially mitigating the issue of several group members trying to share a small screen device. We examine two aspects critical to the use of augmented paper maps: (a) Appropriate visualisation of POIs to facilitate selection and (b) augmentation of paper maps with route instructions for use in group situations. In this paper, we evaluate POI visualisation in a lab setting and augmented paper map navigation with groups of real tourists in a preliminary field trial. Our work complements existing literature introducing self-reporting questionnaires to measure affective state and user experience during navigation

Evaluation of Multi-Level Cognitive Maps for Supporting Between-Floor Spatial Behavior in Complex Indoor Environments

People often become disoriented when navigating in complex, multi-level buildings. To efficiently find destinations located on different floors, navigators must refer to a globally coherent mental representation of the multi-level environment, which is termed a multi-level cognitive map. However, there is a surprising dearth of research into underlying theories of why integrating multi-level spatial knowledge into a multi-level cognitive map is so challenging and error-prone for humans. This overarching problem is the core motivation of this dissertation. We address this vexing problem in a two-pronged approach combining study of both basic and applied research questions. Of theoretical interest, we investigate questions about how multi-level built environments are learned and structured in memory. The concept of multi-level cognitive maps and a framework of multi-level cognitive map development are provided. We then conducted a set of empirical experiments to evaluate the effects of several environmental factors on users’ development of multi-level cognitive maps. The findings of these studies provide important design guidelines that can be used by architects and help to better understand the research question of why people get lost in buildings. Related to application, we investigate questions about how to design user-friendly visualization interfaces that augment users’ capability to form multi-level cognitive maps. An important finding of this dissertation is that increasing visual access with an X-ray-like visualization interface is effective for overcoming the disadvantage of limited visual access in built environments and assists the development of multi-level cognitive maps. These findings provide important human-computer interaction (HCI) guidelines for visualization techniques to be used in future indoor navigation systems. In sum, this dissertation adopts an interdisciplinary approach, combining theories from the fields of spatial cognition, information visualization, and HCI, addressing a long-standing and ubiquitous problem faced by anyone who navigates indoors: why do people get lost inside multi-level buildings. Results provide both theoretical and applied levels of knowledge generation and explanation, as well as contribute to the growing field of real-time indoor navigation systems

NavMem UI Development

The elderly population within the European Union is growing where as the amount of caregivers is not. The objective of the NavMem project is to make older citizens more self-sufficient and confident specifically while traveling on foot. This could potentially lead to a more active and social life while decreasing the need of senior citizen care. With this objective in mind the NavMem consortium have up to this point created two separate beta-stage Android applications intended to aid and support the above mentioned target group. The purpose of this thesis project has been to evaluate these applications as well as develop User Interface prototypes in order to improve the Usability and by extension the User Experience of the finalized product. The project was carried out using an iterative and user-centered methodology in order to ensure a final prototype in line with the needs of the target group. The Swedish Stroke Association assisted in putting together a group of test participants that were consulted throughout the project. The project resulted in an assessment of the current applications as well as two prototypes, with the second one being a further development of the first. Decisions made while developing the prototypes are made based on input from the test participants as well as relevant theories within the field of User Interface. The last prototype displayed great improvement regarding Usability, compared to the current applications, as validated by the evaluation process performed. To further ensure a successful final product field tests with larger portions of the target group would need to be conducted. This report however, aims to form the basis and guide the NavMem consortium in their future decision-making regarding the User Interface of the final product.The objective of the EU project NavMem is to make older citizens more self-sufficient and confident specifically while traveling on foot. This could potentially lead to a more active and social life while decreasing the need of senior citizen care. With this objective in mind the NavMem consortium have up to this point creat- ed two separate beta-stage Android applications for navigating. The objective of this thesis project has been to evaluate these applications as well as develop User Interface (UI) prototypes in order to improve the Usability and by extension the User Experience of the finalized product. Additionally the two applications will be merged into a single one. Devel- opment and evaluation has been car- ried out in collaboration with members from the Swedish Stroke Association as well as the NavMem project

Improving public transit accessibility for blind riders by crowdsourcing bus stop landmark locations with Google street view

Low-vision and blind bus riders often rely on known physical landmarks to help locate and verify bus stop locations (e.g., by searching for a shelter, bench, newspaper bin). However, there are currently few, if any, methods to determine this information a priori via computational tools or services. In this paper, we introduce and evaluate a new scalable method for collecting bus stop location and landmark descriptions by combining online crowdsourcing and Google Street View (GSV). We conduct and report on three studies in particular: (i) a formative interview study of 18 people with visual impairments to inform the design of our crowdsourcing tool; (ii) a comparative study examining differences between physical bus stop audit data and audits conducted virtually with GSV; and (iii) an online study of 153 crowd workers on Amazon Mechanical Turk to examine the feasibility of crowdsourcing bus stop audits using our custom tool with GSV. Our findings reemphasize the importance of landmarks in non-visual navigation, demonstrate that GSV is a viable bus stop audit dataset, and show that minimally trained crowd workers can find and identify bus stop landmarks with 82.5 % accuracy across 150 bus stop locations (87.3 % with simple quality control)