Walking and Walkability: Is Wayfinding a Missing Link? Implications for Public Health Practice

Research on walking and walkability has yet to focus on wayfinding, the interactive, problem-solving process by which people use environmental information to locate themselves and navigate through various settings

J Phys Act Health

BackgroundResearch on walking and walkability has yet to focus on wayfinding, the interactive, problem-solving process by which people use environmental information to locate themselves and navigate through various settings.MethodsWe reviewed the literature on outdoor pedestrian-oriented wayfinding to examine its relationship to walking and walkability, 2 areas of importance to physical activity promotion.ResultsOur findings document that wayfinding is cognitively demanding and can compete with other functions, including walking itself. Moreover, features of the environment can either facilitate or impede wayfinding, just as environmental features can influence walking.ConclusionsAlthough there is still much to be learned about wayfinding and walking behaviors, our review helps frame the issues and lays out the importance of this area of research and practice.CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United States2017-08-31T00:00:00Z25965057PMC557841

MULTI-SENSOR LOCALIZATION AND TRACKING IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND INDOOR WAYFINDING FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED USERS

This dissertation proposes a series of multi-sensor localization and tracking algorithms particularly developed for two important application domains, which are disaster management and indoor wayfinding for blind and visually impaired (BVI) users. For disaster management, we developed two different localization algorithms, one each for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, which enable the disaster management system to track patients in real-time. Both algorithms work in the absence of any pre-deployed infrastructure along with smartphones and wearable devices. Regarding indoor wayfinding for BVI users, we have explored several types of indoor positioning techniques including BLE-based, inertial, visual and hybrid approaches to offer accurate and reliable location and orientation in complex navigation spaces. In this dissertation, significant contributions have been made in the design and implementation of various localization and tracking algorithms under different requirements of certain applications

Integrating Haptic Feedback into Mobile Location Based Services

Haptics is a feedback technology that takes advantage of the human sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, and/or motions to a haptic-enabled device such as a mobile phone. Historically, human-computer interaction has been visual - text and images on the screen. Haptic feedback can be an important additional method especially in Mobile Location Based Services such as knowledge discovery, pedestrian navigation and notification systems. A knowledge discovery system called the Haptic GeoWand is a low interaction system that allows users to query geo-tagged data around them by using a point-and-scan technique with their mobile device. Haptic Pedestrian is a navigation system for walkers. Four prototypes have been developed classified according to the user’s guidance requirements, the user type (based on spatial skills), and overall system complexity. Haptic Transit is a notification system that provides spatial information to the users of public transport. In all these systems, haptic feedback is used to convey information about location, orientation, density and distance by use of the vibration alarm with varying frequencies and patterns to help understand the physical environment. Trials elicited positive responses from the users who see benefit in being provided with a “heads up” approach to mobile navigation. Results from a memory recall test show that the users of haptic feedback for navigation had better memory recall of the region traversed than the users of landmark images. Haptics integrated into a multi-modal navigation system provides more usable, less distracting but more effective interaction than conventional systems. Enhancements to the current work could include integration of contextual information, detailed large-scale user trials and the exploration of using haptics within confined indoor spaces

DYNAMICS OF COLLABORATIVE NAVIGATION AND APPLYING DATA DRIVEN METHODS TO IMPROVE PEDESTRIAN NAVIGATION INSTRUCTIONS AT DECISION POINTS FOR PEOPLE OF VARYING SPATIAL APTITUDES

Cognitive Geography seeks to understand individual decision-making variations based on fundamental cognitive differences between people of varying spatial aptitudes. Understanding fundamental behavioral discrepancies among individuals is an important step to improve navigation algorithms and the overall travel experience. Contemporary navigation aids, although helpful in providing turn-by-turn directions, lack important capabilities to distinguish decision points for their features and importance. Existing systems lack the ability to generate landmark or decision point based instructions using real-time or crowd sourced data. Systems cannot customize personalized instructions for individuals based on inherent spatial ability, travel history, or situations. This dissertation presents a novel experimental setup to examine simultaneous wayfinding behavior for people of varying spatial abilities. This study reveals discrepancies in the information processing, landmark preference and spatial information communication among groups possessing differing abilities. Empirical data is used to validate computational salience techniques that endeavor to predict the difficulty of decision point use from the structure of the routes. Outlink score and outflux score, two meta-algorithms that derive secondary scores from existing metrics of network analysis, are explored. These two algorithms approximate human cognitive variation in navigation by analyzing neighboring and directional effect properties of decision point nodes within a routing network. The results are validated by a human wayfinding experiment, results show that these metrics generally improve the prediction of errors. In addition, a model of personalized weighting for users\u27 characteristics is derived from a SVMrank machine learning method. Such a system can effectively rank decision point difficulty based on user behavior and derive weighted models for navigators that reflect their individual tendencies. The weights reflect certain characteristics of groups. Such models can serve as personal travel profiles, and potentially be used to complement sense-of-direction surveys in classifying wayfinders. A prototype with augmented instructions for pedestrian navigation is created and tested, with particular focus on investigating how augmented instructions at particular decision points affect spatial learning. The results demonstrate that survey knowledge acquisition is improved for people with low spatial ability while decreased for people of high spatial ability. Finally, contributions are summarized, conclusions are provided, and future implications are discussed

Landmark Visualization on Mobile Maps – Effects on Visual Attention, Spatial Learning, and Cognitive Load during Map-Aided Real-World Navigation of Pedestrians

Even though they are day-to-day activities, humans find navigation and wayfinding to be cognitively challenging. To facilitate their everyday mobility, humans increasingly rely on ubiquitous mobile maps as navigation aids. However, the over-reliance on and habitual use of omnipresent navigation aids deteriorate humans' short-term ability to learn new information about their surroundings and induces a long-term decline in spatial skills. This deterioration in spatial learning is attributed to the fact that these aids capture users' attention and cause them to enter a passive navigation mode. Another factor that limits spatial learning during map-aided navigation is the lack of salient landmark information on mobile maps. Prior research has already demonstrated that wayfinders rely on landmarks—geographic features that stand out from their surroundings—to facilitate navigation and build a spatial representation of the environments they traverse. Landmarks serve as anchor points and help wayfinders to visually match the spatial information depicted on the mobile map with the information collected during the active exploration of the environment. Considering the acknowledged significance of landmarks for human wayfinding due to their visibility and saliency, this thesis investigates an open research question: how to graphically communicate landmarks on mobile map aids to cue wayfinders' allocation of attentional resources to these task-relevant environmental features. From a cartographic design perspective, landmarks can be depicted on mobile map aids on a graphical continuum ranging from abstract 2D text labels to realistic 3D buildings with high visual fidelity. Based on the importance of landmarks for human wayfinding and the rich cartographic body of research concerning their depiction on mobile maps, this thesis investigated how various landmark visualization styles affect the navigation process of two user groups (expert and general wayfinders) in different navigation use contexts (emergency and general navigation tasks). Specifically, I conducted two real-world map-aided navigation studies to assess the influence of various landmark visualization styles on wayfinders' navigation performance, spatial learning, allocation of visual attention, and cognitive load. In Study I, I investigated how depicting landmarks as abstract 2D building footprints or realistic 3D buildings on the mobile map affected expert wayfinders' navigation performance, visual attention, spatial learning, and cognitive load during an emergency navigation task. I asked expert navigators recruited from the Swiss Armed Forces to follow a predefined route using a mobile map depicting landmarks as either abstract 2D building footprints or realistic 3D buildings and to identify the depicted task-relevant landmarks in the environment. I recorded the experts' gaze behavior with a mobile eye-tracer and their cognitive load with EEG during the navigation task, and I captured their incidental spatial learning at the end of the task. The wayfinding experts' exhibited high navigation performance and low cognitive load during the map-aided navigation task regardless of the landmark visualization style. Their gaze behavior revealed that wayfinding experts navigating with realistic 3D landmarks focused more on the visualizations of landmarks on the mobile map than those who navigated with abstract 2D landmarks, while the latter focused more on the depicted route. Furthermore, when the experts focused for longer on the environment and the landmarks, their spatial learning improved regardless of the landmark visualization style. I also found that the spatial learning of experts with self-reported low spatial abilities improved when they navigated with landmarks depicted as realistic 3D buildings. In Study II, I investigated the influence of abstract and realistic 3D landmark visualization styles on wayfinders sampled from the general population. As in Study I, I investigated wayfinders' navigation performance, visual attention, spatial learning, and cognitive load. In contrast to Study I, the participants in Study II were exposed to both landmark visualization styles in a navigation context that mimics everyday navigation. Furthermore, the participants were informed that their spatial knowledge of the environment would be tested after navigation. As in Study I, the wayfinders in Study II exhibited high navigation performance and low cognitive load regardless of the landmark visualization style. Their visual attention revealed that wayfinders with low spatial abilities and wayfinders familiar with the study area fixated on the environment longer when they navigated with realistic 3D landmarks on the mobile map. Spatial learning improved when wayfinders with low spatial abilities were assisted by realistic 3D landmarks. Also, when wayfinders were assisted by realistic 3D landmarks and paid less attention to the map aid, their spatial learning improved. Taken together, the present real-world navigation studies provide ecologically valid results on the influence of various landmark visualization styles on wayfinders. In particular, the studies demonstrate how visualization style modulates wayfinders' visual attention and facilitates spatial learning across various user groups and navigation use contexts. Furthermore, the results of both studies highlight the importance of individual differences in spatial abilities as predictors of spatial learning during map-assisted navigation. Based on these findings, the present work provides design recommendations for future mobile maps that go beyond the traditional concept of "one fits all." Indeed, the studies support the cause for landmark depiction that directs individual wayfinders' visual attention to task-relevant landmarks to further enhance spatial learning. This would be especially helpful for users with low spatial skills. In doing so, future mobile maps could dynamically adapt the visualization style of landmarks according to wayfinders' spatial abilities for cued visual attention, thus meeting individuals' spatial learning needs

Improving the acquisition of spatial knowledge when navigating with an augmented reality navigation system

Navigation is a process humans use whenever they move. There are more complex tasks like finding our way in a new city and easier tasks like getting a cup of coffee. Daniel Montello (2005, p. 2) defines navigation as “the coordinated and goal-directed movement through the environment by organisms or intelligent machines”. When navigating in an unknown environment, humans often rely on assisted wayfinding by some sort of navigation aid. During the last years, the preferred navigation system shifted from printed maps to electronic and thus dynamic navigation systems on our smartphones. Recently, mixed reality and virtual reality approaches such as augmented reality (AR) have become an interesting alternative to the classical smartphone navigation. This although, the first attempts to AR were already made in the middle of the last century. The major advantages of AR navigation systems are that localisation and above all also tracking tasks are made by the system and that the navigation instructions are directly laid into the environment. The main drawback, on the other hand, is that the more tasks are made by the system, the less spatial learning is achieved by a human. The goal of this thesis is to examine ways to improve the process of spatial learning on assisted wayfinding. An experiment where participants are guided through a test environment by an AR system is set up to test these ways. After completing the route, the participants had to fill out a questionnaire about landmarks and intersections, which they had encountered on the route. The concrete goals of the thesis are to find out (1) whether giving more spatial information will improve spatial learning, (2) whether the placement of navigation instructions has an influence (positive or negative) on spatial learning, (3) whether the type of landmark has an influence on how well it is recalled and (4) how well landmark and route knowledge is built after having completed the route once. The results of the experiment suggest that giving background information to certain landmarks do not lead to a significantly different performance in spatial learning (p = .691). The result could also show that there is no difference whether a landmark is highlighted by a navigation instruction or not (p = .330). The analyses of landmark and route knowledge has shown that the participants have built less landmark knowledge than route knowledge after the run, as they have approx. 50 % of the landmarks correct but 67 % of the intersections. Interesting and in this case significant is the difference between the types of landmarks (p = .018). 3D objects are recalled much better than other landmarks. Also significant (p = 6.14e-3) but unfortunately not very robust is the influence of the age on the acquisition of route knowledge. As the age distribution is very unbalanced, these results have to be interpreted with caution. Following the findings of this thesis, it is suggested to conduct a series of experiments with an eye tracker to learn more about how the visual focus of people using AR as a wayfinding assistance behaves

Schematisation in Hard-copy Tactile Orientation Maps

This dissertation investigates schematisation of computer-generated tactile orientation maps that support mediation of spatial knowledge of unknown urban environments. Computergenerated tactile orientation maps are designed to provide the blind with an overall impression of their surroundings. Their details are displayed by means of elevated features that are created by embossers and can be distinguished by touch. The initial observation of this dissertation states that only very little information is actually transported through tactile maps owing to the coarse resolution of tactual senses and the cognitive effort involved in the serial exploration of tactile maps. However, the differences between computer-generated, embossed tactile maps and manufactured, deep-drawn tactile maps are significant. Therefore the possibilities and confines of communicating information through tactile maps produced with embossers is a primary area of research. This dissertation has been able to demonstrate that the quality of embossed prints is an almost equal alternative to traditionally manufactured deep-drawn maps. Their great advantage is fast and individual production and (apart from the initial procurement costs for the printer)low price, accessibility and easy understanding without the need of prior time-consuming training. Simplification of tactile maps is essential, even more so than in other maps. It can be achieved by selecting a limited number from all map elements available. Qualitative simplification through schematisation may present an additional option to simplification through quantitative selection. In this context schematisation is understood as cognitively motivated simplification of geometry and synchronised maintenance of topology. Rather than further reducing the number of displayed objects, the investigation concentrates on how the presentation of different forms of streets (natural vs. straightened) and junctions (natural vs. prototypical) affects the transfer of knowledge. In a second area of research, a thesis establishes that qualitative simplification of tactile orientation maps through schematisation can enhance their usability and make them easier to understand than maps that have not been schematised. The dissertation shows that simplifying street forms and limiting them to prototypical junctions does not only accelerate map exploration but also has a beneficial influence on retention performance. The majority of participants that took part in the investigation selected a combination of both as their preferred display option. Tactile maps that have to be tediously explored through touch, uncovering every detail, complicate attaining a first impression or an overall perception. A third area of research is examined, establishing which means could facilitate map readersâ options to discover certain objects on the map quickly and without possessing a complete overview. Three types of aids are examined: guiding lines leading from the frame of the map to the object, position indicators represented by position markers at the frame of the map and coordinate specifications found within a grid on the map. The dissertation shows that all three varieties can be realised by embossers. Although a guiding line proves to be fast in size A4 tactile maps containing only one target object and few distracting objects, it also impedes further exploration of the map (similar to the grid). In the following, advantages and drawbacks of the various aids in this and other applications are discussed. In conclusion the dissertation elaborates on the linking points of all three examinations. They connect and it is argued that cognitively motivated simplification should be a principle of construction for embossed tactile orientation maps in order to support their use and comprehension. A summary establishes the recommendations that result from this dissertation regarding construction of tactile orientation maps considering the limitations through embosser constraints. Then I deliberate how to adapt schematisation of other maps contingent to intended function, previous knowledge of the map reader, and the relation between the time in which knowledge is acquired and the time it is employed. Closing the dissertation, I provide an insight into its confines and deductions and finish with a prospective view to possible transfers of the findings to other applications, e.g. multimedia or interactive maps on pin-matrix displays and devices