Intersections of Our World

There are several situations where the type of a street intersections can become very important, especially in the case of navigation studies. The types of intersections affect the route complexity and this has to be accounted for, e.g., already during the experimental design phase of a navigation study. In this work we introduce a formal definition for intersection types and present a framework that allows for extracting information about the intersections of our planet. We present a case study that demonstrates the importance and necessity of being able to extract this information

Using Satellite Images Datasets for Road Intersection Detection in Route Planning

Understanding road networks plays an important role in navigation applications such as self-driving vehicles and route planning for individual journeys. Intersections of roads are essential components of road networks. Understanding the features of an intersection, from a simple T-junction to larger multi-road junctions is critical to decisions such as crossing roads or selecting safest routes. The identification and profiling of intersections from satellite images is a challenging task. While deep learning approaches offer state-of-the-art in image classification and detection, the availability of training datasets is a bottleneck in this approach. In this paper, a labelled satellite image dataset for the intersection recognition problem is presented. It consists of 14,692 satellite images of Washington DC, USA. To support other users of the dataset, an automated download and labelling script is provided for dataset replication. The challenges of construction and fine-grained feature labelling of a satellite image dataset are examined, including the issue of how to address features that are spread across multiple images. Finally, the accuracy of detection of intersections in satellite images is evaluate

Navigating Your Way! Increasing the Freedom of Choice During Wayfinding

Using navigation assistance systems has become widespread and scholars have tried to mitigate potentially adverse effects on spatial cognition these systems may have due to the division of attention they require. In order to nudge the user to engage more with the environment, we propose a novel navigation paradigm called Free Choice Navigation balancing the number of free choices, route length and number of instructions given. We test the viability of this approach by means of an agent-based simulation for three different cities. Environmental spatial abilities and spatial confidence are the two most important modeled features of our agents. Our results are very promising: Agents could decide freely at more than 50% of all junctions. More than 90% of the agents reached their destination within an average distance of about 125% shortest path length

Do You Need Instructions Again? Predicting Wayfinding Instruction Demand

The demand for instructions during wayfinding, defined as the frequency of requesting instructions for each decision point, can be considered as an important indicator of the internal cognitive processes during wayfinding. This demand can be a consequence of the mental state of feeling lost, being uncertain, mind wandering, having difficulty following the route, etc. Therefore, it can be of great importance for theoretical cognitive studies on human perception of the environment. From an application perspective, this demand can be used as a measure of the effectiveness of the navigation assistance system. It is therefore worthwhile to be able to predict this demand and also to know what factors trigger it. This paper takes a step in this direction by reporting a successful prediction of instruction demand (accuracy of 78.4%) in a real-world wayfinding experiment with 45 participants, and interpreting the environmental, user, instructional, and gaze-related features that caused it

On the right track : comfort and confusion in indoor environments

Indoor navigation systems are not well adapted to the needs of their users. The route planning algorithms implemented in these systems are usually limited to shortest path calculations or derivatives, minimalizing Euclidian distance. Guiding people along routes that adhere better to their cognitive processes could ease wayfinding in indoor environments. This paper examines comfort and confusion perception during wayfinding by applying a mixed-method approach. The aforementioned method combined an exploratory focus group and a video-based online survey. From the discussions in the focus group, it could be concluded that indoor wayfinding must be considered at different levels: the local level and the global level. In the online survey, the focus was limited to the local level, i.e., local environmental characteristics. In this online study, the comfort and confusion ratings of multiple indoor navigation situations were analyzed. In general, the results indicate that open spaces and stairs need to be taken into account in the development of a more cognitively-sounding route planning algorithm. Implementing the results in a route planning algorithm could be a valuable improvement of indoor navigation support

Not hearing, not engaging, not happening: Elusive Inclusive HE, it is time to reconsider sector practices in partnership with disabled student expertise

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by National Association of Disability Practitioners. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://nadp-uk.org/jipfhe-15-1-summer-2023-5/This paper focuses on inclusive higher education in the United Kingdom. It details international literature, research studies and national reports, including findings from the authors’ study, ‘Working with disabled students to address unequal outcomes in UK HE during the pandemic’ where we critically explored inclusive practice in Higher Education (HE) and disabled students’ learning experiences. Our national study was carried out as a collaboration between the University of Plymouth, University of Wolverhampton, and Disabled Students UK (DSUK). Data collection took place in 2021 with an extensive literature-based investigation alongside the dissemination of a questionnaire to DSUK members resulting in 14 responses from across a variety of UG and PG programmes. This research took place whilst DSUK were completing a complementary national study asking disabled students about their experiences of Higher Education during lockdown periods, they received more than 300 responses. Alongside these studies, the Disabled Students’ Commission (DSC) (2021/2022) were compiling their annual report. Findings from our research corroborate the aforementioned investigations, contributing evidence that disabled students across undergraduate and postgraduate courses continue to experience perceived discriminatory and exclusionary practices (DSUK, 2020; NADP. 2020; NMHP, 2020). Findings from our research project ‘Working with disabled students to address unequal outcomes in UK HE during the pandemic’, will be explored in this paper and theysuggest too many disabled students studying in HE today, experience integration, which results in frustration, course transfers and failure, as opposed to the progressive and transformational learning that is associated with successful inclusion. The paper concludes by proposing HE policy makers and practitioners ‘partner-up’ with disabled students to reconsider what is understood, envisaged, implemented, experienced and evaluated as inclusive HE. Furthermore, that this collaboration and partnership is led by disabled students and takes place at both macro eg- Government, OfS and DSC) and micro levels (lecture theatre, online learning)

LIPIcs, Volume 277, GIScience 2023, Complete Volume

LIPIcs, Volume 277, GIScience 2023, Complete Volum

12th International Conference on Geographic Information Science: GIScience 2023, September 12–15, 2023, Leeds, UK

No abstract available