Retrieving Landmark Salience Based on Wikipedia: An Integrated Ranking Model

Landmarks are important for assisting in wayfinding and navigation and for enriching user experience. Although many user-generated geotagged sources exist, landmark entities are still mostly retrieved from authoritative geographic sources. Wikipedia, the world’s largest free encyclopedia, stores geotagged information on many geospatial entities, including a very large and well-founded volume of landmark information. However, not all Wikipedia geotagged landmark entities can be considered valuable and instructive. This research introduces an integrated ranking model for mining landmarks from Wikipedia predicated on estimating and weighting their salience. Other than location, the model is based on the entries’ category and attributed data. Preliminary ranking is formulated on the basis of three spatial descriptors associated with landmark salience, namely permanence, visibility, and uniqueness. This ranking is integrated with a score derived from a set of numerical attributes that are associated with public interest in the Wikipedia page―including the number of redirects and the date of the latest edit. The methodology is comparatively evaluated for various areas in different cities. Results show that the developed integrated ranking model is robust in identifying landmark salience, paving the way for incorporation of Wikipedia’s content into navigation systems

Introduction to the second international symposium of platial information science

People ‘live’ and constitute places every day through recurrent practices and experience. Our everyday lives, however, are complex, and so are places. In contrast to abstract space, the way people experience places includes a range of aspects like physical setting, meaning, and emotional attachment. This inherent complexity requires researchers to investigate the concept of place from a variety of viewpoints. The formal representation of place – a major goal in GIScience related to place – is no exception and can only be successfully addressed if we consider geographical, psychological, anthropological, sociological, cognitive, and other perspectives. This year’s symposium brings together place-based researchers from different disciplines to discuss the current state of platial research. Therefore, this volume contains contributions from a range of fields including geography, psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, and cartography

The relationship between wayfinding performance, spatial layout and landmarks in virtual environments

Environmental factors, including landmarks that affect people’s wayfinding performance in unfamiliar environments have been discussed in a great number of studies. However, there is still no consensus on the factors that shape people’s performance or what makes a landmark preferable during wayfinding. Hence, this study aims to understand the impact of different spatial layouts, environmental conditions and landmarks on people’s wayfinding performance, and the factors that make landmarks salient. Sea Hero Quest (SHQ), an online game that has been played by more than 4.3 million people from 2016 to date, is selected as a case study to investigate the impact of different environments and other factors, in particular landmarks. Forty-five wayfinding levels of SHQ are analysed and compared using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Space syntax axial, segment and visibility graph analyses. A cluster analysis is conducted to examine the relationship between levels. Varying conditions associated with landmarks, weather and maps were taken into consideration. In order to investigate the process of selecting landmarks, visual, structural (whether landmarks are global or local) and cognitive saliency are analysed using web-based surveys, saliency algorithms and the visibility of landmarks. Results of this study show that the complexity of layouts plays a major role in wayfinding; as the complexity of layout increases, so does the time taken to complete the wayfinding task. Similarly, the weather condition has an effect; as the weather becomes foggy and visibility decreases, the time taken to complete the wayfinding task increases. It is discovered that landmarks that are visible for more than 25% of a journey can be defined as global landmarks whereas the rest can be defined as local landmarks. Findings also show that landmarks that are visually salient (objects with a unique colour and size) and structurally salient (objects that are closer to people) are registered more by people in unfamiliar environments. This study contributes to the existing literature by exploring the factors that affect people’s wayfinding performance by using the largest dataset in the field (so providing more accurate results), focusing on 45 different layouts (while current research studies mostly focus on one or two different layouts), by proposing a threshold to distinguish global and local landmarks, and analysing visual, structural and cognitive saliency through various measures

"I am also looking for a genuine connection…". Psychosocial implications of dating app use and problematic use of dating applications

With the appearance of dating applications, online dating became one of the most profitable online markets in today's society. Past research has investigated how online dating users present themselves, which personality correlates are more related to higher engagement of online dating, and negative outcomes of online dating (e.g., deception and sexual health risks). However, there has been scarce literature assessing the problematic use of online dating. Therefore, the present research project aimed to assess (i) the individual experience of dating app use and problematic use, (ii) the influence of structural characteristics in users’ behaviour and level of engagement, and (iii) the relation between mental health and dating app usage. To do this, different methodologies were employed including qualitative (i.e., ethnographic research and interviews), and quantitative research methods (i.e., questionnaire-based study and ecological momentary assessment via smartphone-based study). Results from the present research project found that (i) the design of dating applications aims to initiate and maintain users’ behaviour and promote behaviours like sex-search interactions, (ii) users experience needs frustration when using dating applications for an extended period of time, which leads them to halt their use of dating apps for a period of time, (iii) smartphone addiction is a significant mediator between online dating use and mental health correlates, (iv) relatedness frustration is a significant cross-cultural predictor of online dating use, (v) received notifications are associated with the wellbeing of dating app users, (vi) higher-engagement predicts feelings of craving for dating app use. Overall, this project has assessed how the use of dating applications influences users’ mental health, behaviours, and general engagement, providing novel evidence in the field of online dating and problematic use of online dating

Use of Landmarks to Improve Spatial Learning and Revisitation in Computer Interfaces

Efficient spatial location learning and remembering are just as important for two-dimensional Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) as they are for real environments where locations are revisited multiple times. Rapid spatial memory development in GUIs, however, can be difficult because these interfaces often lack adequate landmarks that have been predominantly used by people to learn and recall real-life locations. In the absence of sufficient landmarks in GUIs, artificially created visual objects (i.e., artificial landmarks) could be used as landmarks to support spatial memory development of spatial locations. In order to understand how spatial memory development occurs in GUIs and explore ways to assist users’ efficient location learning and recalling in GUIs, I carried out five studies exploring the use of landmarks in GUIs – one study that investigated interfaces of four standard desktop applications: Microsoft Word, Facebook, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Reader, and other four that tested artificial landmarks augmented two prototype desktop GUIs against non-landmarked versions: command selection interfaces and linear document viewers; in addition, I tested landmarks’ use in variants of these interfaces that varied in the number of command sets (small, medium, and large) and types of linear documents (textual and video). Results indicate that GUIs’ existing features and design elements can be reliable landmarks in GUIs that provide spatial benefits similar to real environments. I also show that artificial landmarks can significantly improve spatial memory development of GUIs, allowing support for rapid spatial location learning and remembering in GUIs. Overall, this dissertation reveals that landmarks can be a valuable addition to graphical systems to improve the memorability and usability of GUIs

Metropolitan Research: Methods and Approaches

Metropolitan research requires multidisciplinary perspectives in order to do justice to the complexities of metropolitan regions. This volume provides a scholarly and accessible overview of key methods and approaches in metropolitan research from a uniquely broad range of disciplines including architectural history, art history, heritage conservation, literary and cultural studies, spatial planning and planning theory, geoinformatics, urban sociology, economic geography, operations research, technology studies, transport planning, aquatic ecosystems research and urban epidemiology. It is this scope of disciplinary - and increasingly also interdisciplinary - approaches that allows metropolitan research to address recent societal challenges of urban life, such as mobility, health, diversity or sustainability

Metropolitan Research

Metropolitan research requires multidisciplinary perspectives in order to do justice to the complexities of metropolitan regions. This volume provides a scholarly and accessible overview of key methods and approaches in metropolitan research from a uniquely broad range of disciplines including architectural history, art history, heritage conservation, literary and cultural studies, spatial planning and planning theory, geoinformatics, urban sociology, economic geography, operations research, technology studies, transport planning, aquatic ecosystems research and urban epidemiology. It is this scope of disciplinary - and increasingly also interdisciplinary - approaches that allows metropolitan research to address recent societal challenges of urban life, such as mobility, health, diversity or sustainability

LIPIcs, Volume 277, GIScience 2023, Complete Volume

LIPIcs, Volume 277, GIScience 2023, Complete Volum