5,305 research outputs found
Navigation System for Foreign Tourists in Japan
The present study aimed to design, develop, operate and evaluate a sightseeing navigation system in order to support foreign tourists’ efficient acquisition of sightseeing spot information in Japanese urban tourist areas, about which a variety of information is transmitted, by enabling information to be accumulated, shared and recommended. The system was developed by integrating Web-GIS (Geographic Information Systems), SNS (Social Networking Services) as well as the recommendation system into a single system. The system used the non-language information such as signs, marks and pictograms in addition to English information, and displayed sightseeing spot information and conduct navigation on 2D and 3D digital maps of the Web-GIS. Additionally, the system was operated for two weeks in the central part of Yokohama city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and the total number of users was 54. Based on the results of the web questionnaire survey, all of the specific functions are highly evaluated, and the usefulness of the system when sightseeing was excellent. From the results of the access analysis of users’ log data, it is evident that it can be said that the system was mainly used before sightseeing and users confirm their favorite sightseeing spots and made their tour planning in advance, using 2D and 3D digital maps
Multi-Dimensional-Personalization in mobile contexts
During the dot com era the word "personalisation” was a hot buzzword. With the fall of the dot com companies the topic has lost momentum. As the killer application for UMTS or the mobile internet has yet to be identified, the concept of Multi-Dimensional-Personalisation (MDP) could be a candidate.
Using this approach, a recommendation of mobile advertisement or marketing (i.e., recommendations or notifications), online content, as well as offline events, can be offered to the user based on their known interests and current location. Instead of having to request or pull this information, the new service concept would proactively provide the information and services – with the consequence that the right information or service could therefore be offered at the right place, at the right time.
The growing availability of "Location-based Services“ for mobile phones is a new target for the use of personalisation. "Location-based Services“ are information, for example, about restaurants, hotels or shopping malls with offers which are in close range / short distance to the user. The lack of acceptance for such services in the past is based on the fact that early implementations required the user to pull the information from the service provider. A more promising approach is to actively push information to the user. This information must be from interest to the user and has to reach the user at the right time and at the right place.
This raises new requirements on personalisation which will go far beyond present requirements. It will reach out from personalisation based only on the interest of the user. Besides the interest, the enhanced personalisation has to cover the location and movement patterns, the usage and the past, present and future schedule of the user. This new personalisation paradigm has to protect the user’s privacy so that an approach supporting anonymous recommendations through an extended "Chinese Wall“ will be described
The development and deployment of walkability assessment models for built environments
To encourage walking behavior, revising a built environment to be walkable is recognized as a necessity for influencing a broader audience while also having a long-term effect. Walkability, which indicates the friendliness of walking in a built environment, helps concerning parties to understand a urban context and make informative decisions when building walkable neighborhoods. Walkability is a fusion of different environment characteristics (e.g. sidewalk quality) influential to walking. Multiple instruments have been developed to measure perceived walkability by conducting surveys. However, this process is expensive and time-consuming. Matured GIS technologies together with extensive accessible data enable analysts to measure walkability objectively. While it is considerably inexpensive and time efficient, measuring walkability objectively has several challenging areas to tackle: the environmental characteristics to be considered, the methods to evaluate these characteristics, and the data availability to conduct the evaluation. To date, no existing model addresses those aspects appropriately.
This thesis has developed models to objectively evaluate walkability for neighborhoods and walking routes. Through examining empirical studies that explored the relationship between walking and environment characteristics, this thesis has identified a few characteristics that are influential to walking and incorporated them into the area based walkability evaluation model: population density, destination accessibility, land use mix, walking infrastructure quality, aesthetics, traffic safety and transit accessibility. The importance of these characteristics changes when targeting different walking purposes (recreational or transportation), population groups, geographic locations and cultural contexts. By weighing each characteristic accordingly, the model adapts to different study contexts. The weights should be adjusted based on expert knowledge or by benchmarking empirical studies conducted in similar contexts (e.g. similar urban setting). For evaluating walkability for walking routes, Dijkstra's algorithm is adopted to identify the walkable routes by minimizing the cost associated with the routes. This cost is defined by route distance, street type (e.g. highway, sidewalk), infrastructure quality and facilities along the routes.
As a case study, walkability is evaluated for the city of Helsinki. The implementation of the models has two purposes: 1) to provide a benchmark for analysts who intend to apply the model to other contexts, 2) to provide the environment quality information of Helsinki to concerning parties. Data processing, characteristics assessment, and walkability evaluation are described in detail to fulfill the first purpose. Secondly, a web application was developed to provide an accessible service for users to view the environment quality information including walkability. While walkability varies for individuals due to their personal preferences and needs, this service also allows customization by providing functionality to adjust weights of characteristics that are used to define walkability
The Innovation Interface: Business model innovation for electric vehicle futures
There is huge potential to link electric vehicles, local energy systems, and personal mobility in the city. By doing so we can improve air quality, tackle climate change, and grow new business models. Business model innovation is needed because new technologies and engineering innovations are currently far ahead of the energy system’s ability to accommodate them. This report explores new business models that can work across the auto industry, transport infrastructure and energy systems
Contribution to the kownledge of cultural heritage via a Heritage Information System (HIS): the case of “La Cultura del Agua” in Valverde de Burguillos, Badajoz (Spain)
Modern
science
is
going
through
a
period
of
important
reflection
on
the
role
of
different
agents
and
multiple
disciplines
in
the
management
and
safeguarding
of
architectural
heritage.
This
new
focus
generates
a
greater
amount
and
diversity
of
information,
so
the
implementation
of
a
unifying
tool
in
the
framework
of
digital
information
models
would
mean
a
better
knowledge
of
cultural
heritage
as
well
as
aiding
its
safeguarding
and
protection.
In
addition,
it
must
be
taken
into
account
that,
for
the
correct
management
of
information
in
its
broadest
dimension,
this
tool
must
make
it
possible
to
relate
alphanumeric
data
about
an
item
of
heritage
to
its
spatial
location.
In
this
sense,
this
article
proposes
a
Heritage
Information
System
(HIS)—understood
as
a
digital
knowledge
tool—that
consists
of
a
relational
database
and
a
map
manager
with
Geographic
Information
System
(GIS)
technology
(a
geodatabase).
The
methodology
suggested
here
sets
out
the
steps
that
make
up
the
HIS,
so
that
the
system
can
be
applied
to
other
geographical
elements
or
realities.
For
this
reason,
a
study
was
made
of
“La
Cultura
del
Agua”
in
Valverde
de
Burguillos
(Spain),
a
heritage
ensemble
that
consists
of
rural
architecture
and
dispersed
preindustrial
elements,
which
are
currently
at
risk.
The
HIS
seeks
to
develop
a
more
complete
identification
of
these
elements
(individually
and
as
a
system)
and
a
justified
argument
for
their
being
given
value
and
great
visibility.
This
new
approach
encourages
sustainable
development
in
terms
of
efficiency
and
effectiveness
for
the
analysis,
diagnosis,
and
reactivation
of
cultural
heritage,
always
placing
importance
on
the
balance
of
social
participation
with
the
territory
in
which
the
system
is
applied,
and
with
global
societ
CLOUD-BASED SOLUTIONS IMPROVING TRANSPARENCY, OPENNESS AND EFFICIENCY OF OPEN GOVERNMENT DATA
A central pillar of open government programs is the disclosure of data held by public agencies using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This disclosure relies on the creation of open data portals (e.g. Data.gov) and has subsequently been associated with the expression Open Government Data (OGD). The overall goal of these governmental initiatives is not limited to enhance transparency of public sectors but aims to raise awareness of how released data can be put to use in order to enable the creation of new products and services by private sectors.
Despite the usage of technological platforms to facilitate access to government data, open data portals continue to be organized in order to serve the goals of public agencies without opening the doors to public accountability, information transparency, public scrutiny, etc. This thesis considers the basic aspects of OGD including the definition of technical models for organizing such complex contexts, the identification of techniques for combining data from several portals and the proposal of user interfaces that focus on citizen-centred usability.
In order to deal with the above issues, this thesis presents a holistic approach to OGD that aims to go beyond problems inherent their simple disclosure by providing a tentative answer to the following questions:
1) To what extent do the OGD-based applications contribute towards the creation of innovative, value-added services?
2) What technical solutions could increase the strength of this contribution?
3) Can Web 2.0 and Cloud technologies favour the development of OGD apps?
4) How should be designed a common framework for developing OGD apps that rely on multiple OGD portals and external web resources?
In particular, this thesis is focused on devising computational environments that leverage the content of OGD portals (supporting the initial phase of data disclosure) for the creation of new services that add value to the original data.
The thesis is organized as follows. In order to offer a general view about OGD, some important aspects about open data initiatives are presented including their state of art, the existing approaches for publishing and consuming OGD across web resources, and the factors shaping the value generated through government data portals.
Then, an architectural framework is proposed that gathers OGD from multiple sites and supports the development of cloud-based apps that leverage these data according to potentially different exploitation roots ranging from traditional business to specialized supports for citizens.
The proposed framework is validated by two cloud-based apps, namely ODMap (Open Data Mapping) and NESSIE (A Network-based Environment Supporting Spatial Information Exploration). In particular, ODMap supports citizens in searching and accessing OGD from several web sites. NESSIE organizes data captured from real estate agencies and public agencies (i.e. municipalities, cadastral offices and chambers of commerce) in order to provide citizens with a geographic representation of real estate offers and relevant statistics about the price trend.A central pillar of open government programs is the disclosure of data held by public agencies using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This disclosure relies on the creation of open data portals (e.g. Data.gov) and has subsequently been associated with the expression Open Government Data (OGD). The overall goal of these governmental initiatives is not limited to enhance transparency of public sectors but aims to raise awareness of how released data can be put to use in order to enable the creation of new products and services by private sectors.
Despite the usage of technological platforms to facilitate access to government data, open data portals continue to be organized in order to serve the goals of public agencies without opening the doors to public accountability, information transparency, public scrutiny, etc. This thesis considers the basic aspects of OGD including the definition of technical models for organizing such complex contexts, the identification of techniques for combining data from several portals and the proposal of user interfaces that focus on citizen-centred usability.
In order to deal with the above issues, this thesis presents a holistic approach to OGD that aims to go beyond problems inherent their simple disclosure by providing a tentative answer to the following questions:
1) To what extent do the OGD-based applications contribute towards the creation of innovative, value-added services?
2) What technical solutions could increase the strength of this contribution?
3) Can Web 2.0 and Cloud technologies favour the development of OGD apps?
4) How should be designed a common framework for developing OGD apps that rely on multiple OGD portals and external web resources?
In particular, this thesis is focused on devising computational environments that leverage the content of OGD portals (supporting the initial phase of data disclosure) for the creation of new services that add value to the original data.
The thesis is organized as follows. In order to offer a general view about OGD, some important aspects about open data initiatives are presented including their state of art, the existing approaches for publishing and consuming OGD across web resources, and the factors shaping the value generated through government data portals.
Then, an architectural framework is proposed that gathers OGD from multiple sites and supports the development of cloud-based apps that leverage these data according to potentially different exploitation roots ranging from traditional business to specialized supports for citizens.
The proposed framework is validated by two cloud-based apps, namely ODMap (Open Data Mapping) and NESSIE (A Network-based Environment Supporting Spatial Information Exploration). In particular, ODMap supports citizens in searching and accessing OGD from several web sites. NESSIE organizes data captured from real estate agencies and public agencies (i.e. municipalities, cadastral offices and chambers of commerce) in order to provide citizens with a geographic representation of real estate offers and relevant statistics about the price trend
30th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases
Information modelling is becoming more and more important topic for researchers, designers, and users of information systems. The amount and complexity of information itself, the number of abstraction levels of information, and the size of databases and knowledge bases are continuously growing. Conceptual modelling is one of the sub-areas of information modelling. The aim of this conference is to bring together experts from different areas of computer science and other disciplines, who have a common interest in understanding and solving problems on information modelling and knowledge bases, as well as applying the results of research to practice. We also aim to recognize and study new areas on modelling and knowledge bases to which more attention should be paid. Therefore philosophy and logic, cognitive science, knowledge management, linguistics and management science are relevant areas, too. In the conference, there will be three categories of presentations, i.e. full papers, short papers and position papers
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