Topological Consistent Generalization of OpenStreetMap

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Preliminary Results of a Spatial Analysis of Dublin City’s Bike Rental Scheme

We present some initial observations on the usage and flow patterns of the DublinBikes (DB) bicycle rental scheme across Dublin city. In September 2009 Dublin City in conjunction with outdoor advertising company JC Decaux made 450 bicycles publicly available from 40 locations around the city in a scheme called DublinBikes (DB). Cycling, as a commuting mode forms an important part of the Irish Government's Transport policy for Ireland up to 2020 stating that "a culture of cycling will be developed by 2020 to envisage around 160,000 people cycling for their daily commute, up from 35,000 in 2006"(DOT, 2009). We follow Froehlich et al (2008) who find usage patterns from these bike rental schemes can "infer cultural and geographical aspects of the city and predict future bike station usage behaviour" when combined with geographical information and local knowledge. Data captured on DB and presented in this paper covers the period of September 20th 2009 to February 15th 2010 inclusive

Complementary texture and intensity gradient estimation and fusion for watershed segmentation

In this paper, we identify two current challenges associated with watershed segmentation algorithms which attempt to fuse the visual cues of texture and intensity. The first challenge is that most existing techniques use a competing gradient set which does not allow boundaries to be defined in terms of both visual cues. The second challenge is that these techniques fail to account for the spatial uncertainty inherent in texture gradients. We present a watershed segmentation algorithm which provides a suitable solution to both these challenges and minimises the spatial uncertainty in boundary localisation. This is achieved by a novel fusion algorithm which uses morphological dilation to integrate intensity and texture gradients.Aquantitative and qualitative evaluation of results is provided demonstrating that our algorithm outperforms three existing watershed algorithms

Topological Consistent Generalization of OpenStreetMap

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Effective Vector Data Transmission and Visualization Using HTML5

In this paper we evaluate the potential of the next major revision of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), that is HTML5, to provide an effective platform for the transmission and visualization of vector based geographical data. Relative to the current version of HTML, HTML 4.01, HTML5 offers an improved platform to perform these tasks through greater interoperability with existing technologies and the introduction of many new API’s. Visualization of vector data can be achieved using the new methods of inline-SVG and the Canvas API. An analysis of the pros and cons of each method is presented. HTML5 introduces a novel WebSocket API which defines a full-duplex communication channel between client and server. This provides improved data communication both in terms of bandwidth utilization and network latency relative to existing push technologies. To demonstrate the effectiveness of HTML5 for vector data delivery a novel selective progressive transmission methodology is implemented using the WebSocket and Canvas API’s

Polygon Processing on OpenStreetMap XML Data

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Integrating Haptic Feedback to Pedestrian Navigation Applications

The development of a haptic-feedback enabled mobile application for pedestrian routing is described. One of the challenges presented to users of pedestrian navigation applications on mobile devices is the requirement that the user continuously interacts with the visual interface on the mobile device. Haptic feedback or haptics, is a technology that uses forced feedback, vibrations and/or motions to the user which are interpreted using our sense of touch. The haptic user interface, in our application, on a mobile device provides unobtrusive feedback in the form of vibration alarms to assist the user in navigating from one point to the other. The user can hold the mobile device discretely in their hand without the need to view the screen. For spatial data the OpenStreetMap (OSM) database is used while the Cloudmade routing API is used as the routing engine

Polygon Processing on OpenStreetMap XML Data

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A flexible model for haptic-assisted pedestrian navigation mobile applications

Pedestrian navigation applications, specifically for mobile devices, have received much research and development attention over the past decade or so with many different types of solutions developed (Kenteris et al.; 2011). The most common interface is a map-based interface with written and/or verbal turn-by-turn directions (possibly including landmark information). Haptic technology, or haptics, is a tactile feedback technology that takes advantage of our sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, and/or motions to the user (Nakao et al.; 2010). The potential of haptic technology has only recently started to receive the attention of the research community (Jacob et al.; 2010). In mobile devices haptic-feedback is delivered in the form of vibrations which can be programmatically controlled using the phone software API. In this paper we describe a simple, flexible, model for the integration of haptic feedback into pedestrian navigation applications on mobile devices. A constraint is that the mobile device must have an onboard GPS and compass. The vibration motor on the mobile device must also be capable of being controlled from software running on the device itself. Our model allows a “heads up” approach to pedestrian navigation with the mobile device where the user is not required to keep looking down to check the screen of the mobile device. For testing purposes text-based navigation assistance is provided in conjunction with the haptic-feedback on the device screen in our prototype implementation. Three distinct modes of vibration of the device are used to provide haptic feedback to the user