Geospatial images in the acquisition of spatial knowledge for wayfinding

Geospatial images such as maps and aerial photographs are important sources of spatial knowledge that people use for wayfinding. The rapid development of geodata acquisition and digital graphics has recently led to rather complete geographic coverage of both traditional and novel types of geospatial images. Divergent types of geospatial images vary in their support of human acquisition of spatial knowledge. However evaluative studies about the acquisition of spatial knowledge from the diversity of geospatial images have been rare. In this article we review a variety of literature about the acquisition of spatial knowledge while paying particular attention to the role of geospatial images. Based on the literature we present a framework of image parameters that characterize the acquisition of spatial knowledge from geospatial images: vantage point number of visible vertical features and visual realism. With the help of the framework we evaluate commonly used geospatial images. In concordance with the previous experiments our evaluation shows that the different types of geospatial images have large differences in the types of spatial knowledge they support and to what extent. However further experimentation is needed in order to better understand the human cognitive needs for geospatial images and to develop more useful geospatial images for wayfinding

Experiences from the Use of an Eye-Tracking System in the Wild

Eye-tracking systems have been widely used as a data collection method in the human–computer interaction research field. Eyetracking has typically been applied in stationary environments to evaluate the usability of desktop applications. In the mobile context, user studies with eye-tracking are far more infrequent. In this paper, we report our findings from user tests performed with an eye-tracking system in a forest environment. We present some of the most relevant issues that should be considered when planning a mobile study in the wild using eye-tracking as a data collection method. One of the most challenging finding was the difficulty in identifying where the user actually looked in the three-dimensional environment from the two-dimensional scene video. In a concrete matter that means it is difficult to assure whether the gaze is directed to an object short of the user or to a distant object that is partly occluded by the closer one.peerReviewe