An algorithm for the selection of route dependent orientation information

Landmarks are important features of spatial cognition and are naturally included in human route descriptions. In the past algorithms were developed to select the most salient landmarks at decision points and automatically incorporate them in route instructions. Moreover, it was shown that human route descriptions contain a significant amount of orientation information, which support the users to orient themselves regarding known environmental information, and it was shown that orientation information support the acquisition of survey knowledge. Thus, there is a need to extend the landmarks selection to automatically select orientation information. In this work, we present an algorithm for the computational selection of route dependent orientation information, which extends previous algorithms and includes a salience calculation of orientation information for any location along the route. We implemented the algorithm and demonstrate the functionality based on OpenStreetMap data

The effects of different verbal route instructions on spatial orientation

Ponencias, comunicaciones y pósters presentados en el 17th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science "Connecting a Digital Europe through Location and Place", celebrado en la Universitat Jaume I del 3 al 6 de junio de 2014.Providing cognitively effective wayfinding instructions is an ongoing research agenda. In addition to providing instructions that are easy to follow, work has started to address instructions that can potentially facilitate spatial orientation and cognitive mapping. In this study, we use a type of verbal instructions that consists of not only landmarks at decision points but also additional landmarks along a route or in distance that are considered crucial for maintaining spatial orientation. The orientation-based route instructions are compared with machine-generated as well as skeletal instructions. Eleven participants were randomly assigned to use one of these three types of instructions to mentally walk a route that they are unfamiliar with and then performed a set of tasks. Preliminary results show that participants using the orientation instructions made fewest errors in their performance of direction estimation. Results from their drawn sketch maps also show more accuracy in global and local orientation. This type of instructions, not surprisingly, does not contribute to accurate estimation of distance. The machine-generated instructions which include distance information, however, are not found contributing to the best estimation of distance. This study supports the potentials of designing wayfinding instructions to facilitate spatial cognition. It also calls the necessity for more comprehensive studies on the effects of instructions on various aspects of wayfinding behaviors, as well as on the automatic generation of orientation-based instructions

Cognitively plausible representations for the alignment of sketch and geo-referenced maps

In many geo-spatial applications, freehand sketch maps are considered as an intuitive way to collect user-generated spatial information. The task of automatically mapping information from such hand-drawn sketch maps to geo-referenced maps is known as the alignment task. Researchers have proposed various qualitative representations to capture distorted and generalized spatial information in sketch maps, however thus far the effectiveness of these representations has not been evaluated in the context of an alignment task. This paper empirically evaluates a set of cognitively plausible representations for alignment using real sketch maps collected from two different study areas with the corresponding geo-referenced maps. Firstly, the representations are evaluated in a single-aspect alignment approach by demonstrating the alignment of maps for each individual sketch aspect. Secondly, representations are evaluated across multiple sketch aspects using more than one representation in the alignment task. The evaluations demonstrated the suitability of the chosen representation for aligning user-generated content with geo-referenced maps in a real-world scenario

Route schematization with landmarks

Predominant navigation applications make use of a turn-by-turn instructions approach and are mostly supported by small screen devices. This combination does little to improve users\u27 orientation or spatial knowledge acquisition. Considering this limitation, we propose a route schematization method aimed for small screen devices to facilitate the readability of route information and survey knowledge acquisition. Current schematization methods focus on the route path and ignore context information, specially polygonal landmarks (such as lakes, parks, and regions), which is crucial for promoting orientation. Our schematization method, in addition to the route path, takes as input: adjacent streets, point-like landmarks, and polygonal landmarks. Moreover, our schematic route map layout highlights spatial relations between route and context information, improves the readability of turns at decision points, and the visibility of survey information on small screen devices. The schematization algorithm combines geometric transformations and integer linear programming to produce the maps. The contribution of this paper is a method that produces schematic route maps with context information to support the user in wayfinding and orientation

Empirical characterisation of agents’ spatial behaviour in pedestrian movement simulation

Route choice behaviour is a key factor in determining pedestrian movement flows throughout the urban space. Agent-based modelling, a simulation paradigm that allows modelling individual behaviour mechanisms to observe the emergence of macro-level patterns, has not employed empirical data regarding route choice behaviour in cities or accommodated heterogeneity. The aim of this paper is to present an empirically based Agent-Based Model (ABM) that accounts for behavioural heterogeneity in pedestrian route choice strategies, to simulate the movement of pedestrians in cities. We designed a questionnaire to observe to what degree people employ salient urban elements (local and global landmarks, regions, and barriers) and road costs (road distance, cumulative angular change) and to empirically characterise the agent behaviour in our ABM. We hypothesised that a heterogeneous ABM configuration based on the construction of agent typologies from empirical data would portray a more plausible picture of pedestrian movement flows than a homogeneous configuration, based on the same data, or a random configuration. The city of Münster (DE) was used as a case study. From a sample of 301 subjects, we obtained six clusters that differed in relation to the role of global elements (distant landmarks, barriers, and regions) and meaningful local elements along the route. The random configuration directed the agents towards natural elements and the streets of the historical centre. The empirically based configurations resulted in lower pedestrian volumes along roads designed for cars (25% decrease) but higher concentrations along the city Promenade and the lake (40% increase); based on our knowledge, we deem these results more plausible. Minor differences were identified between the heterogeneous and homogeneous configurations. These findings indicate that the inclusion of heterogeneity does not make a difference in terms of global patterns. Yet, we demonstrated that simulation models of pedestrian movement in cities should be at least based on empirical data at the average sample-level to inform urban planners about areas prone to high volumes of pedestrians

Some Copepoda Parasitic on Fishes of the New Zealand Region

Material representing 38 species of parasitic Copepoda, Order Caligoida, from New Zealand marine fishes, belonging to 20 genera and six families is discussed. Except for Lepeophtheirus erecsoni Thomson, of which only damaged material was available, the species are described and figured in detail. Previous records from New Zealand waters are discussed. The name Caligus vicarius is proposed for C. longicaudatus Brady which is preoccupied. Species examined and their hosts are as follows (new hosts for previously known species, and previously known species newly recorded from New Zealand are marked with asterisks) - Caligidae: Caligus brevis Shiinox on Pseudolabrus pittensisx, P. milesx and P. celidotusx; C. aesopus Wilsonx on Seriola grandisx; C. pelamydis Kroyerx on Thyrsites atunx; C. buechlerae Hewitt on Tripterygion sp.; Lepeophtheirus erecsoni Thomson on Latridopsis ciliaris; L. scutiger Shiinox on Pseudolabrus pittensisx, P. milesx and P. celidotusx; L. insignis Wilsonx on Mola mola; L. polyprioni Hewitt on Polyprion oxygenios and P. moeone; L. argentus Hewitt on Hyperoglyphe porosa; L. heegaardi Hewitt on Lepidopus caudatus; L. distinctus Hewitt on Genypterus blacodes; Euyphoridae: Gloiopotes huttoni (Thomson) on Makaira mitsukurii and M. marlina; Elytrophora brachyptera Gerstaekerx on Thunnus alalunga and. T. maccoyix; Pandaridae: Nesippus orientalis Hellerx on Mustelus antarcticus and Notorhynchus pectorosusx; N. borealis (Steenstrup and Lutken)x on Isurus oxyrinchusx; Dinemoura latifolia Steenstrup and Lutken on Carcharodon carcharias, Isurus oxyrinchus and Galeorhinus australis; D. producta (Muller) on Cetorhinus maximus and Carcharodon carcharias; Demoleus latus Shiinox on Squalus acanthiasx; Echthrogaleus braccatus (Dana) on an unrecorded host; E. coleoptratus (Guerin)x on Prionace glauca and Lamna nasus; E. denticulatus Smith on an unrecorded host; Phyllothyreus cornutus (Milne-Edwards)x on Isurus oxyrinchus; Pandarus bicolor Leachx on Squalus acanthias, Galeorhinus australisx, Notorhynchus pectorosusx and Cyprimulus sp.x; P. cranchii Leach on Galeorhinus australisx and Isurus oxyrinchus; Perissopus dentatus Steenstrup and Lutkenx on a hammerhead shark; Cecropidae: Cecrops latreillii Leach on Mola mola; Eudactylinidae: Nemesis lamna Rissox on Carcharodon carcharias, Cetorhinus maximus and Isurus oxyrinchus; N. robusta (van Beneden)x on Alopias vulpinus; Congericola pallidus van Benedenx on Conger vereauxix Dichelesthiidae; Pseudocycnus appendiculatus Hellerx on Thunnus alalunga; a new species of Hatschekia on Allomycterus jaculiferus; a further new species of Hatschekia on Lepidopus caudatus; Anthosomidae: a new species of Pseudolernanthropus on Thyrsites atun and Jordanidia solandri; a new species of Lernanthropus on Seriolella brama; Aethon percis (Thomson) on Parapercis coelias; two new species of Aethon on Cheilodactylus macropterus and Latridopus caudatues; Anthosoma crassum (Abildgaard) on Carcharodon carcharias, Isurus oxyrinchus, Lamna nasus and Galeorhinus galeusx; this collection includes all species belonging to these families which have previously and reliably been recorded from New Zealand waters, and of which adequate descriptions exist. The similarities of the cephalic appendages of caligoid copepods to those of free living copepods is discussed. The biogeographical relationships of the species here recorded are considered and it is concluded that many of these species, particularly those parasitic on elasmobranchs, are widespread, and that many of those with apparently restricted distributions may become known from other regions, especially when the little investigated parasite faunas of fishes from the South Pacific and South Atlantic become more fully known; the hosts from which the present species have been recorded are compared; it is shown that species occurring on elasmobranchs are confined to this but show little host specificity within it; teleost parasites may be restricted to one host species, one host genus, one host family, or to host families with systematic or ecological affinities; Cecrops latreillii is unique among these parasites in occurring on three quite different and apparently unrelated host species

Are Psychological Variables Relevant to Evaluating Geoinformatics Applications? The Case of Landmarks (Vision Paper)

Interdisciplinary integration of spatial cognition and spatial computation promises to create better spatial technology based on findings from cognitive psychology experiments. Using the example of psychological studies and computational modelling of landmarks, this paper argues that core evaluation criteria of both disciplines are not well aligned with the goal of evaluating landmark-enhanced navigation support systems that support users in everyday wayfinding. The paper raises two points. First, it reviews evaluation criteria used in the interdisciplinary field of landmark research. It is argued that when to consider the role of landmark-enhanced navigation support systems in everyday life of their users, different evaluation criteria are needed. If strictly-psychological or strictly-computational criteria continue being prioritised by the community, we risk undervaluing significant technological contributions. Second, it proposes one such potential criterion: testing whether the cognitive task has changed due to equipping users with the new technology. This goal might be achieved at the expense of criteria typical to strictly-psychological studies (such as spatial memory of landmarks along the travelled route) or strictly-computational studies (such as efficiency and accuracy of a landmark-selection algorithm). Thus, promoting and implementing alternative evaluation criteria comes with methodological risks. In order to mitigate them we propose a process based on pre-registration of "postdiction" studies and hope to stimulate a further debate on a consensus-based approach in the community