Basiri, Anahid, Winstanley, Adam C. and Amirian, Pouria (2013) Landmark-based pedestrian navigation. In: 21st GIS Research UK (GISRUK) conference, 3-5 April 2013, University of Liverpool.
Preview
AW_Landmark-based.pdf
Download (319kB) | Preview
Abstract
Car navigation has become one of the most widely used examples of Location-Based Services
(LBSs). However current car navigation systems are not fully suitable for the navigational
needs of pedestrians mainly because walkers are not as restricted as car drivers. Pedestrians
can easily go into a building or underground to get to their destination where GPS signals are
unavailable. Seamless indoor and outdoor navigation is one of the most important features
which should be handled in a pedestrian navigation application.
Another aspect of pedestrian navigation which is not applicable to car navigation are
alternatives to turn-by-turn navigational instruction delivery. In contrast with drivers,
pedestrians have a higher degree of freedom in their movements. They are not constrained by
road networks (for example vehicle lanes, turn restrictions, one-way streets) and can walk in
places where vehicles are not allowed to move, such as squares, parks, grasslands or
pedestrian malls, which can be traversed freely in any direction. As current turn-by-turn
navigational instructions to be given to vehicle drivers are mostly based on graph-based or
street network-based algorithms, this way of navigating is not fully suitable for pedestrians as
they do not only move on streets.
In both of these challenges for useful pedestrian navigation systems, seamless indoor/outdoor
positioning and non-turn-by-turn navigational instructions, other information such as the use
of landmarks can be helpful. It is possible to calculate the position of a user based on
proximity to known landmarks. Their relative position can be sensed using wireless systems,
ultrasound, dead-reckoning and inertial sensors as well as conventional GPS. Landmark
extraction can be performed manually or semi-automatically using conventional cartographic
data-capture techniques or using technologies such as aerial image processing or laser
scanning. Since landmarks can be detected and labelled both indoors and outdoors, it is
possible to use them with users’ locations seamlessly.
Several researchers in the field of spatial cognition assert that navigating humans rely on three
forms of spatial knowledge: landmark, route and survey knowledge (Siegel, 1975), (Werner,
1997). Exploring an unfamiliar environment, pedestrians first notice outstanding objects or
structures at fixed locations. These unique objects or places are easy to recognize and can be
kept in memory without difficulty (Millonig, 2005). The importance of landmarks for
pedestrian navigation and wayfinding instructions has been demonstrated (Michon, 2001),
(Tom, 2003), (Lovelace, 1999), (Raubal, 2002).
If landmark data is stored in a spatial database, it is possible to provide users with
navigational instructions landmark-by-landmark rather than turn-by-turn. A landmark-based
navigation service would provide users with navigational instructions of the form “turn right
when see Tower A”, and “go straight on passing by Statue B. whenever they approach each
landmark. One of the most important advantages of landmark-based navigation is that it
makes the pedestrian sure that they are on the correct route, since they can see the very
landmark which was used as a part of navigational instruction. Also this approach is more
compatible for tourists and visitors. It is possible to add some attribute data or images of
landmarks while navigating, so they will see more while visiting an area in addition to being
directed.
In order to implement our model, the campus of National University of Maynooth was
considered. Buildings and important features, such as sports pitches and library were stored
in a spatial database as outdoor landmarks. In addition, indoor landmarks such as main
entrances and geo-tagged wall features (notice-boards etc.) were stored as indoor landmarks.
All the landmarks were modelled with polygonal shapes, four pictures were captured and
also attributes such as the name in English, name in Irish, land use and description were
collected and stored in a spatial database. After locating the user, navigational instructions
are provided using a description and pictures of the nearest landmark on the pre-calculated
route. To select a picture of each landmark, the direction of user movement is used to find the
most similar to the view the user has.
Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
---|---|
Additional Information: | Research presented in this paper was funded by a Strategic Research Cluster grant (07/SRC/I1168) by Science Foundation Ireland under the National Development Plan. The authors gratefully acknowledge this support. |
Keywords: | Navigation Services; Landmark; Path finding; Pedestrian Navigation; Seamless positioning; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Science and Engineering > Computer Science |
Item ID: | 4975 |
Depositing User: | Dr. Adam Winstanley |
Date Deposited: | 21 May 2014 15:57 |
Refereed: | No |
Funders: | Science Foundation Ireland |
URI: | https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/4975 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
Repository Staff Only (login required)
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year