Visualizing Sidewalk Information for People with Limited Mobilities; Cartographic Challenges and Requirements
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Mobasheri, A.; 2Bakillah, M.; 3Zipf, A.
1GISCIENCE RESEARCH GROUP, HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY Email: amin.mobasheri@geog.uni-heidelberg.de
2GISCIENCE RESEARCH GROUP, HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY
3GISCIENCE RESEARCH GROUP, HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY
Abstract
Visualization and analysis of network dataset is an important aspect in routing and navigation services which greatly help users in correctly understanding the region of interests in order to properly navigate from origin to destination. Currently, several studies have been done for mapping the main relevant object features (e.g. roads, buildings) in car navigation services based on cartographic standards. However, navigation services for people with limited mobility need special research attention in this area. For example, sidewalk information is crucial for Wheelchair navigation systems. A proper visualization method is required to be applied for mapping sidewalk network data in such a way that users would be able to understand various information of sidewalk geometry by looking to the map. Such information include sidewalk width, horizontal and vertical slope, surface texture etc. In this short paper, we present the research problem and objectives and identify a list of attributes for sidewalk geometry that are relevant for Wheelchair routing and navigation. In the next step, an overview of current mapping techniques that has been done for visualization of sidewalk information has been studied and based on our specific purpose and relevant sidewalk attributes, the advantages and disadvantages of each method as well as remaining challenges has been identified. Furthermore, we discuss these challenges and describe the future works in this topic that needs to be done in order to come up with a scientifically proven cartographic method specialized for this proposed topic.
Keywords
Geo-visualization, Cartography, Sidewalk, Wheelchair, Quality
