MINDROAD

Route Memory Support System using a Smart Phone

Taiki Ueno and Michiaki Yasumura

School of Media and Governance, Keio University, 5322 Endo, Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa, 252-0882, Japan

Keywords: Map, Google maps, Photo, Smart phone, GPS, Memory, Distance, Route.

Abstract: Ideally, when one is going to a destination when knows how to get there. But, even if one doesn’t know the

way in detail, having a sense of the direction and roughly how to get there is very helpful. One can also ask

for directions from other people or use tools such as maps and navigation systems. However, there is always

a risk of getting lost, getting given the wrong directions, or having a tool be unavailable (e.g., because a

Website is down or a device runs out of batteries). Thus knowing the way to destinations is useful

knowledge. In this research, we have developed a prototype system that helps users memorize the route to

their destination more easily. With this system, the user first taps the starting point and the goal point in the

map on a smart phone. Then, the route is shown, and views of important waypoints such as major

intersections are reproduced continuously. In addition, we propose a method for automatically detecting

routes that users often pass, as well as similar routes to the current one.

1 INTRODUCTION

In general, when one moves to an unfamiliar

destination on foot, one often consults a map in

advance and/or consults a map intermittently while

going to the destination. For consulting maps, many

convenient tools exist, such as Google Maps and

Google Street View. However, people with a poor

sense of direction may have difficulty using such

tools. In addition, these tools do not make it easy to

memorize the routes to destinations in advance.

Even if one has studied the route carefully, when

actually walking in the route to the destination, you

may experience uncertainty about whether one is on

the right road or has made the right turn. Even when

following a map, if one makes a mistake, or

confuses one landmark for another, it can be very

difficult to recover from the error and get back on

track. There may be a mismatch between

information on a map and the landmarks that you

have stored internally, and you may confuse

distances based on an incorrect sense of scale on the

map. Similar things can happen even if you are

walking while actually looking the map. If you use

Google Street View, it might be easy to figure out

where to go next when one has the right view, but it

may be difficult or time consuming to find the view

that is needed.

In addition, there are the way-finding mobile

navigation systems that based on GPS. However,

such systems have problems, for example, people

can’t move smoothly to the destination (Ishikawa, et

al., 2008).

People who have lost their way may not be able

to access a cognitive map in their own brain

(

Shingaki, 1998). Using tools like maps, to the extent

that it externalizes the way-finding task, is unlikely

to encourage the development of route memory.

Training is needed to build cognitive maps (Sadalla

and Montello, 1989).

In order to facilitate formation of cognitive maps

we have developed a prototype system, called

MindRoad that helps people memorize the route to a

destination more easily. In this system, the user first

taps the starting point and the goal point in the map

of a smart phone. Then, the route is shown, and

views of important waypoints such as major

intersections are reproduced continuously. In

addition, we propose a method for automatically

detecting routes that users often pass, as well as

similar routes to the current one.

2 RELATED WORK

In one way-finding system, the system provides rou-

306

Ueno T. and Yasumura M..

MINDROAD - Route Memory Support System using a Smart Phone.

DOI: 10.5220/0003399503060308

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Pervasive and Embedded Computing and Communication Systems (PECCS-2011), pages

306-308

ISBN: 978-989-8425-48-5

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

te guidance, and an augmented reality view is

displayed on the Google Street View (Tokusho and

Feiner, 2009). The system supports the route guide

by a smart phone.

In another approach, the system presented that

uses images of user’s place maps taken with a GPS-

enhanced mobile camera phone as background maps

for on-the-fly navigation tasks (Schöning et al.,

2009).

Moreover, the user uses a special device called

the Active Belt which indicates the direction that

should be taken through vibration (Tsukada and

Yasumura, 2004). Uses follow the directions

indicated by the direction of vibration to reach the

destination.

Recently, a system that helps people meet up at a

common location has been proposed for a smart

phone device to be carried and consulted while

moving to the destination (William, et al., 2010). In

our research we are taking an alternate approach of

strengthening route memory prior to actually going

to the destination.

3 PROPOSAL OF MINDROAD

This section explains the concept and the

implementation of our prototype system.

3.1 System Design

In this research the use case involves searching for

the route to a destination in advance of actually

going to the destination. We propose a system that

supports the memory of the route, and we have

developed a prototype to test the concept. This

system operates according to the following

procedures.

(1) The map around the destination is displayed on a

smart phone.

(2) When you tap on the map, the starting point is

set.

(3) Afterwards, when you tap on the map, the goal

point is set.

(4) The route from the starting point to the goal

point is shown in the map.

(5) At the same time, the image of the starting point,

the turning points on the way, and the goal point is

continuously reproduced and is shown to the user.

The images are presented by using the Google Street

View.

As mentioned above, the system supports the

development of route awareness when the map of

the destination is examined in advance by

continuously reproducing the views showing the

landmarks. The system allows mental images to be

associated with locations on the route.

3.2 Implementation

We implemented the system by JavaScript. The

system acquires the map information and the

location information by using Google Maps API.

The latitude and longitude of the starting point and

the goal point where the user tapped on the map is

acquired. The system infers the route by using the

latitude and longitude of the starting point and the

goal point. And the system then presents the route

on map. After this, the system acquires the latitude

and longitude of each corner in the route to construct

a set of landmarks. Views acquired from the Google

Street View API, corresponding to locations on the

route, are then shown as the route is followed. The

view of each position is displayed for three seconds

in the current version of the system. The views are

displayed in order from the starting point to the goal

point.

Figure 1 is an example of the display when the

route from Kyoto Station to Nishi-Hongan-ji, in

Kyoto city in Japan. A smart phone in the

photograph in Figure 1 is HTC Desire Android

phone.

Figure 1: Capture Image of the System.

MINDROAD - Route Memory Support System using a Smart Phone

307

3.3 Future Work

In this paper, we presented a system developed to

supports route awareness by helping people to link

street views to locations along a route. The future,

we will develop when using the system, the roads

that the user passed are preserved in a local data

base used by GPS information on the smart phone.

Afterwards, when the user goes to the destination the

system compares the current route with past data,

and a similar route to the past route is presented.

Figure 2 shows the mechanism by which a similar

route is acquired. First, the system store the way

where the user walk usually, used GPS log. The

system use that GPS log information, and when the

user newly search the destination, the system

presents the way that looks like the destination well.

Figure 2: Mechanism for Finding a Similar Route.

4 DISCUSSION

While navigation systems using GPS information

have evolved rapidly, the perfect navigation system

has yet to be invented. Thus maintaining a good sen-

se of direction remains a useful skill.

People with a poor sense of direction tend not to

routinely memorize landmark and corner

information (Shingaki, 1998). The system described

in this paper shows continuous views along a route

that are linked to corresponding locations. Using the

system users can develop mental images of the

route, which should strengthen their route memory.

5 CONCLUSIONS

There are many useful systems such as Google Maps

and Google Street View which help people walk to

destinations. But, it is not easy to memorize the way

to a destination prior to departure. To solve this

problem, we have developed a new navigation

system which shows users the direction and also

continuously shows views of important points (such

as turns) along the way by tapping the starting point

and goal point on a smart phone. In addition, the

system also helps route memory by searching for

similar routes that the person has walked previously,

and showing them at the same time. Using our

system, users can memorize the route easily.

In future research, we will compare the user of

this system with the use of Google Map and Google

Street View. In addition, future research may

examine how use of the system supports the

development of mental images in the brain.

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