Technology that automatically scales maps for mobile device users has won a TU Delft team lead by prof.dr. Peter van Oosterom this year’s Geo Information Award for science. They received a bronze sculpture earlier this month.
Oops! The heart of Holland just turned into one big blue lake. Fortunately it’s only a map on a screen and not a real inundation. Still, this demo clearly shows a difficulty in automatic scaling: the computer must decide how to simplify maps and merge areas when zooming out. Apparently, it doesn’t share our interpretation of blue.
Nonetheless, automatic scaling could be very useful for handheld mobile device users, as Professor Peter van Oosterom, of the OTB research institute, explains: “Imagine you’re driving through Amsterdam, looking for a place to park. On your mobile device you would actually see how many spaces are still available in the nearby parking garages. Also hotel telephone numbers, information about buses and trams, and even the latest news about a theatre performance in Carré could all be retrieved on the basis of one big geographical information infrastructure.”
Deriving all smaller scales from one basic registration is a dream as old as the first digitalisation of maps, some thirty years ago. Once your basic registration was filled in on a 1:1.000 scale, it seemed straightforward to derive smaller scales from it by just zooming out and skipping details. But it wasn’t. The confusion became so great that to this day the basic registration is based on geographic surveys using theodolites, while 1:10.000 maps are separately produced based on aerial photographs. The current practice not only means double work, but also leads to inconsistencies. “You might see a new neighbourhood in one scale, but as soon as you zoom in, it disappears if the other map hasn’t yet been updated,” Van Oosterom explains.
Current navigation systems use a fixed set of maps of various scales. If you zoom in, you might suddenly see more roads appear as the system switches over to the next map.
In contrast, the scale-less system, which Van Oosterom developed with research partners TNO and ITC, presents maps on any scale, but all based on the same basic data set. The advantages include consistent information over all scales, immediate updates on road or bridge closures and the coupling of service information on the basis of a geographical information system.
Among the 100 competitors in the RGI programme (Space for Geo Information), the jury awarded the science award to the OTB project RGI-233 Usable (and well scaled) mobile maps for consumers. Project leader Van Oosterom believes it was the combination of hard science and usability studies that won the jury over. The usability tests were performed by ITC and TNO and consisted of a detailed observation of someone trying to find his way using a navigation device. The hard science part includes the Tgap technology (topological generalised area partitioning), a combination of a data structure, algorithm and communication protocol for the simplification of maps when zooming out. It states what areas should be eliminated first (the smallest usually) and how they should be incorporated in the surroundings. It also defines how boundaries should be simplified. But the really hard part is how to decide which details are of interest and which can be omitted. Taking such decisions not only requires an understanding of the meaning of details (‘house’ instead of ‘red block’), but also of the importance to the user. A cyclist for instance has other interests than a car driver.
Whether this award-winning technology will lead to innovation is unclear. Map producers, like municipalities and mapping agencies, are generally interested in the technology and have participated in the research. But no telecom provider or mobile phone producer has joined the research consortium, much to Van Oosterom’s regret. Although scalable map technology offers potentially interesting benefits, it will require significant investment by the current providers. But as handheld devices are becoming the main medium for using maps, researchers at OTB and other institutes are working hard to make ‘maps-to-go’ even more powerful.
“Ik rook soms, tijdens het uitgaan. Sinds een jaar ongeveer. Mijn ouders weten dat ik het heel af en toe doe. Ze vinden het goed, want ze roken zelf ook. Ik merk wel dat er om me heen steeds meer studenten zijn die stoppen met deze slechte gewoonte. Als het niet meer mag, zoals in de cafés nu, moet je er echt moeite voor doen. Dat houdt ze tegen. Mensen die willen stoppen, kunnen het beste samen met iemand anders stoppen. Dat is veel makkelijker vol te houden.”
Oops! The heart of Holland just turned into one big blue lake. Fortunately it’s only a map on a screen and not a real inundation. Still, this demo clearly shows a difficulty in automatic scaling: the computer must decide how to simplify maps and merge areas when zooming out. Apparently, it doesn’t share our interpretation of blue.
Nonetheless, automatic scaling could be very useful for handheld mobile device users, as Professor Peter van Oosterom, of the OTB research institute, explains: “Imagine you’re driving through Amsterdam, looking for a place to park. On your mobile device you would actually see how many spaces are still available in the nearby parking garages. Also hotel telephone numbers, information about buses and trams, and even the latest news about a theatre performance in Carré could all be retrieved on the basis of one big geographical information infrastructure.”
Deriving all smaller scales from one basic registration is a dream as old as the first digitalisation of maps, some thirty years ago. Once your basic registration was filled in on a 1:1.000 scale, it seemed straightforward to derive smaller scales from it by just zooming out and skipping details. But it wasn’t. The confusion became so great that to this day the basic registration is based on geographic surveys using theodolites, while 1:10.000 maps are separately produced based on aerial photographs. The current practice not only means double work, but also leads to inconsistencies. “You might see a new neighbourhood in one scale, but as soon as you zoom in, it disappears if the other map hasn’t yet been updated,” Van Oosterom explains.
Current navigation systems use a fixed set of maps of various scales. If you zoom in, you might suddenly see more roads appear as the system switches over to the next map.
In contrast, the scale-less system, which Van Oosterom developed with research partners TNO and ITC, presents maps on any scale, but all based on the same basic data set. The advantages include consistent information over all scales, immediate updates on road or bridge closures and the coupling of service information on the basis of a geographical information system.
Among the 100 competitors in the RGI programme (Space for Geo Information), the jury awarded the science award to the OTB project RGI-233 Usable (and well scaled) mobile maps for consumers. Project leader Van Oosterom believes it was the combination of hard science and usability studies that won the jury over. The usability tests were performed by ITC and TNO and consisted of a detailed observation of someone trying to find his way using a navigation device. The hard science part includes the Tgap technology (topological generalised area partitioning), a combination of a data structure, algorithm and communication protocol for the simplification of maps when zooming out. It states what areas should be eliminated first (the smallest usually) and how they should be incorporated in the surroundings. It also defines how boundaries should be simplified. But the really hard part is how to decide which details are of interest and which can be omitted. Taking such decisions not only requires an understanding of the meaning of details (‘house’ instead of ‘red block’), but also of the importance to the user. A cyclist for instance has other interests than a car driver.
Whether this award-winning technology will lead to innovation is unclear. Map producers, like municipalities and mapping agencies, are generally interested in the technology and have participated in the research. But no telecom provider or mobile phone producer has joined the research consortium, much to Van Oosterom’s regret. Although scalable map technology offers potentially interesting benefits, it will require significant investment by the current providers. But as handheld devices are becoming the main medium for using maps, researchers at OTB and other institutes are working hard to make ‘maps-to-go’ even more powerful.
OTB just started a new minor, ‘3D virtual Earth’ programme, which is open to all students. Check 3dve.tudelft.nl
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