Visualizing the results of interactive queries for geographic data on mobile devices

ABSTRACT

The capabilities of current mobile computing devices such as PDAs and mobile phones are making it possible to design and develop mobile GIS applications that provide users with geographic data management and cartographic presentations in the field. However, research on how to properly support users who interact with geographic data on mobile devices is still lacking. In this paper, we present an approach to geographic data analysis that allows users to exploit interactive dynamic queries as a technique for filtering geographic information. Moreover, the proposed approach displays the results of queries through visualizations that are aimed at facing the screen estate problem typical of mobile devices. We will show how this approach can be applied to different domains by illustrating two examples of its application: (i) a decision support tool that allows tourists to search for points of interest (e.g., hotels, restaurants,...) that best satisfy their preferences and (ii) a tool allowing users to retrieve information about soil properties in a geographic area to meet a number of user's constraints.

REFERENCES

• 1: Michelin Guide for PDAs, http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/gbr/tpl/psg/produits/htm/pda_guide_michelin.htm.
• 2: OpenGIS Consortium, Geography Markup Language, http://www.opengis.net/gml/.
• 3: World Wide Web Consortium, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 Specification, http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/.
• 4: Gregory D. Abowd , Christopher G. Atkeson , Jason Hong , Sue Long , Rob Kooper , Mike Pinkerton, Cyberguide: a mobile context-aware tour guide, Wireless Networks, v.3 n.5, p.421-433, Oct. 1997 [doi>10.1023/A:1019194325861]
• 5: Maneesh Agrawala , Chris Stolte, Rendering effective route maps: improving usability through generalization, Proceedings of the 28th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.241-249, August 2001 [doi>10.1145/383259.383286]
• 6: Christopher Ahlberg , Ben Shneiderman, The alphaslider: a compact and rapid selector, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: celebrating interdependence, p.365-371, April 24-28, 1994, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/191666.191790]
• 7: Christopher Ahlberg , Ben Shneiderman, Visual information seeking: tight coupling of dynamic query filters with starfield displays, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: celebrating interdependence, p.313-317, April 24-28, 1994, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/191666.191775]
• 8: Christopher Ahlberg , Staffan Truvé, Exploring terra incognita in the design space of query devices, Proceedings of the IFIP TC2/WG2.7 Working Conference on Engineering for Human-Computer Interaction, p.49-68, August 01, 1995
• 9: Christopher Ahlberg , Christopher Williamson , Ben Shneiderman, Dynamic queries for information exploration: an implementation and evaluation, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.619-626, May 03-07, 1992, Monterey, California, United States [doi>10.1145/142750.143054]
• 10: J. Baus, K. Cheverst, and C. Kray. A survey of map-based mobile guides. In Map-based mobile services -- Theories, Methods, and Implementations, pages 197--216. Springer-Verlag, 2005.
• 11: N. C. Brady and R. R. Weil. The Nature and Properties of Soils. Prentice Hall, 2001.
• 12: S. Burigat, L. Chittaro, and L. De Marco. Bringing dynamic queries to mobile devices: a visual preference-based search tool for tourist decision support. In Proc. IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT), 2005, in press.
• 13: Dan Chalmers , Morris Sloman , Naranker Dulay, Map adaptation for users of mobile systems, Proceedings of the 10th international conference on World Wide Web, p.735-744, May 01-05, 2001, Hong Kong, Hong Kong [doi>10.1145/371920.372193]
• 14: Keith Cheverst , Nigel Davies , Keith Mitchell , Adrian Friday, Experiences of developing and deploying a context-aware tourist guide: the GUIDE project, Proceedings of the 6th annual international conference on Mobile computing and networking, p.20-31, August 06-11, 2000, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/345910.345916]
• 15: J. Dillemuth. Map Design for Mobile Displays. In Proc. AutoCarto 2005, 2005.
• 16: M. Dunlop, A. Morrison, S. McCallum, P. Ptaskinski, C. Risbey, and F. Stewart. Focussed palmtop information access combining starfield displays and profile-based recommendations. In Proc. Mobile HCI Workshop on Mobile and Ubiquitous Information Access, pages 79--89. Springer-Verlag, 2003.
• 17: Ken Fishkin , Maureen C. Stone, Enhanced dynamic queries via movable filters, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.415-420, May 07-11, 1995, Denver, Colorado, United States [doi>10.1145/223904.223960]
• 18: G. Gartner and S. Uhlirz. Cartographic Concepts for Realizing a Location Based UMTS Service: Vienna City Guide Lol@. In Proc. Cartographic Conference, pages 3229--3239, 2001.
• 19: M. Hampe, K.-H. Anders, and M. Sester. MRDB Applications for Data Revision and Real-Time Generalisation. In Proc. Cartographic Conference, pages 192--202, 2003.
• 20: L. Harrie, L. T. Sarjakoski, and L. Lehto. A variable-scale map for small-display cartography. In Proc. Symposium on GeoSpatial Theory, Processing, and Applications, pages 8--12, 2002.
• 21: A. M. MacEachren and M.-J. Kraak. Research Challenges in Geovisualization. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 28(1):1--12, 2001.
• 22: F. Nissen, A. Hvas, J. Munster-Swendsen, and L. Brodersen. Small - Display Cartography. In GiMoDig D3.1.1 (Public Deliverable), 2003.
• 23: S. Poslad, H. Laamanen, R. Malaka, A. Nick, P. Buckle, and A. Zipf. CRUMPET: Creation of user-friendly mobile services personalised for tourism. In Proc. Conference on 3G Mobile Communication Technologies, pages 26--29, 2001.
• 24: Pearl Huan Z. Pu , Pratyush Kumar, Evaluating example-based search tools, Proceedings of the 5th ACM conference on Electronic commerce, May 17-20, 2004, New York, NY, USA [doi>10.1145/988772.988804]
• 25: U. Rauschenbach, S. Jeschke, and H. Schumann. General Rectangular FishEye Views for 2D Graphics. Computers and Graphics, 25(4):609--617, 2001.
• 26: T. Reichenbacher. SVG for Adaptive Visualisations in Mobile Situations. In Proc. Conference on Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG Open), 2002.
• 27: B. Schmidt-Belz, H. Laamanen, S. Poslad, and A. Zipf. Location-based Mobile Tourist Services: First User Experiences. In Proc. Conference for Information and Communication Technologies in Travel & Tourism (ENTER), pages 115--123. Springer-Verlag, 2003.
• 28: M. Sester and C. Brenner. Continuous Generalization for Visualization on Small Mobile Devices. In Proc. Conference on Spatial Data Handling, pages 469--480. Springer-Verlag, 2004.
• 29: Ben Schneiderman, Dynamic Queries for Visual Information Seeking, IEEE Software, v.11 n.6, p.70-77, November 1994 [doi>10.1109/52.329404]
• 30: R. Spence. Information Visualization. Addison-Wesley & ACM Press, 2001.
• 31: Christopher Williamson , Ben Shneiderman, The dynamic HomeFinder: evaluating dynamic queries in a real-estate information exploration system, Proceedings of the 15th annual international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval, p.338-346, June 21-24, 1992, Copenhagen, Denmark [doi>10.1145/133160.133216]
• 32: A. Zipf. User-Adaptive Maps for Location-Based Services (LBS) for Tourism. In Proc. Conference for Information and Communication Technologies in Travel & Tourism (ENTER). Springer-Verlag, 2002.
• 33: A. Zipf and R. Malaka. Developing Location Based Services for Tourism - The Service Providers View. In Proc. Conference for Information and Communication Technologies in Travel & Tourism (ENTER), pages 83--92. Springer-Verlag, 2001.
• 34: A. Zipf and K.-F. Richter. Using Focus Maps to Ease Map Reading: Developing Smart Applications for Mobile Devices. Kunstliche Intelligenz, 4:35--37, 2002.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Graphical user interfaces (GUI)

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Screen design (e.g., text, graphics, color); Interaction styles (e.g., commands, menus, forms, direct manipulation)

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors

Keywords:
GIS, dynamic queries, mobile devices, visualization