Automatic generation of tourist maps

ABSTRACT

Tourist maps are essential resources for visitors to an unfamiliar city because they visually highlight landmarks and other points of interest. Yet, hand-designed maps are static representations that cannot adapt to the needs and tastes of the individual tourist. In this paper we present an automated system for designing tourist maps that selects and highlights the information that is most important to tourists. Our system determines the salience of map elements using bottom-up vision-based image analysis and top-down web-based information extraction techniques. It then generates a map that emphasizes the most important elements, using a combination of multiperspective rendering to increase visibility of streets and landmarks, and cartographic generalization techniques such as simplification, deformation, and displacement to emphasize landmarks and de-emphasize less important buildings. We show a number of automatically generated tourist maps of San Francisco and compare them to existing automated and manual approaches.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.7 Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.5 On-line Information Services
          Subjects: Web-based services

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.3 Picture/Image Generation
  I.4 IMAGE PROCESSING AND COMPUTER VISION
      I.4.6 Segmentation
          Subjects: Edge and feature detection
      I.4.7 Feature Measurement

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Measurement

Keywords:
WWW applications, non-realistic rendering, visualization