Landmark-based pedestrian navigation from collections of geotagged photos

ABSTRACT

Mobile phones are an attractive platform for landmark-based pedestrian navigation systems. To be practical, such a system must be able to automatically generate lightweight directions that can be displayed on these mobile devices. We present a system that leverages an online collection of geotagged photographs to automatically generate navigational instructions. These are presented to the user as a sequence of images of landmarks augmented with directional instructions. Both the landmark selection and image augmentation are done automatically. We present a user study that indicates these generated directions are beneficial to users and suggest areas for future improvement.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.1 Multimedia Information Systems

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)

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.1 Public Policy Issues

General Terms:
Experimentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
assistive technologies, location applications, mobile applications, user studies, visual navigation