Introduction
Google map can afford city or
country’s road information, but it couldn’t afford small area’s information (figure
1).
In daily life, people will visit some mico-regions such
as university, tourist
attractions and superstores. But maybe people only has paper map when
they visit these places. Although the paper map is very economic, it
cannot
let people find their destinations
quickly. For example, in China, there are
lots of residential districts, they are
so large and some layouts of them are a little bit complicated for
people (figure 2). When
people first come to these areas and want to find the building they want to go,
it is confused for them without helping.
Figure 1 Google map
Figure
2 a residential district in
Wenzhou,
China
When I arrived
at UL first time, I only had a paper map (figure 3). This
map has different numbers to represent different buildings. When I look for a building, I need find
the building name from left side and then look for the number on the map. For
this process, I have to spend long time to find a place. When
we have
some lectures, the professor will email and tell us
when and where to have this lecture.
If this lecture will hold out
of the CSIS building
or hold in the building where
I am not familiar with, I need to look for it before I go there. Besides
this, the paper map al so does
not have the realistic picture of the
building what cannot let people
recognize the building immediately. Sometimes
when I walk in the campus, there are some new students asking me where is the
reception office or how
to go to the students’
villages. Although there is a paper
map in UL bus station and campus, some new guys still feel
difficult to find way to their destinations.
Not just for me, I think everybody will have the same feeling with me
when they arrive at a new place. So
I want to design an area map to help people.
Figure 3 the paper map
of UL
Figure 4 the view
of UL
My idea
This kind of new
map not only needs new interface but also the exterior. As
it will be put in the
public places like UL bus
station, library, the main building, kami business school and so on. The
exterior
of the machine should be simple and small.
For the interface, I would like to use 3D model to stimulate the geographic diagram of UL.
The outside of the machine
The exterior of
the machine likes a small ATM
(figure 5). The height is not
very tall because it
needs to consider the disabled people. I also
design
the outside exterior of the machine (figure 8). It will protect the machine from rainy.
Figure
5 the exterior
Figure 6 the right
side of the machine
Figure
7 the height of the machine
Figure
8 when put outside
The interface of the map
As for the
interface, I design it as simple as possible. On the left
of the screen is the UL map;
on the right side is a bar column where
has location information, input and search boxes (figure
9).
Figure
9 the interface sketch
When user input the
destination’s name, the interface will show user’s
location and then tell them the closest route
to the destination. For example, I want to go to CSIS building,
the interface first tell me where I am now, then after I input CSIS building
the system will show me the route (figure
10). On the right
side, it will tell me how far I get to CSIS building
(figure 11).
Figure
10 go to CSIS building
Figure 11 the right bar
column (the data is not correct)
|
This machine also can search the route of
different buildings. For instance,
I want to check how can I go yo foundation building from CSIS building (figure 12). I just input these two buildings’ name in input and search box
and
then I can get the information.
Figure 12
the route for different buildings
Figure
13 the distance data
Beyond that, I want to add a message
function which connects with
smartphone.
If users
want to save the route information or want to have UL electric map, they
just input their phone numbers in the input box which is on bottom
of the right side, and then
they could receive the
message.
Figure 14 input
phone
number and then user could
receive the message
The model of the map
To design this map, I
need to create geographic model diagram of UL at first. For this part, the first method is to use Sketch Up to build the
model (figure 15). To
build UL map, I need all of the buildings’
locations and UL
geographic data. For now,
I just try to use paper map’s
data information—build these buildings with equal
proportion. And users can zoom
in or zoom out the map view. When users
input the name of the building, model building will occur a live action
for them, which could let users
easy to identify when
they arrive at the
destination.
Figure
15 the building model example of Sketch Up
Figure
16 the paper map of UL
The second method is to
use Google map picture data or Mapinfo data. The
most important and difficult part is the code.
Google map has its own mature code system and I never learn code before. So I want to use Mapinfo software to build it. MapInfo
Professional is a desktop geographic
information system (GIS) software product produced by Pitney
Bowes
Software and used
for mapping and location analytics. MapInfo allows users to visualise, analyse,
edit, interpret,
understand and output data to
reveal relationships, patterns, and trends. MapInfo allows users to
explore spatial data within a dataset, symbolise features, and create maps (Wiki 2014).
Figure 17 the interface of Mapinfo 1
Figure 18 the interface of Mapinfo 2
Conclusion
Sum up, this kind of map will help with people looking for their
destination in small area. User could
use
this electric map conveniently. And
it also can send map information to user’s phone. It can be used in university, tourist
attractions
and superstores.
