Final Project

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.