Do you remember the last time you had to ask for the way? Have you been told to turn right after 250 meters? Probably not because people normally tend to remember landmarks to find their way.
The tangled ways to get around campus can be used to test landmark-based pedestrian navigation systems. The URWalking project appeals widely to our students.
Two participations at CeBIT testify to the very personal course of the URWalking
project.
(Information Science, UR)
In URroadworks, the scalability of the URWalking data model and the time required to make complex changes to the model at short notice are evaluated in a realistic scenario. In the coming years, the central part of the campus of the University of Regensburg will be renovated. The construction measures lead to constantly new closures of known paths, especially for handicapped persons.
As a countermeasure, people on closed paths are made aware of the campus navigation system by means of diversion signs with QR codes. As soon as a person has scanned a QR code, their position is known and they can be guided to their destination by URWalking. In the background, the navigation data in URWalking's data model is regularly checked and updated so that URWalking's navigation instructions are always up-to-date.
The usage data will later be used to empirically validate theories on the information behaviour of people in public spaces: what information needs arise from the construction site? Which system responses are helpful in which situation and why? How do users with local knowledge behave towards the unusual route instructions - will they try to find their own cutoffs? How do unfamiliar people behave?
(Information Science, UR) |
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Research Group
Geographical Information Science