Program for building routes through sidewalks in Moscow
Contents
Introduction
.
Main guidelines working with maps
.
Project requirements
.
Results description
a lot of people in manycities all
over the world face transport problem. More and more families can afford a
personal car so number of cars in huge cities rises dramatically from year to
year. As a result in rush hours people stuck in traffic jams which also serve
as an obstacle for public transport functioning. In cities with subways this
means of transport is often overcrowded and uncomfortable for visiting in rush
hours like early morning and evening. These are the reasons why in many huge
cities people prefer to use alternative means of transport.term “alternative
means of transport” means “commuting in any way other than driving alone.
Examples include biking, walking, carpooling, and taking public
transportation.” [1] In this paper attention will be paid mostly to
non-motorized alternative means of transport with small (up to 20 cm in
diameter) wheels. While fordrivers of most bicycles with standard-size wheels
(26 inches) quality of theroad surface is not that important, drivers of
non-motorized means of transport with small wheels may have serious
difficulties with diving through, for example, tiled roads (because of its
unsmooth surface).into account these facts it is possible to say that for most
of drivers of non-motorized means of transport with small wheels is is
important to know if some road areas are not comfortable for driving. To be
precise these drivers pay attention to the surface of sidewalks along roads
than to the surface of the roads themselves because pedestrian areas are more
suitable for riding means of transport with small-size wheels. The problem is
that there are no map services that can provide information about the quality
of the sidewalks surface and in case if a person knows some city area badly
then it’s impossible to choose a route that goes through only sidewalks with
smooth surface. This paper is dedicated to description of a program for
building routes through sidewalks in Moscow taking into account quality of the
road surface.
. Main guidelines of working with
maps
can be described as a collection of
graphic guidelines, including a number of technologies and scientific and
artistic approaches which are needed to create the maps. Cartography as a
science was born and perfected long before first PC, mobile devices and GIS technologies
appeared. However, during the development of this science, which is still
ongoing, many new important developments were made, for example, the theory of
visual symbols for variables Jack Bertin: their size, values, textures, colors,
lines and forms. The idea of his theory is based on the principle of visual
distinction of one character from another, which helps in the perception of the
image.Other aspects of cartography are also in the constant process of
development such as taking into account developments in the study of human
psychology and visual perception., maps were created for two main purposes. The
first is to store valuable information. Geographical map is one of the ways of
recording information to compare future state of described objects with the
current one. The second - is to provide an image transmitting user spatial
information.creation of a map it is very important to take into account its
purpose. Mapmaker should get answers to several questions, such as: What are we
describing with the map? What is the target audience of the map? It will be a
map by itself or as part of the report? What type of platform will be used to
display the map?general, there are two types of maps: overview maps and topical
ones. In the first case the map simply provides information about how
geographical objects are located relatively to each other. Topographical map
and plan of the city are good examples of maps of that type. The second type -
a topical mapsthat can be used to display information dedicated to a particular
topic, such as land use, natural resources, socio-economic factors or medical
geography.different types of maps can be given both general and very specific
recommendations for their construction. Of course, qualified specialist is able
to create wonderful maps to meet different requirements. But ordinary people
can create a good informative overview map if they follow some simple
guidelines which cover a number of general provisions.- usually every map has
only one. Trying to convey too much information on a single map (more than one
target) can confuse its user. It is much better to create two maps with their
own separated purposes.audience - for whom is your map? You develop it for only
a few users or for a huge audience of hundreds or even millions of people? It's
much better to create a map expecting that its future users will not have deep
knowledge in cartography.size, scale and storage format - the physical size of
the mapin comparison with a real size of objects depicted on it dictates the
scale of the map and determine how you will represent the actual size and the
number of spatial objects shown on the map. Data collection is often carried
out for a certain scale representation. However if you do not display the data
on such a scale, at least make sure that the data is suitable for you. For
example, digitized on a scale of 1: 50,000 of the road will be much more
detailed than that required for small-scale maps (eg 1: 2 000 000) so that the
number of roads on the map should be reduced. format also plays an important
role, map prited in a newspaper (low quality paper)can't have detailing of same
level as the same map printed on high quality paper. Besides, the detail of
digital map may vary depending on the program used for viewing. For example, a
static map used on the Web page should be designed using a smaller amount of
information than amap which will be viewed in a special GIS program.goal -what
mapmaker wants map users to pay their attention in the first order. Typically,
cool colors (shades of blue, green and light gray) used for background
information and warm colors (red, yellow, and black) attract the attention of
themapusers.-probably it's necessary to perform a cross-check of the
information on the map, for example, to check if geographical names and
spelling of geographical objects correspond to each other. Usually only map
authors can make a precise and full integrity check for the map.balance -how
the map looks printed as a hard copy and how it looks on a computer screen? Are
all map parts properly aligned to each other? The body of the map should be the
dominant element. Amount of empty space on the map shuld be minimized. It's
important to be flexible in the deployment of elements of the map (for example,
not all headings should be on the top). Are all elements of the map are located
inside the frame? In many cases it isn't so which let mapmakers to use some
empty spaces on the map (piece of sea or land without any objects) to locate
there additional information like a legend.of the map - maps usually contain a
number of mandatory elements such as title, legend, scale bar and north arrow.
But there are exceptions. For example, if the map already has degree grid there
is no need to add an arrow showing where North is. Usually a map can be called
complete when it has all the information that necessary for its understandig
and usage.publishing a map it's highly recommended to show it to some focus
group to collect first feedback and correct the most noticeable mistakes.bounds
of this master thesis a program will be developed. The program will be
so-called map program which means that its user will have access to maps
provided by one of the well-known map services (Google Maps, Yandex.Maps, 2GIS,
etc.) and will be able to search certain places on the map.
Inadditiontheprogramwillhave 3 mainfeatures:will have access to information
about quality of surface of sidewalks along Moscow streets;will be able to get
a route between two points on the map of Moscow that goes mainly through pedestrian
areas with smooth surface;will be able to add the information about quality of
sidewalks surface along certain streets and this information will be shown to
other users of the program.a result the program will help anyone who wants to
drive in Moscow using non-motorized means of transport with small wheels
comfortably but knows the city badly. Moreover the program will work in iOS
operating system, it means that it will be developed for usage on smartphones
and users will be able to use this program in any place if they have a
smarphone.
. Project requirements
the general description of the
problem it is possible to formulate main technical requirements for the
program:
) Functional requirements:should be
able to view a the map of Moscow and zoom it to see certain areas in
details;should be able to find location of Moscow streets, buildings and other
city objects on the map by providing to the program only name of these
objects;should be able to get a shortest path between two selected points on the
map through the Moscow road infrastructure;should be able to view which
sidewalks along Moscow streets have smooth (and comfortable for driving)
surface and which ones not. should be able to get a path between two selected
points on the map through pedestrian areas along Moscow road infrastructure.
The path shouldgo through areas covered by the smoothest surface but not should
be longer than the shortest path more than 1.3 times.should be able to rate
quality of a sidewalk along certain street and leave a comment about it;should
be able to find out his location.
) Non-functional requirements:about
quality of sidewalks surface should be displayed visually on the map by colored
(according to the quality of surface) areas in places of sidewalks;program
should work only while the device is connected to the Internet;program should
automatically send user’s ratings (of pedestrian areas surface quality) to a
server that should spread these ratings between other users of the
program;program should work in iOS 7.0 or newer;user interface of the program
should be adapted for usage on 3.5 or 4 inches screen;program should track
changes of the user’s location and update location of the user on the map every
5 seconds.scheme of the master thesis project general architecture is shown on
picture 1. The main parts of the project are:on a mobile device. This is the
main part of the project that actually let users to work with the program. To
be precise the program on a mobile device is a client part of the project
because it stores no data and only use stream data from servers.Maps servers.
These servers store maps and perform the following functions (communications 1
and 3 on the picture 1):on the user’s device map area which user selected (data
about its longitude, latitude and zooming is sent to the server previously).;on
the user’s device location of the device;search queries from users’ devices and
sending them locations of map objects users search for;path-finding queries
from users’ devices and sending them routes between two selected points on the
map.server. This server contains a database that stores all users’ ratings
connected with certain pedestrian areas on the map. The server upload this data
to the user’s device and it is use for building routes considering quality of
sidewalks surface.
Picture 1.General architecture of
the project.
. Results description
of the master thesis project user
interface is depicted on the picture 2.general the user interface can be
divided into two parts: settings panel and map window.panel provide access to
all functions of the program and contain following interface elements:
“Start address” field is used while
making diractions to define start point of the direction;
“Destination address” field is used
while making diractions to define end point of the direction;
“Make direction” button launches
making a route between addresses written in fields “Start address” and
“Destination address”;
“Dispay rated pedestrian areas”
button shows on the map visually which pedestrian areas were rated by other program
users using red lines to highlight sidewalks with very unsmooth surface, yellow
lines to highlight sidewalks with acceptable quality of surface and green lines
to highlight pedestrian areas with smooth surface which are most comfortable
for going.
“Optimization tumbler” tumbler
disables (or enables if it is in “off” state) algorythms responsible for making
directions only through sidewalks with acceptable or better surface. In other
words while the tumbler is in “off” state the program just finds shortest paths
during making directions like many map services on the Internet and map
applications in AppStore.window provides user access to actual map, all made
directions, all rated pedestrian areas are displayed on the map in this window.
project that represents the main
result of this master thesis without doubt will help a lot of people to drive
their non-motorized means of transport in Moscow because this city has a lot of
tiled pedestrian areas and some other ones are covered by old asphalt with manypatholes.The
program helps disabled people and users of kick scooters quickly find
comfortable way to any place in Moscow so the final aim is to meet this
audience with the application to make their life better.
program building route
“Alternative
Transportation.” gogreenplus.com. Green Plus Institute for Sustainable
Development, 12 Sep. 2011 23 May 2014.