Paul Kelly's presentation in the 2nd Workdshop on usability of geographic information, 23rd March 2010 at UCL, London. See details at http://www.virart.nottingham.ac.uk/GI%20Usability/index.html

1. Usability of GI for non-Visual
Perceptualisation: Experiences from
the HaptiMap Project
Presenter: Paul Kelly
Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Queen’s University Belfast

2. Outline
• Introduction to HaptiMap
• Examples of how project partners
currently use geographical information
• Relevance of GI Usability
• Our proposed solution (as yet
unproven)
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Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast

3. HaptiMap Overview
• ―Haptic, Audio and Visual interfaces for
Maps and Location-based Services‖
• Pedestrian Navigation
• Non-visual representation of spatial
information, e.g. Haptic Belt / Viflex /
Sonification
• (Non-exclusive) focus on blind and
partially-sighted users
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Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast

4. HaptiMap Overview ..cont’d
• Target Audience: HCI Application
Developers
• Development of ―Adaptable Toolkit‖, i.e.
cross-platform software library
– Drivers for esoteric hardware
– Simplified / usable interface to
Geographical Information
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Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast

5. Current Usage of GI
• Task ―Perceptualisation of geographical
information and interaction design‖
• 18 studies reported to EC
• Studies that use conventional sources
of GI tend to use conventional maps
• Studies involving novel non-visual
perceptualisation tend to use only self-
generated Points of Interest — why?
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Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast

6. An Exception – TouchMap
• Simplified map shown on touchscreen
• Vibrations felt when features touched
• Data self-generated, but more complex:
<map_feature>
<name>BUILDING 4</name>
<type>1</type>
<id>4</id>
<point> <x>21.0</x> <y>18.0</y> </point>
<point> <x>0.0</x> <y>2.0</y> </point>
<point> <x>4.0</x> <y>0.0</y> </point>
<point> <x>0.0</x> <y>-2.0</y> </point>
</map_feature>
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Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast

7. Issues and Opportunities
• Non-visual perceptualisation requires direct
access to underlying vector structure of data
→ steep learning curve
• HaptiMap partners from many different
backgrounds – opportunity to ―bridge the gap‖
• Simplifying, or demystifying?
• Toolkit GI data structure and API is a meeting
point of the two ―sides‖
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Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast

8. Toolkit GI Data Structure
• Geometry
Point LineString Polygon
• Attributes: integers, arrays of integers or strings
• Toolkit Resource Files to give meaning to
integers
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Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast

9. HaptiMap is a large-scale integrating project
funded by the European Commission under the
7th Framework Programme (FP7-ICT-224675)
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Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast