Cartography in a Mobile Internet Age

Many now predict an era in which the display of cartographic data is not on a desktop computer, but on a mobile system located at the point of measurement or use in the field. This next cartographic revolution will be hastened by compact GPS receivers, cellular communications, portable web access, reduced size microcomputers, and next generation input and output devices for the use and display of digital maps. This research reviews field technologies for GIS and computer mapping, including those developments that will place the computer devices on the person of the user, the input devices into the hand-free use environment, and the display directly into the human vision field. A prototype ubiquitous field computing system will be demonstrated, with the intent of highlighting the extraordinary demands that will be placed upon the human-computer interface of the resultant wearable GIS. Particular concerns are communications, data bandwidth, Internet access and coverage, high-throughput Internet links, digital library database access, but above all the user interface of such a system. Some alternative designs for the mobile ubiquitous GIS user interface are presented, that include capabilities for in-view augmented cartographic reality. View options include feature frames, three dimensional glyphs, text feature annotation, monochrome feature filters, feature location identification and selection, Internet linkage, haloing, and pointer and navigation aids and mechanisms. Of particular concern in such ubiquitous systems will be data screening or access limitations, and the techniques of pixel blocking as a solution to security and privacy. Speculations on the future of cartography, assuming the existence of such devices and user interfaces, will be made including the negative consequences of the use of the systems. Clearly, liberation from the constraints of the desktop will have much to offer the future of mapping, above all a reorientation toward exploration and field data collection for mapping, If the negative consequences can be anticipated and controlled, then mobile GIS will constitute the next generation of geographic information technologies.