Users Are Doing It For Themselves: Pedestrian Navigation With User Generated Content

Route planning has over the few past years become common in the context of driving cars and other vehicles. However, with the advent of powerful mobile devices, such as smart-phones, systems helping pedestrians finding their way in complex urban environments have emerged. We present a prototype system for mobile pedestrian navigation, called OurWay, based on user generated maps and collaborative annotations of network segments. We are particularly concerned with users with various permanent or temporary disabilities, like wheelchair users, or parents pushing baby strollers. By letting users rate the accessibility of locations, the system will compute bespoke routes matching their abilities and preferences. We explore the potential of the concept through a combination of field work and lab trials, using real life data. We also demonstrate that collaboratively collected geodata has promising properties as a foundation for innovative geospatial applications. Initial results indicate that few user annotations are needed to produce good routes.