Overlaying Paper Maps with Digital Information Services for Tourists

Abstract

Despite the increasing availability of various forms of digital maps and guides, paper still prevails as the main information medium used by tourists during city visits. The authors describe how recent technologies for digitally augmented paper maps can be used to develop interactive paper maps that provide value-added services for tourists through digital overlays. An initial investigation into the use of these maps to support visitors to the Edinburgh festivals is also presented.

Applications of location–based services: a selected review

“…Hardware adaptation, e.g. Norrie and Signer (2005) experimented with the use of digital paper as an interface to a mobile guide . New mixed reality interfaces and their effectiveness e.g.…”

Augmented paper maps: Exploring the design space of a mixed reality system

“…Systems that augment paper maps with additional information were developed by Grund (2004) using Desktop PCs and HMDs for display and by Reitmayr et al (2005) where a projector is used to overlay the additional information on a paper map on a table. Examples for mobile applications that use a hand-held device to augment a paper map include the ''Marked-up Maps'' (Reilly et al, 2005) which uses coarse positioning by RFID tags embedded in the paper map, the system by Schöning et al (2006) in which the optical marker-based ARToolkit tracking system is used, and the system by Norrie and Signer (2005) that augments paper maps with tourist information using the high-resolution positioning information provided by an Anoto pen and a mobile device for display. Most of the existing augmented map applications are technology driven demonstrators and consider the requirements of users only to a limited amount.…”

Augmented paper maps: Design of POI markers and effects on group navigation

“…However, this standard experience could be enhanced and improved, as it is shown that augmented paper maps could be used to develop interactive paper maps that will provide added values services for tourists [18]. Stroila et al [23] demonstrated an AR navigation application, which allows users to interact with transit maps in public transit locations and vehicles.…”

“…As a first step, we performed a preliminary experiment via an online questionnaire with 73 participants and presented them with static screenshots of all the visualization combinations in a random order, showing one screenshot for many (18) POIs and one for few ( POIs for each visualisation). The visualisations were explained prior to showing them.…”