Błażej Ciepłuch

The potential for using volunteered geographic information in pervasive health computing applications

Volunteered geographic information (VGI), or geospatial crowdsourcing, is where citizens (volunteers) contribute data and information about the earth and environment that is explicitly or implicitly georeferenced and then disseminated via collaborative projects such as OpenStreetMap or social media such as Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook. VGI popularity is due in no small part to citizens making use of consumer devices, such as smartphones, to collect increasingly precise locational information and other environmental information. In this paper we describe the potential for using VGI in pervasive health computing applications. Pervasive health computing strives to provide healthcare (services or information) to anyone, at anytime, and anywhere by removing constraints of time and location. We use the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project as a case–study of a very successful VGI project. We analyse the strengths of OSM, its current applicability to pervasive health computing, and if it is a sustainable option for use as a source of spatial information for pervasive computing technologies, particularly in areas where access to information on healthcare services is limited or difficult. The paper closes by summarizing the advantages and challenges of VGI integration into pervasive health computing and outlining some of the key issues where further cross-disciplinary research is required.

Campus Guidance System for International Conferences Based on OpenStreetMap

We present a web-based, multi-lingual, campus guidance system with emphasis on pedestrian navigation aimed at providing support for delegates attending International Conferences at the National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM) campus. A special campus guidance system could improve the logistics of the conference and potentially attract more delegates to the conference. The Cloudmade Web Map Lite API which uses OpenStreetMap has been used for creating this interface. The system generates shortest pedestrian paths using both outdoor pavements and indoor corridors between various buildings and points of interests (POI). For visual assistance in pedestrian navigation geotagged images are used along the path at certain points in the route, such as road intersections, when the user needs to get their orientation correct. The interface is currently available in both English and Chinese language.

A PostGIS-based pedestrian way finding module using OpenStreetMap data

Open source GIS (OSG) is a fast developing field. When OSG is combined with Web2.0 and Service Orientated Architectures (SOA) technologies and more applications of Public Participation GIS, it has many advantages over commercial GIS software. Despite this, OSG still needs more improvement in terms of stability and functional integrity. In order to build more robust, more practical, and more functional LBS applications, this research investigates pedestrian-orientated wayfinding, with special requirements as its study topic. We describe some Web 2.0 routing APIs which can be easily used to provide general shortest path planning. However, these APIs cannot provide guidance services for specific user groups with special requirements, such as tourists in small towns. We take Maynooth as case-study. Maynooth is the only University town in Ireland with a population of approximately 20,000. This research uses OpenStreetMap (OSM) as spatial data source. OSM contains very spatially rich dataset. It is stored and managed in PostGIS/PostgreSQL. Through previous work on LBS applications using the CloudMade Routing API and OSM data, we present a Java-based wayfinding module implementing a restricted area version of Dijkstra algorithm. A set of native PostGIS spatial functions are used to improve performance of the routing algorithm. Results from our wayfinding algorithm are presented and compared with those obtained by using the CloudMade Routing API. Our results are promising and show that this special version of Dijkstra algorithm can take advantage of the spatial data stored in OSM. This work provides a base to build more effective pedestrian wayfinding algorithms which can be implemented in open source software and open APIs. This approach provides a feasible and economical LBS solution for small towns, villages and tourism regions outside larger cities.