Peter Kiefer

Designing location-based mobile games with a purpose: collecting geospatial data with CityExplorer

The games with a purpose paradigm proposed by Luis von Ahn [9] is a new approach for game design where useful but boring tasks, like labeling a random image found in the web, are packed within a game to make them entertaining. But there are not only large numbers of internet users that can be used as voluntary data producers but legions of mobile device owners, too. In this paper we describe the design of a location-based mobile game with a purpose: CityExplorer. The purpose of this game is to produce geospatial data that is useful for non-gaming applications like a location-based service. From the analysis of four use case studies of CityExplorer we report that such a purposeful game is entertaining and can produce rich geospatial data collections.

Where Am I? Investigating Map Matching During Self-Localization With Mobile Eye Tracking in an Urban Environment

Self-localization is the process of identifying ones current position on a map, and it is a crucial part of any wayfinding process. During self-localization the wayfinder matches visually perceptible features of the environment, such as landmarks, with map symbols to constrain potential locations on the map. The success of this visual matching process constitutes an important factor for the success of self-localization. In this research we aim at observing the visual matching process between environment and map during self-localization with real-world mobile eye tracking. We report on one orientation and one self-localization experiment, both in an outdoor urban environment. The gaze data collected during the experiments show that successful participants put significantly more visual attention to those symbols on the map that were helpful in the given situation than unsuccessful participants. A sequence analysis revealed that they also had significantly more switches of visual attention between map symbols and their corresponding landmarks in the environment, which suggests they were following a more effective self-localization strategy.

GeoGazemarks: providing gaze history for the orientation on small display maps

Orientation on small display maps is often difficult because the visible spatial context is restricted. This paper proposes to provide the history of a users visual attention on a map as visual clue to facilitate orientation. Visual attention on the map is recorded with eye tracking, clustered geo-spatially, and visualized when the user zooms out. This implicit gaze-interaction concept, called GeoGazemarks, has been evaluated in an experiment with 40 participants. The study demonstrates a significant increase in efficiency and an increase in effectiveness for a map search task, compared to standard panning and zooming.

Using eye movements to recognize activities on cartographic maps

The spatio-temporal characteristics of eye movements vary according to the activity the user of a cartographic map is performing. In this paper, we use these eye movement characteristics to automatically detect the map users activity, an approach with great potential in gaze-assistive map interfaces. A dataset of 587 eye movement recordings from 17 participants was used to train and cross-validate a support vector machine (SVM) classifier over 229 features. The classifier can distinguish 6 common map activities with an accuracy of approx. 78%.

Towards location-aware mobile eye tracking

This paper considers the impact of location as context in mobile eye tracking studies that extend to large-scale spaces, such as pedestrian wayfinding studies. It shows how adding a subjects location to her gaze data enhances the possibilities for data visualization and analysis. Results from an explorative pilot study on mobile map usage with a pedestrian audio guide demonstrate that the combined recording and analysis of gaze and position can help to tackle research questions on human spatial problem solving in a novel way.

GazeNav: Gaze-Based Pedestrian Navigation

Pedestrian navigation systems help us make a series of decisions that lead us to a destination. Most current pedestrian navigation systems communicate using map-based turn-by-turn instructions. This interaction mode suffers from ambiguity, its users ability to match the instruction with the environment, and it requires a redirection of visual attention from the environment to the screen. In this paper we present GazeNav, a novel gaze-based approach for pedestrian navigation. GazeNav communicates the route to take based on the users gaze at a decision point. We evaluate GazeNav against the map-based turn-by-turn instructions. Based on an experiment conducted in a virtual environment with 32 participants we found a significantly improved user experience of GazeNav, compared to map-based instructions, and showed the effectiveness of GazeNav as well as evidence for better local spatial learning. We provide a complete comparison of navigation efficiency and effectiveness between the two approaches.

Towards sustainable mobility behavior: research challenges for location-aware information and communication technology

Private transport accounts for a large amount of total CO2 emissions, thus significantly contributing to global warming. Tools that actively support people in engaging in a more sustainable life-style without restricting their mobility are urgently needed. How can location-aware information and communication technology (ICT) enable novel interactive and participatory approaches that help people in becoming more sustainable? In this survey paper, we discuss the different aspects of this challenge from a technological and cognitive engineering perspective, based on an overview of the main information processes that may influence mobility behavior. We review the state-of-the-art of research with respect to various ways of influencing mobility behavior (e.g., through providing real-time, user-specific, and location-based feedback) and suggest a corresponding research agenda. We conclude that future research has to focus on reflecting individual goals in providing personal feedback and recommendations that take into account different motivational stages. In addition, a long-term and large-scale empirical evaluation of such tools is necessary.

Gaze map matching: mapping eye tracking data to geographic vector features

This paper introduces gaze map matching as the problem of algorithmically interpreting eye tracking data with respect to geographic vector features, such as a road network shown on a map. This differs from previous eye tracking studies which have not taken into account the underlying vector data of the cartographic map. The paper explores the challenges of gaze map matching and relates it to the (vehicle) map matching problem. We propose a gaze map matching algorithm based on a Hidden Markov Model, and compare its performance with two purely geometric algorithms. Two eye tracking data sets recorded during the visual inspection of 14 road network maps of varying realism and complexity are used for this evaluation.

Eye tracking for spatial research: Cognition, computation, challenges

Spatial information acquisition happens in large part through the visual sense. Studying visual attention and its connection to cognitive processes has been the interest of many research efforts in spatial cognition over the years. Recent technological developments have led to an increasing popularity of eye-tracking methodology for investigating research questions related to spatial cognition, geographic information science (GIScience) and cartography. At the same time, eye trackers can nowadays be used as an input device for (cognitively engineered) user interfaces to geographic information. We provide an overview of the most recent literature advancing and utilizing eye-tracking methodology in these fields, introduce the research articles in this Special Issue, and discuss challenges and opportunities for future research.

Starting to get bored: an outdoor eye tracking study of tourists exploring a city panorama

Predicting the moment when a visual explorer of a place loses interest and starts to get bored is of considerable importance to the design of touristic information services. This paper investigates factors affecting the duration of the visual exploration of a city panorama. We report on an empirical outdoor eye tracking study in the real world with tourists following a free exploration paradigm without a time limit. As main result, the number of areas of interest revisited during a short period was found to be a good predictor for the total exploration duration.