ProjectPorposal-Mjiang
From CS160 User Interfaces Fa06
Contents |
Tourist Map Integration
How many of us found ourselves wandering around a new vacation spot, trying to figure out which spot would be the best to go. We may have already downloaded the best tourist spots but suddenly found ourselves without the papers we printed out because we had to scamper out of the hotel room. The Anoto pen can provide a brand new way of retrieving tourist spot information of major cities from just circling specific areas on preprinted maps. I remember taking a brief vacation to LA and trying to find some attractions to go to. I tried looking online and was bombarded with a huge amount of places that were nowhere near the location I was staying in. LA was so big and had so many attractions that ones specific to where I was staying was really hard to find.
Target Population
General population that have a cell phone or PDA in their possession. Any user who have traveling or attraction craving tendencies. These users want to retrieve information regarding certain places to visit within the area desired. This will benefit mainly tourists visiting a new area and either forgot/failed to previously retrieve information for tourist attractions. People residing in the specific cities can find use for this in case they want to find attractions they have never seen. The information these users want would be a brief listing of the attractions and where they are located.
Problem Description
Travelers or residents of specific cities may or may not have all the information pretaining to all the attractions the traveled to city offers. Preprint maps of a general region or cities (such as the Bay Area or San Francisco), then vacationers can use the anoto pen to circle specific areas they want to see tourist spots for. Check the retieve box, then the anoto pen will then send the information request through the person's cellphone or pda to retrieve the information. The retrieved information will then be bounced back into the user's pda/cell phone with the name of the attraction along with a brief description and location.
Problem Context and Forces
Many travelers go into vacation spots clutching huge amounts of guide books and maps. Instead, a pad of preprinted maps and a pen can get the traveler (or any curious person) information regarding what attractions lie in what areas specific to their liking. While a guide book will give the user a general look of all attractions in a city, the preprinted map gives the traveler and option of selecting one specific area within the certain to explore for that day. If the travelers are dinning in a specific area, then the traveler may want to stay within that area for the next attraction.
GPS systems already holds information for attractions for cities. However, this can be an alternative for travelers going by foot or a person who does not own a GPS system nor want to own a GPS system. Also, this may be a relatively less expensive alternative to GPS systems and may be a bit more intuitive by being able to simply circle the desired area.
maps.google.com also provide information that allows users to look for certain business near a target area. However, using googlemaps would require looking up the information ahead of time. With the maps and pen, users can have access to information on attractions anywhere they have reception.
Solution Sketch
