METHOD FOR VISUALIZING A COMPLICATED METRO MAP IN A LIMITED DISPLAYING AREA

• US 20130155115A1
• Filed: 03/16/2012
• Published: 06/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Chiao Tung University (Government of The Republic of China)
• Original Assignee: National Chiao Tung University (Government of The Republic of China)
• Inventors: WANG, YU-SHUEN, CHI, MING-TE
• Granted Patent: US 8,907,954 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/655
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/04 Context-preserving transformations, e.g. by using an importance map panospheric to cylindrical image transformations G06T3/12

Abstract

The prevented invention provides a method to visualize complicated metro maps in a limited displaying area, in which the route to the passenger'"'"'s destination is highlighted. In order to achieve high readability, it sets 1) the distance between neighboring stations to be equal, 2) the transportation lines to lie in octilinear directions, 3) the angles of incident edges at each station to be maximized, and 4) the station positions to be inside the displaying area. It also labels the names of stations that passenger will pass by to make the route navigation easy and intuitive.

Claims

1. A method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area, wherein said metro map contains a plurality of routes, each said route has a plurality of station nodes, each pair of adjacent station nodes are connected by an edge, and said method comprises steps:

a. download a geographic metro map covering a focal routes and neighboring transportation networks between a start station node and a destination station node that are given by an user;

b. magnify station nodes and connecting said edges in said focal routes and deform said routes to determine a smooth metro map;

c. rotate said routes to lie in octilinear directions; and

d. label said station nodes of said focal routes with names.

2. The method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area according to claim 1, wherein said edges are divided into a plurality of focal edges that the user will pass by and a plurality of contextual edges that the user will not, both said focal edges and said contextual edges have an identical length, respectively, and length of said focal edges is greater than that of said contextual edges.

3. The method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area according to claim 1, wherein said edges which are adjacent are encouraged to have identical directions.

4. The method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area according to claim 1, wherein said station node that is connected with a plurality of said edges is enforced to have identical included angles.

5. The method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area according to claim 4, wherein said station node that has only two connected edges is constraint to be collinear with said station nodes in neighbor.

6. The method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area according to claim 1, wherein each station node is within the space boundaries, and said edges that have no sharing station nodes does not intersect.

7. The method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area according to claim 1, wherein said edges are rotated to be vertical, horizontal 45-degree, or 135-degree diagonal to obtain a schematic layout.

8. The method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area according to claim 1, wherein a Gaussian Newton method is used to solve non-linear optimization, and said stations'"'"' positions and said edge orientations are iteratively updated to deform said metro map.

9. The method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area according to claim 1, wherein said station nodes and said edges that the user will pass by are highlighted via magnification and said edges are shrunk.

10. The method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area according to claim 1, wherein an optimal orientation of each station label is computed by minimizing penalties that are measured from preference, consciousness and occlusion of said station nodes.

11. The method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area according to claim 10, wherein a quadrangle is computed based on said label, and said quadrangle is used to check whether or not said label intersects another labels.

12. The method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area according to claim 11, wherein a quadrangle having double length extending in its direction is used to check whether or not said label overlaps said station nodes or said connecting edges.

13. The method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area according to claim 1, wherein neighboring labels of said station nodes have an identical orientation.

14. The method for visualizing a complicated metro map in a limited displaying area according to claim 1, wherein said geographic metro map is downloaded from a database or network.