| Author: | Gong, Xinyu |
| Title: | The formal representations of the automated construction of map symbols |
| Advisors: | Li, Zhilin (LSGI) Liu, Xintao (LSGI) |
| Degree: | Ph.D. |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Subject: | Maps -- Symbols Maps Cartography Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics |
| Pages: | xiii, 101 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Map is one of the three ancient communication means, including natural language and music, and cartography is “the art, science, and technology of making maps”. Traditional mapping, conducted by well-trained professional cartographers, mainly focuses on improving the accuracy of maps. However, in some tasks (e.g., planning routes with schematic metro maps), accuracy is not the main concern of maps. Accuracy is just one of the indicators designed to describe usability (i.e., the degree to which a product is able or fit to be used by specific users when performing specific tasks in a specific environment). Personalized maps (i.e., mapping by users based on their unique interests and experience) emphasize user engagement and interactivity with maps rather than accuracy. Users nowadays care more about the usability and the aesthetics of the maps, and they tend to make their maps in different scenarios. Compared with traditional maps, personal maps have further expansions in information dimension, granularity, hierarchy, expression, and semantics against the background of spatiotemporal big data and show a more all-encompassing connotation and characteristics. There has been an increasing demand for personalized mappings, such as in urban informatics and the tourist industry. Automated construction of map symbols plays an important role in facilitating personalized mapping. In the studies about the construction of map symbols, the basic elements and construction methods of map symbols have been discussed. However, the formal representation of map symbols has not been considered deeply, which is believed to be fundamental to the automated construction of map symbols and thus to the mathematization of cartographic theory. This project aims to develop the formal representation of the automatic construction of map symbols. In our understanding, constructing formal representations of map symbols is a complex process, and the first step in this process is to formally represent their structures. To achieve this goal, four strategies are therefore proposed in this project, (1) to employ Chinese characters’ structures for representing map symbols, (2) to employ the existing basic operators for representing map symbols, (3) to employ the metric and color modifications for representing map symbols, and (4) to investigate the effects of topological properties on map symbol perception. The structures of words can be formally described in natural language. In its hieroglyphic representation, Chinese writing resembles two-dimensional map symbols. This study evaluates the feasibility of using the structures of Chinese characters to represent the structures of map symbols. Two experiments were performed in this regard: a descriptive-statistics-based analysis and a questionnaire-based satisfaction evaluation. The results of the experiments reveal that (1) nearly 80% of map symbols fit perfectly onto the structures of Chinese characters and (2) over half of the experimental participants thought that the structures of map symbols could be represented adequately by those of Chinese characters. These results indicate that the structures of Chinese characters can represent the structures of map symbols, but more operators are required. Secondly, the representation problems of these two types of map symbols (i.e., the map symbol didn’t or imperfectly fit the structures of Chinese characters) were solved by employing additional basic operators and proposed some metric and color modifications. To validate these proposed solutions, experiments have been carried out. The results indicated that almost all the map symbols can be formally represented with additional operators and metric and color modifications. The percentages of map symbols that didn’t fit structures of Chinese characters solved by these operators and modifications are 2.4% and 20.1% respectively. The percentage of map symbols that imperfectly fit them solved by these operators and modifications are 8.7% and 8% respectively. A component-based approach is employed to analyze the effects of topological properties of map symbols on the interpretation. An experimental evaluation performed included four main sections: the effect of frame shape, the effect of interior, the effect of contrast between frame and interior, and user preference of frame shape. Experimental results show that frame does have effects on symbol interpretation, and people prefer circle and square (i.e., two kinds of frame shape) in most cases; interior has limited effects on symbol interpretation; and contrast between interior and frame has significant effects on the interpretation of some symbols. Our research helps to better understand how map symbols interact with map readers. In summary, this study aims to develop formal representations of map symbols. To achieve this, the feasibility of structures of Chinese characters, the basic mathematical operators, and the metric and color modifications for representing map symbols were evaluated. Experiments have been carried out and results indicated that these operators and modifications are feasible for automatically constructing map symbols. The topological properties were proven to have an effect on map symbol perception. This work could not only enrich cartographic theory but also prompt the mathematization of map symbol construction. Of course, the automatic construction of map symbols is a rather complex problem, and further development is still needed. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
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