Establishing an object identification method based on the description of the neighbouring elements

Abstract

Broken glass from a bus stop, litter on the ground, a broken lamppost, and more things like this can be encountered in a municipality. To improve the process of mapping the issues and fixing them Fixi is developed by Decos. Fixi is an application in which citizens can report issues in public space. A citizen can report the issue he or she encounters in Fixi and the handlers of the municipality will use this inventory to improve the quality of the municipality. The issues are mapped using GNSS or pin-pointing it out on the map, but these options are not always available. This thesis research explores object identification based on the description of neighbouring elements. By providing a method to identify the object by a description, an additional option for reporting issues is made available in Fixi. The neighbouring elements which are described by the user will function as reference points for the method. By combining the information, a suggestion of one or more objects can be presented to the user which should include the described object. The flow from description to output consists of five different elements: data input, preprocessing of the data, user input, processing, and output. Three versions of input and processing are developed and tested in this thesis research. (1) With spatial relationships and distances indicated by the user, (2) with spatial relationships, and (3) with distances indicated by the user. The type of elements that can be described by the user are based on the theory of Lynch [1960] and can be categorised in five different types: path, edge, district, node, and landmark. To test the method, the selectivity of the elements is tested and the output of the process is evaluated. This last test is done based on six criteria: (1) number of questions, (2) presence of object, (3) amount of suggested objects, (4) average distance to elements, (5) covered area of suggested objects, and (6) completion time of description. The tests have been executed on thirty scenarios spread over three municipalities: Westervoort, Amsterdam, and Joure. All scenarios presented the described object as one of the suggested objects, which means the object has been identified. In general scored version 3 with the distances indicated by the user the best results in the tested cases. Improvements are possible in elements like number of questions, average distance, and completion time.