TWO NEW PEDESTRIAN NAVIGATION PATH OPTIONS BASED ON SEMI-INDOOR SPACE

Abstract. Navigation is very critical for our daily life, especially when we have to go through the unfamiliar areas where the spaces are very complex, such as completely bounded (indoor), partially bounded (semi-indoor and/or semi-outdoor), entirely open (outdoor), or combined. Current navigation systems commonly offer the shortest distance/time path, but it is not always appropriate for some situations. For instance, on a rainy day, a path with as many places that are covered by roofs/shelters is more attractive. However, current navigation systems cannot provide such kinds of navigation paths, which can be explained by that they lack information about such roofed/sheltered-covered spaces. This paper proposes two roofed/sheltered navigation path options by employing semi-indoor spaces in the navigation map: (i) the Most-Top-Covered path (MTC-path) and (ii) path to the Nearest sI-space from departure (NSI-path). A path selection strategy is introduced to help pedestrians in making choices between the two new path options and the traditional shortest path. We demonstrate and validate the research with path planning on two navigation cases. The results show the two path options and the path selection strategy bring in new navigation experience for humans.