Spatial Knowledge Acquisition in the Context of GPS-Based Pedestrian Navigation - Maps for the Future Children Education and Internet - page 128

information are also proposed for route communication (Rehrl et al. 2010 ).
Recently, mobile augmented reality (AR), which enhances the real world camera
view with virtual information overlays, is another promising approach for convey-
ing route information. Walther-Franks ( 2007 ) shows that AR is very suitable for
navigation as it puts route instructions directly into the real visual context of a user.
Spatial knowledge acquisition is needed to build mental representations that are
essential for wayfinding and other spatial tasks. With sufficient spatial knowledge
about an environment, people can still find their way when navigation systems fail.
Currently, more and more people are relying (or even over-relying) on mobile
navigation systems. Therefore, in additional to the effectiveness in supporting
wayfinding, it is also very important to investigate how these systems affect the
acquisition of spatial knowledge.
There is some research focusing on empirically studying the acquisition of
spatial knowledge in the context of pedestrian navigation. Gartner and Hiller
( 2009 ) investigated maps with different display sizes, and show that display size
influences spatial knowledge acquisition during navigation. Ortag ( 2005 ) studied
the differences of spatial knowledge acquisition with maps and voice when guiding
wayfinders. Kr

uger et al. ( 2004 ) compared the impact of different modalities (i.e.,
audio and graphics (specially, images indicating route directions)) on spatial
knowledge acquisition during navigating in a zoo, and conclude that the acquisition
of route knowledge is much better than that of survey knowledge. In Aslan et al.
( 2006 ), the differences in acquiring spatial knowledge with and without technology
(e.g., mobile maps versus paper maps) were studied. It is important to note that most
of the above studies employed the “Wizard of Oz” prototyping (Wikipedia 2011 )
(e.g., without using the GPS). In contrast, Ishikawa et al. ( 2008 ) compared the
acquisition of spatial knowledge with GPS-based systems, paper maps and direct
experience of routes, and show a poorer performance of subjects using GPS-based
system. However, to the best of our knowledge, none of the field test compares the
influence of mobile maps, AR, and voice on spatial knowledge acquisition in the
context of GPS-based pedestrian navigation.
This paper presents an on-going work on empirically studying the differences in
spatial knowledge acquisition with different interface technologies, comparing
mobile maps, AR, and voice in the context of GPS-based pedestrian navigation.
This research is part of the ways2navigate project, which is a project of Vienna
University of Technology, Salzburg Research, FACTUM, TraffiCon and
WalkSpace Mobilit

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at. It aims to investigate the suitability of voice-based and
AR-based interface technologies in comparison to mobile maps for conveying
navigation and route information to pedestrians. Two iterative field tests are
planned in the ways2navigate project. For each field test, we are interested in the
questions of how these technologies can help to reduce cognitive load during
wayfinding, and how these technologies influence the acquisition of spatial knowl-
edge. This paper will report the methodology and results of the first experiment,
with a focus on comparison of spatial knowledge acquisition with these interface
technologies.

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