Urban Pilot : a dynamic mapping tool for personalizing the city through collective memory

Abstract

This thesis investigates the use of handheld mobile devices as exploratory personalized tools for dynamic navigation of the cityscape that go beyond cartographic limitations and yellow-page directory services. One needs to capture the hidden information patterns of the city in order to experience it in a meaningful way. The volatile, unpredictable randomness of the city life and its ever-changing patterns need dynamic navigational means. Unfortunately, existing devices and their applications do not fully address the impelling potential of realtime interactivity generated by Wireless and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). This study proposes a tool, which encourages personal perception and collective experience of cities by providing a dynamic information space that overlaps the city with individual users, both spatially and temporally. The tool is characterized by a three-tier structure of Personal Filtering, Social Networking and Information Layering. It filters the information through personalization, shares the personal perception through social networks and layers the information with collective, thereby creating a regenerative system that allows for the creation of new patterns and interpretations.