Sketch map generation method using leveled spatial indexing technique in a mobile environment

This paper deals with the efficiency of route services in mobile environments with necessitate methods which reduce map description data and increase user´s understanding of the map. In order to reduce the size of map data, first, the data is aligned by importance and incrementally serviced to the user by importance. In addition, the size of the map data can be reduced by using symbols which represent data in a concise manner. Second, to increase the user´s understanding about route (optimal path showing start and destination) and its surroundings, we propose a new method which converts a complex route and its surroundings into a simplified sketch map. A process is also suggested to correct distortion which occurs during the sketch map generation process. For speedy service in mobile environments, a new indexing method, leveled spatial indexing, is proposed in this paper. Current spatial indexing methods do not support all the map generalization operations and real-time processing. The indexing method proposed in this paper supports all the map generalization operations and manipulates zoom in-out quickly by leveling the generalized data. To verify the efficiency of the methods proposed in this paper, several experiments using cellular phones are conducted and the results of performance evaluation are presented.