Social geoscape: Visualizing an image of the city for mobile UI using user generated geo-tagged objects

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a people-powered location recognition application, Social Geoscape (SGS) that provides highly descriptive geographical information to mobile users. GPS provides the user with latitude and longitude values; however, these values are cumbersome for determining a precise location. A traditional reverse-geocoding database system (i.e., one that converts latitude and longitude values into street addresses) provides locative information based on administrative labeling, but people often do not recognize locations or their surrounding environs from street addresses alone. To address this problem with location recognition, we have created Social Geoscape, a reverse geocoding system that enhances locative data with user-generated information and provides assistance through a mobile interface. © 2012 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.