Browsing by Author "Arikawa, Masatoshi"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Designing and Annotating Metro Maps with Loop Lines
(2015)
Wu, Hsiang-Yun
;
Poon, Sheung-Hung
;
Takahashi, Shigeo
;
Arikawa, Masatoshi
;
Lin, Chun-Cheng
Schematic metro maps provide an effective means of simplifying the geographical configuration of public rapid transportation systems. Nonetheless, travelers still find it difficult to identify routes of a specific topology on the maps because it is usually hidden behind the conventional octilinear layout of the entire map. In this paper, we present an approach to designing schematic maps with loop lines, which are drawn as circles together with annotation labels for guiding different traveling purposes. Our idea here is to formulate the aesthetic criteria as mathematical constraints in the mixed-integer programming model, which allows us to either align stations on the loop line at a grid if they are interchange stations or non-interchange stations on a circle otherwise. We then distribute the annotation labels associated with stations on the loop line evenly to the four side boundary of the map domain in order to make full use of the annotation space, while maximally avoiding intersections between leader lines and the metro network by employing a flow network algorithm. Finally, we present several experimental results generated by our prototype system to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.
Spatially Efficient Design of Annotated Metro Maps
(2013-06-01)
Wu, Hsiang-Yun
;
Takahashi, Shigeo
;
Hirono, Daichi
;
Arikawa, Masatoshi
;
Lin, Chun-Cheng
Annotating metro maps with thumbnail photographs is a commonly used technique for guiding travelers. However, conventional methods usually suffer from small labeling space around the metro stations especially when they are interchange stations served by two or more metro lines. This paper presents an approach for aesthetically designing schematic metro maps while ensuring effective placement of large annotation labels that are sufficiently close to their corresponding stations. Our idea is to distribute such labels in a well-balanced manner to labeling regions around the metro network first and then adjust the lengths of metro line and leader line segments, which allows us to fully maximize the space coverage of the entire annotated map. This is accomplished by incorporating additional constraints into the conventional mixed-integer programming formulation, while we devised a three-step algorithm for accelerating the overall optimization process. We include several design examples to demonstrate the spatial efficiency of the map layout generated using the proposed approach through minimal user intervention.