Digital Map User Location and Facing Direction Indicators
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current digital map applications often confuse users by rendering user location and facing direction as a single visual indicator, leading to imbalance and confusion in visualization, or fail to visualize the facing direction adequately.
Innovation Solution
A mapping software module on a computing device displays user location and facing direction as separate but related visual indicators, using a client computing device to request and render map data from a remote mapping system, incorporating location and compass direction determination through GPS and sensor data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If user location and facing direction are rendered as one visual indicator, then the visualization is simplified, but it creates imbalance and causes confusion in the visualization
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the user's location and facing direction into separate visual indicators: a first graphic object represents the user's location, and a second graphic object represents the facing direction. This segmentation allows each piece of information to be displayed independently and clearly, avoiding the confusion that arises from combining them into a single indicator.
2Device complexity
If user facing direction is not visualized or visualized only in compass mode, then the map display remains simple, but the facing direction is not adequately visualized
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds a new visual dimension to the map display by introducing a second graphic object that extends from the first graphic object in the direction the user is facing. This dimensional extension provides intuitive spatial representation of the facing direction without requiring a separate compass mode, maintaining display simplicity while improving direction visualization reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method may indicate a user location and compass direction on a digital map. Map data may be requested from a remote mapping system server using a client computing device. The request may include a geographic area. The map data may be received from the remote mapping system at the client computing device in response to the request. The client computing device may then determine a user location and a user compass direction at the client computing device and render both the user location and the user compass direction within a digital map of the geographic area at the client computing device.