Naturepathfinder - Roadbook

Digital roadbook application for Android mobile devices.

In outdoor activities, such as managing paths in all-terrain vehicles, mountain biking, hiking or tourist itineraries, it is common to resort to the navigation by using a guide containing the description of the path that should be followed. This guide is known as a roadbook and it is prepared by taking notes in advance at the time of the recognition and planning of the route.

A roadbook is usually printed on paper, but with current advances in mobile computing and mobile devices, it has become very interesting and useful to have a digital roadbook for smartphones and tablets, in order to facilitate the preparation of notes upon recognition of the route, as well as to assist the user when they apply these same notes when navigating.

This report describes the applied project developed by the author, which consists of a digital roadbook application for Android mobile devices, called Naturepathfinder. This application consists of two main parts: Create Navigation and Navigate.

The first part - Create Navigation - aims to enable the creation of roadbooks by collecting the necessary data directly from the terrain on the mobile GPS and also by allowing the user to draw the note designs through a graphical editor.

The second part - Navigate- aims to assist the user in the navigation of an existing roadbook in a database, by presenting notes automatically when they detect the proximity of an intersection. While navigating a roadbook, the Naturepathfinder application warns the user if it considers that it is making a navigational error and automatically corrects the route, guides the user to the right path by using online maps or taking a direction indicated by an arrow.

In both parts described the Naturepathfinder application uses a philosophy of detection of contexts, because the application knows the environment variables where it is located the whole time and it adapts its own actions and the actions that the user wants to trigger according to the variations of environment/scenery. The prime example of contexts detection relates to the part of the navigation, because the application knows exactly where it is crossing and it shows the relevant instruction. Another example is when there is a navigation error, it will be able to identify the place and guide you to the correct path, and then return to the normal navigational process.

Web Services were also used so that all the information collected to create the roadbooks can be stored in a SQLite database and it can be sent to a web server where it will be stored in a MySQL database. The purpose of this server is to allow the sharing of the roadbook created by the users of Naturepathfinder application.

After analyzing the tests carried out with the target audience, it is concluded that the application achieved positive results with regard to usability and behavior in establishing and navigating a roadbook, because the vast majority of people who used the application during the testing phase managed to create a roadbook and navigate a road book created by someone else. Everyone enquired admitted that the application met their expectations and that this method of creating and navigating roadbooks has brought advantages in comparison to the use of traditional roadbooks on paper.