Mapping the visual magnitude of popular tourist sites in Edinburgh city

Citation

Bartie P & Mackaness W (2016) Mapping the visual magnitude of popular tourist sites in Edinburgh city. Journal of Maps, 12 (2), pp. 203-210. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2014.1001453

Abstract
There is value in being able to automatically measure and visualise the visual magnitude of city sites (monuments and buildings, tourist sites) – for example in urban planning, as an aid to automated way finding, or in augmented reality city guides. Here we present the outputs of an algorithm able to calculate visual magnitude – both as an absolute measure of the façade area, and in terms of a building’s perceived magnitude (its lesser importance with distance). Both metrics influence the photogenic nature of a site. We therefore compared against maps showing the locations from where geo-located FlickR images were taken.  The results accord with the metrics and therefore help disambiguate the meaning  of FlickR tags.

Keywords
vista space; visual exposure; landmarks; perception maps; Flickr tags

Journal
Journal of Maps: Volume 12, Issue 2

• Main Map.pdf
• Visual Magnitude of Edinburgh City Objects.pdf