Smart Guide

C.D. Godagama#1, S.Vasanthapriyan *2

# Department of Computing and Information Systems,
Faculty of Applied Sciences, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, P.O Box 02, Belihuloya, Sri Lanka.
1godagama_cd@susl.lk
* Department of Computing and Information Systems,
Faculty of Applied Sciences, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, P.O Box 02, Belihuloya, Sri Lanka.
2priyan@sab.ac.lk

Abstract— In “Smart Guide” project we are focusing on developing a windows phone 7.1 based smartphone application which will help visitors of National Zoological Garden to find paths inside the zoo and get sufficient information about animals live in the zoo. Since we are using our own created map we have to find a way to get best path in order to find the paths inside the zoo. To get user’s location we use GPS technology. But we have to find a way to deal with GPS error which is approximately 10-30 meters.

Keywords— Windows Phone 7.1, Smartphone, GPS, GPS error

I. Introduction National Zoological Garden of Sri Lanka (also called Colombo Zoo or Dehiwala Zoo) is a zoological garden situated in Dehiwala, Sri Lanka, established in 1936. It spreads over 22 acres of land and facilitates over 3500 animals belongs to 350 species over 50 places. Generally about 5000 people visit the zoo daily and this could be increased up to 10000 during weekends and school vacations. [1][2] Since it covers 22 acres of land, it is hard to find the correct order to visit all 50 places and visitors will surely miss some of the places. In a crowded day this will be worst. If you are paying for a guide you should pay more than Rs. 2000/- for him. But still it is not productive because you can’t hear things that guide say due to the noise of the crowded surrounding. Also visitors (especially foreigners) cannot rely on guides because some people used to do frauds acting as guides. In addition, language will be a barrier for a local citizen (if the guide knows only Sinhala or Tamil). “Smart Guide” is a smart phone application based on Windows Phone 7 platform[4][5][7]. This application will help visitors to find the path to the zoological garden from anywhere in Colombo and also safely come out of the zoo after visiting each and every cages located in the zoo. In addition, this will provide sufficient information on each species of animals when our client has reached to the relevant cage.

II. Supporting Technologies We have decided to develop this application on Windows Phone 7.1 because it is a powerful all in one platform with an attracting user interfaces. We didn’t use the newest Windows Phone 8 because that doesn’t support on Windows Phone 7 platform devices. Also we didn’t use Windows Phone 7 because that doesn’t possess many of features which are included in Windows Phone 7.1. Interfaces will be designed using XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language)[6] and backend programming will be done using C#. Global Positioning System (GPS) is used to get user’s current location. We don’t store information and pictures of animals in the local storage of the phone. That information will be stored in a web server and will access that information using web browser when necessary. PHP and MySQL will be used to retrieve information accordingly.

III. Literature “Google maps” and “Bing maps” are providing directions to the zoo from anywhere in Sri Lanka. But they do not provide walking directions within the zoo. Therefore visitors have to get assistance of a guide or find paths themselves inside the zoo. Also it is very hard to find more information about animals. There are many books which provide information about animals in the zoo and the official web site of the zoological garden also provides information regarding animals in the zoo. But it is not possible for every visitor to buy books and go through them while walking inside the zoo. Further the information provided by the official website of the zoological gardens is not sufficient. The present project of creating a smart phone application as a guide to the zoological gardens provides solutions to above mentioned problems. “Smart Guide” will direct visitors inside the zoological garden and also will be used to provide more information about animals. This project intended to provide solutions for identified issues that visitors face in finding the correct way inside the zoo.

IV. Methodology This project intended to help visitors of Colombo Zoological gardens as a guide inside the zoo and also providing information about animals in the zoo. To achieve project requirements it is important to fulfil the following targets in the software development phase. • Create the required designs and maps. • Find a way to get the correct latitude and longitude values of current location using smart phone’s GPS device.[5] • Create a way to find best path to a specific position. • Create methods required to access phone’s camera and find a way to share photos taken by camera to a social networking site. Providing sufficient information about animals is another major requirement in this application. To fulfill this requirement information will be gathered from the management of the zoological garden and through referring required documents. In order to provide details of the each and every cage or place of animals it is necessary to find correct latitude and longitude values of those places. For this a simple application would be created which can be used to get correct latitude and longitude values. Coding’s which used in this application would also be used in the “Smart Guide” application too.

Fig. 1. The basic architecture of the “Smart Guide” application

In the process of creating this application GPS (Global Positioning System) is used to identify the current position of the user. Bing maps would be used to get the correct directions to the zoological gardens. The Smart Guide application would be created using C# and XAML programming languages. In creating this application “Windows Phone” is used instead of “Android” due to the easy design environment provided by the Windows Phone to work with C# and XAML. Once the application is fully developed it can be tested onsite and later it would be published in the Windows Phone App Store. Once the application is published visitors of the zoological garden can install this application to their phones and use whenever they need it.

V. Results At early stages of this project we did some surveys with visitors of the zoological garden. Out of 50 people who were talked with us only very few of people have visited more than 40 places out of 56 places.

Number of people [pic]Number of cages visited

Fig. 2. How people visited cages inside the zoological garden

Also we have gathered information about GPS locations inside the zoological garden using nokia “Lumia 510” smart phone. From those observations we saw there is a huge difference in location values when we are inside a concrete building or in other closed areas. But it is working properly when we are at an open area.

VI. Conclusions “Smart Guide” is a Windows Phone application which will help as a guide to visitors of Zoological Garden. When this application is fully developed people can download it from the Windows Phone App Store and can use as a guide for them inside the zoo. This will help users to find directions to Zoological Garden from anywhere in Colombo. When user is inside the Zoological Garden this app will show the inside map of the zoo and this will indicate user’s current position on that map. Also this application will help users to find animals, information about animals, places, etc. Other than those features “Smart Guide” will be equipped with instant photo uploading facility and sharing photos on social networks facility. Once users visit the Zoological Garden with this application, they will surely experience more things than others.

Acknowledgment We have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to all of them. We are highly indebted to the Department of Computing and Information Systems for providing guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the project & also for their support in completing the project. We would like to express our special gratitude and thanks to the IT department of Zoological Garden – Dehiwala, for giving us such attention and time.

References
1] Official web site of the National Zoological Garden of Sri Lanka, Dehiwala. Retrieved February 4, 2013, from colombozoo.gov.lk [Online]. Available: http://www.colombozoo.gov.lk/?lang=en
2] “Facelift for Dehiwala Zoo”. Retrieved February 4, 2013, from Sri Lanka Birding and Wildlife Forum. [Online]Available: http://www.birdnestforum.com/index.php?topic=928.0
3] Nick Lecrensky, “Beginning Windows Phone 7 Application Development: Building Windows Phone Applications Using Silverlight and XNA”
4] Stuart Jonathan Russell, Peter Norvig, “Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach”
5] Understanding the Windows Phone Location Service : How to get the current coordinates. Retrieved February 4, 2013, from windowsphonegeek.com [Online].Available: http://windowsphonegeek.com/articles/Understanding-the-Windows-Phone-Location-Service-How-to-Get-Current-GPS-coordinates

6] Windows Phone Using Location Services (GPS) Retrieved February 4, 2013, from windowsphone7developerguide.blograby.com [Online].Available: http://windowsphone7developerguide.blograby.com/windows-phone-using-location-services-gps/
7] “What is XAML?” Retrieved February 5, 2013, from msdn.microsoft.com [Online].Available: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc295302.aspx
8] “Bing Maps Windows Phone 7 Tutorial”, Retrieved February 5, 2013, from msdn.microsoft.com [Online].Available: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/vemapcontroldev/thread/788caa75-6424-4d0d-94ad-6b1420b2d9fa

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Retrieve latitude and longitude values from GPS system

Retrieve relevant pages from the web server according to latitude and longitude values.