A Method for Generating Variable-Scale Maps for Small Displays

Abstract

With the rapid development of the internet and information technology, visualization techniques for mobile and interactive web maps have developed different requirements. Small screens make it difficult to simultaneously present information details and the surrounding context. Aiming at this problem, this paper proposes a novel variable-scale method that can allow users to properly specify the size, shape, and number of the focus area(s). Our method first establishes a hierarchical data structure for representing geographic data and then the client-side can request and represent the information according to only the operational command input by users. Experimental results show that this method can realize the variable-scale representation of real geographic data on a single screen. It can effectively solve the contradiction between a small-screen display and a large quantity of information.

Missing the city for buildings? A critical review of pan-scalar map generalization and design in contemporary zoomable maps

“…For example, an attempt has been made to apply generalisation to areas located outside of the focus -in the context -area of the map [97]. When a multi-scale cartographic database is available, the focus and glued areas can load data from more detailed zoom levels and the out-of-focus context can be extracted from less detailed levels [98]. Zhao (2020) even proposes multi-focus areas.…”

More is less - Adding zoom levels in multi-scale maps to reduce the need for zooming interactions

“…Besides OVERVIEW+DETAIL, FOCUS+CONTEXT techniques also enable the exploration of multiple scales, and some of the recent magnifiers proposed in the literature were applied to multi-scale maps [1,43,63,64,78,102]. However, these techniques cannot replace fluid zooming; they are complementary and are even more effective when associated with fluid zooming.…”