Abstract
We present the Virtual City Explorer (VCE), an online crowdsourcing platform for the collection of rich geotagged information in urban environments. Compared to other volunteered geographic information approaches, which are constrained by the number and availability of mapping enthusiasts on the ground, the VCE uses digital street imagery to allow people to virtually explore a city from anywhere in the world, using a browser or a mobile phone. In addition, contributions in VCE are designed as paid microtasks—small jobs that can be carried out without any specific knowledge of the local area or previous mapping expertise in exchange for a fee. We tested the VCE in two cities to map points of interest (PoIs) in transport and mobility, using FigureEight to recruit participants. We were able to show that our platform enables crowdworkers to submit PoI location seamlessly, cover almost all of the tested areas, and discover several PoIs not reported by other approaches. This allows the VCE to complement existing approaches that leverage experts or grassroot communities.
Highlights
We present the Virtual City Explorer (VCE), an online crowdsourcing platform for urban auditing
Aggregator This component takes all information provided by the crowd and processes it to identify which of the submitted coordinates correspond to the same Points of Interest (PoIs), validate PoIs locations, and exclude outliers
We introduced an escape condition based on two parameters: a combination of the time spent on the task and the distance covered: when a participant walks a predetermined distance and has spent a predetermined time on the task without successfully detecting any PoI, the task finishes and the participant is rewarded
Summary
As our aim is mainly to position ourselves against other systems that use digital imagery, we will focus here on three research themes only: Volunteered Geographical. Our aim was to give requesters control over the way they design their crowdsourced urban-auditing projects
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
