EUGENE,
Ore. -- (Sept. 26, 2011) -- The latest version of the university's official
iPhone app is available now and takes mobile mapping to levels matched by few
if any in the world, guiding users through the stacks of the state's largest
research library.
The UOregon
app,
built by students and staff in the InfoGraphics Lab in
the Department of Geography
in conjunction with the Office
of Web Communications, pushes the limits of existing
technology by allowing users not only to search the UO Libraries' catalog, but
also in most cases to map the search result to the precise location of the book
in the stacks at the Knight Library.
"The UO is way out in front on this," said Ken Kato, assistant director of the
InfoGraphics lab. "We Ducks should have some serious bragging rights in this
arena. We haven't been able to find anybody else -- university or otherwise --
doing quite what we're doing: leveraging room-level Geographic Information
System data and maps to deliver real-time, real-space interior mobile mapping."
Although
Knight Library boasts the only interior map in the app, there's tremendous
potential for applying the interior mapping technology elsewhere, Kato says.
"This
is only the tip of the iceberg -- a proof of concept if you will," he
says. "We can deliver room-level mobile mapping and location services for
any building on campus, with the data already in our system. Where we go from
here is pretty exciting."
The
UO first introduced the iPhone app in September 2010 and garnered an international
award
for the version that included the ability to search and map any room on campus,
as well as routing between spots on campus along a walking network. In addition
to the award-winning map features, the app includes UO news headlines, public
events, emergency information, the UO's online find people directory and social
media links.
The newly
launched updated "UOregon" also offers new and specialized tours of campus that
showcase sustainability efforts, trees, artwork and historic buildings with
photos and text.
Videos featuring UO Student Ambassadors - the same students who give the
official UO walking tours every day - highlight the iPhone's version of the
campus tour.
According to Kato, beyond functionality, part of what makes the app special is
that so many different students from different disciplines on campus combined
with lab faculty and staffers to produce it.
"You want to develop iPhone apps? Interested in the intersection of mobile and
spatial? UO Geography is the place to be," Kato says. "We're eager to take
these exciting innovations from our lab to the classroom."
There
were 20,000 downloads of the initial version of the app. The updated version has received 11,000
downloads-new and updates-in the first week of availability. The app is
available at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/uoregon/id391016299?mt=8.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the
108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation
of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification
of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific
Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.
MEDIA
CONTACT: Julie
Brown, UO media relations, 541-346-3185, julbrown@uoregon.edu
SOURCE: Ken Kato, UO InfoGraphics Lab
and geography department, 541-346-5810, kkato@uoregon.edu
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