Abstract:
When developing an application for blind and visually impaired users, additional features must be provided for that user to extrapolate the same data as a sighted user. The adaptation of thematic maps for blind and visually impaired users requires two major considerations: a way to convey trends that does not require sight (e.g. using sound), and a data structure that allows the map to respond quickly enough so that the user, if interacting with a touchscreen interface or similar, can drag their finger across the screen and receive information that corresponds to the location of their finger in real time. This project evaluates the quadtree as a data structure that will these requirements, by testing the size of the quadtrees created by large amounts of data and the retrieval time of a node, given these trees. It shows that a quadtree structure allows objects to be found quickly and creates a tree that is small in relation to the size of the graphical canvas and the number of objects depicted, concluding that the quadtree is a reasonable data structure for this type of data.
Description:
48 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of Computer & Information Science and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Science, Spring 2017