Searching Application for Southern Thailand Travel ...

Searching Application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide on iPhone Hathairat Ketmaneechairat

Phanuwat Yoksiri

Thitisak Jaisiri

College of Industrial Technology King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok Bangkok, Thailand [email protected]



developers have to agree with the rules defined by the App Store. Apple offers a set of development tool. After installing the development tools, the developers will have access to several applications and utilities [3]. The most important for a developer will be XCode. XCode is an integrated development environment (IDE) containing a suite of software development tools developed by Apple for developing software for OS X and iOS [4]. XCode supports for a variety of compiled programming languages: Objective-C, C, Objective C++, C++, Java and AppleScript.

Abstract—Recently, the travel guides have become an important tool to support tourists around the world. The tourists will search the tourist attraction and travel information from the book, brochure or website. In this paper, the searching application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide on iPhone is proposed. The proposed application is developed to search for travel guide information on different provinces of the Southern Thailand. The searching application function is divided into two modes: online and offline mode. The language can be displayed in two languages: Thai and English language. This paper presents the design and implementation by using Apple’s iOS Software Development Kit. The results show that the tourists can search tourist attraction including history, picture, address, phone number, website, map and travel detail. The maps can show the current location of the users. In addition, these maps can display in three modes: standard, satellite and hybrid. Overall information on tourist attraction can be shared on Facebook, Twitter and E-mail. The proposed application is better support for the foreign tourists and Thai tourists that they are used iPhone mobile.

Southern Thailand is probably the most diverse region in the kingdom. It is a place of dense forests, imposing mountains and deep caves. It is also a place of rivers, waterfalls and lakes. Most of all, the Southern Thailand is home to some of the world’s most famous islands and beaches. Whether, they are islands like Phuket and Koh Samui that are popular for the tourists, or destinations like Koh Surin that attract the more adventurous, or even Koh Phangan where beach party animals dance to the small hours of the morning, the south of Thailand has something for everyone [5]. There are a lot of the provinces of Southern Thailand such as Chumphon, Krabi, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Narathiwat, Pattani, Phang Nga, Phatthalung, Phuket, Ranong, Satun, Songkhla, Surat Thani, Trang and Yala. Southern Thailand has a lot of famous tourist attractions. So, the foreign tourists and Thai tourists want to travel in the Southern Thailand. The travel guide is important for tourists looking for detailed information about Southern Thailand. The travel guide information about the provinces of Southern Thailand includes statistical information such as population size and area; key tips, fast facts, and “don’t miss” attractions and activities; getting to and getting around each of the provinces; where to stay; where and what to eat and shop; attractions, activities, events, and festivals; and special offers, tours, and packages [6]. The tourists can search the travel guide information from book, brochure and website, but it will take a long time to search.

Keywords—Travel Guide; Searching Application; iPhone; Southern Thailand; Tourist Attraction;

I.

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, smartphones have become very popular for a large number of users. The smartphone is a mobile phone built on a mobile operating system with more advanced computing capability and connectivity [1]. There are a lot of producers, version and brand for the user to select. The mobile producers try to develop the functions such as camera, monitor and technology Internet. The most popular of smartphone is iPhone designed and marketed by App Inc. iOS is a mobile operating system for the iPhone. The user interface is built around the device’s multi-touch screen, including a virtual keyboard. The iPhone can communicate with the network through Bluetooth, WI-Fi and cellular connectivity. There are a lot of iPhone functions such as shoot video, take a photo, play music, send and receive email, browse the web, send texts and receive visual voicemail, video games, reference works, GPS navigation and social networking [2].

This paper proposes the searching application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide on iPhone. The searching application function is divided into two modes: online and offline mode. The language can be displayed in two languages: Thai and English language. Apple’s is Software Development Kit is a tool for developing the searching application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide on iPhone. The application has been

The application can be uploaded and downloaded from the App Store. The App Store offered more than one million applications for user to download. The developers try to implement application programs for the iPhone. The

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technique was developed for searching images from a large image database. The ACCC can reduce the computational complexity of index construction and similarity measurement for images from O(m2d) to O(md). The application is tested on a database of 3,600 images of places of interest in Bangkok, Thailand. The application is developed by using Microsoft.NET and tested on the Windows NT environment. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is used for database development.

developed using Xcode 4.0 in the Mac OS X Lion environment and the Objective-C programming language. The rest of this paper is organized as follows: Section II describes related work. Section III explains the system overview. The implementation and testing are presented in Section IV. Section V demonstrates the searching application for Southern Thailand travel guide on iPhone. Section VI indicates the conclusion and future work. II.

An ontology based approach to data representation and information search in Smart to Tourist Guide System is presented in [10]. The purpose of this research is to exploit the advantage of semantic web technology to help people find relevant information for their trips through web and smartphone. The STAAR system is the usage of ontology for representing travel information and knowledge. The STAAR mobile application provides various semantic search features with a dynamic ontology UI. [10] also propose an algorithm for itinerary planning which takes into account both factors: the distance of the trip and the attraction of places to traveler instead of single one.

RELATED WORK

This section describes the review of research literatures regarding to the study. There are several papers proposed to implement the tourist information application on mobile phone such as [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] as following. Kenteris et al. [7] proposed an innovative mobile electronic tourist guide application. The analysis, design and implementation of a city tourist guide system are presented. The myMytileneCity guide is a prototype system. The prototype includes a database-enabled tourist Website wherein, on a first stage, tourists planning to visit the city of Mytilene choose the content that interests them based on that chosen content, the system automatically generates a customer application which can operate on their mobile phone or PDA. The main design objectives have been (1) to enable the automated creation of portable, personalized tourist applications with rich and customized content; (2) to minimize the wireless connectivity requirement of the mobile tourist guide application user; (3) to cater for future dynamic application updates based on a “push mode”, wherein new tourist content is pushed to the mobile terminal with minimal user. The prototype is an implementation based on Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) which represents an ideal platform for developing powerful and portable applications operating in asynchronous mode.

W.Husain et al. [11] proposed a suitable recommendation method for use in a Personalized Location-based Traveler Recommender System (PLTRS) to provide personalized tourism information to its users. The PLTRS mobile application is a new combination of existing technology, which could increase patron satisfaction in the tourism industry. A comparative study of available recommender systems and location-based services (LBS) is conducted to explore the different approaches to recommender system and LBS technology. The effectiveness of the system based on the proposed framework is tested using various scenarios which might be faced by users. III.

X.Shi et al. [8] presented the design, implementation and deployment of a location-based application, called “TourGuide” with the mobile phone as a platform. This application permitted users to get tour guidance information they need anytime and anywhere. By Tour-Guide, the users can get an attraction’s detailed information including text, picture and video. In particular, the tourist data could be browsed or queried through an Internet map service such as Google Maps. By using the data-caching method, part of the user’s query can be processed locally reducing the wireless network traffic cost. The more frequently used data is stored on the client side to minimize the communicate cost and reduce the start-up latency. Tour-Guide client has been developed using XCode 3.0 in the MAC OS environment and Objective-C programming language. The server is implemented in a C# programming language using the .NET Framework. In the server side, the tour and other information are stored in the database managed by MySQL 5.0.

THE SYSTEM OVERVIEW

This section introduces the analysis and design of searching application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide on iPhone. When a user starts to use the searching application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide on iPhone, the user has to select the language between Thai and English language. Then, it will go to main page. After that the user has to select the mode between online mode and offline mode. The user can select the tourist attraction and the application program will display the detail of the tourist attraction. A. Offline Mode For the offline mode, the user can use the searching application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide on iPhone without the mobile network. The overview of the offline mode is shown in Figture 1. When the user starts to searching the tourist attraction, the application program will display the type of selection attraction. There are two types of search attraction: province search and category search as follows;

W.Premchaiswadi et al. [9] proposed a mobile phone image search application for tourist information that can perform practical image search processing in real-time. The systems architecture for multimodal of mobile phones was proposed and the new algorithm, namely Auto Color Correlogram and Correlation (ACCC) algorithm based on Correlogram

Province Search: The application program will display a list of the Southern Thailand Province. When the user selects the province, the application program will display the attraction province such as Chumphon, Krabi, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Narathiwat, Pattani, Phang Nga, Phatthalung, Phuket, Ranong, Satun,

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Songkhla, Surat Thani, Trang and Yala. The list of attraction will show in the province. When the user selects an attraction, the application program will display detail of attraction such as history, picture, address, phone number, website, map and travel detail.

Start

Category Search: The application program will display a list of the Southern Thailand category. When the user selects the category, the application program will display the attraction categories such as island, beach and bay, mountain, view point, temple, national park and waterfall, art, culture and heritage, zoo and aquarium, etc. When the user selects an attraction, the application program will display detail of attraction such as history, picture, address, phone number, website, map and travel detail.

Select Language

Thai Language

English language

Select Mode

Online Mode

Start

Select Searching Tourist Attraction

Select Language

Thai Language

English language Province

Category

MAP

Select Mode

Tourist Attraction around Current Location of user

Tourist Attraction

Offline Mode

Display Tourist Attraction Details

Select Searching Tourist Attraction Province

Category

Navigator

Tourist Attraction

Share Location

Display Tourist Attraction Details

Stop

Fig. 2. The overview of online mode searching application.

Stop

B. Online Mode For the online mode, the user has to connect with the mobile network. The overview of the online mode is shown in Figure 2. When the user starts to search the tourist attraction,

Fig. 1. The overview of offline mode searching application.

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Number 1: Category search of tourist attraction function.

the application program will display the type of selection attraction. There are three types of search attraction: province search, category search and map search. The province search and category search method are the same of offline mode. The map search using the Google Maps function on the mobile phone network.

Number 2: Find the name of the tourist attraction function. Number 3: Province search of tourist attraction function. Number 4: Setting language and general application program function.

Map Search: The application program will display the tourist attractions on a map of the Southern Thailand. The pin will be pointed in the tourist attractions. When the user selects an attraction, the application program will display detail of attraction such as history, picture, address, phone number, website, map and travel detail.

Number 5: Find me function is used to select the tourist attraction around the current location. Number 6: Emergency function includes the necessary of phone number for tourism. Number 7: Display function is used to show all of the tourist attractions of application program.

The result of a search can display more functions because the application program can be connected to the Internet as follows;

Number 8: Status function of application program.

The user can use navigator function. The application program can show the attraction around the current location. The user can be shared the attraction on Facebook, Twitter and E-mail. IV.

IMPLEMENTATION AND TESTING

The searching application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide on the iPhone has implemented by using Apple’s iOS Software Development Kit. The aim of this implementation is to offer the foreign tourists and thai tourists for the use as a guidance tool for travelling in Southern Thailand. The application has been developed using Xcode 4.0 in the Mac OS X Lion environment and the application can be used on iPhone mobile in the iOS 3.x and iOS 4.x environment. This application is developed by using the Objective-C programming language. SQLite Database Brower 2.0 b1 is used for database development in this research. The graphic user interface (GUI) is designed using Adobe Photoshop CS5. The testing of searching application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide on the iPhone is uploaded on App store. The application can be downloaded from the App store by naming “iSouthernThailand” or “ist”. V.

Fig. 3. The main screen of searching application.

DEMONSTRATION OF SEARCHING APPLICATION FOR SOUTHERN THAILAND TRAVEL GUIDE ON IPHONE

This section demonstrates the searching application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide on iPhone. The application has two modes: online mode and offline mode. The user can select two languages to use the application: Thai and English language. A. Offline Mode When the user starts to use the searching application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide on iPhone without the Internet, the user has to select Thai or English language. The main screen of searching application is a screen that displays all functions of the application program as shown in Figure 3. The user can select the icon to use the searching application.

Fig. 4. The screen of select language.

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The selection language screen of searching application is used to select the language between Thai language and English language as shown in Figure 4. If the user does not select the language, the user can back to the main screen.

The tourist attraction information screen is displaying the attraction detail and attraction picture as shown in Figure 6. The tourist attraction information consists of history, picture, address, phone number, website, map and travel detail.

The category of tourist attraction screen is divided into main types such as islands, beach and bay, mountain, view point, temple, national park and waterfall, art, culture and heritage, zoo and aquarium, etc. Figure 5 illustrates the category of tourist attraction screen.

The attraction map screen of offline mode is a picture as shown in Figure 7. The attraction map has travel guide information. B. Online Mode When the user start to use the searching application, the user can use the searching application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide on iPhone by using the mobile network. Then, the user has to select the language between Thai language and English language. If the user selects to searching the tourist attraction by province search and category search, the step of using searching application is the same as shown in Figure 3 to Figure 6. The user can do the other search method by map search. The result of the map search can display more functions such as the user can use navigator function, the application program can display the attraction around the current location as shown in Figure 8 and the user can be shared the attraction on Facebook, Twitter and E-mail as shown in Figure 9.

Fig. 5. The screen of attraction categories.

Fig. 8. The screen of tourist attraction map and attraction around the current location of user map. Fig. 6. The screen of tourist attraction information.

Fig. 9. The screen of tourist attraction website and share attraction on Facebook.

Fig. 7. The screen of attraction map.

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VI.

REFERENCES

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK [1]

Smartphone [online], available online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone [2] iPhone [online], available online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone [3] Apple [online], available online at https://developer.apple.com/iPhone [4] XCode [online], available online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xcode [5] Southern Thailand [online], available online at http://www.discoverythailand.com/des_south.asp [6] Southern Thailand [online], available online at http://www.tourismthailand.org/Where-to-Go/South [7] M. Kenteris, D. Gavalas, and D. Economou, "An innovative mobile electronic tourist guide application," Springer-Verlag. London, ch.13 pp. 103-118, 2007. [8] X. Shi, T. Sun, Y. Shen, K. Li, and W. Qu, "Tour-Guide: Providing Location-Based Tourist Information on Mobile Phones," 10th IEEE International Conference on Computer and Information Technology, pp. 2397-2401, 2010. [9] W. Premchaiswadi, A. Tungkatsathan, and N. Premchaiswadi, "Mobile Image Search for Tourist Information Using ACCC Algorithm," 21th IEEE International Symposium on Personal Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, pp. 2557-2562, 2010. [10] T. D. CAO, T. H. PHAN, and A. D. NGUYEN, "An ontology based approach to data representation and information search in Smart Tourist Guide System," 3th IEEE International Conference on Knowledge and Systems Engineering, pp. 171-175, 2011. [11] W. Husain, and L. Y. Dih, "A Framwork of a Personalized Locationbased Traverler Recommendation System in Mobile Application," the International Journal of Multimedia Ubiquitous Engineering, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 11-18, July, 2011.

This paper presents the searching application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide on iPhone. The proposed application is developed to search for travel guide information on different provinces of the Southern Thailand. The searching application function is divided into two modes: online and offline mode. The language can be displayed in two languages: Thai and English language. In the offline mode, there are two types of searching application: province search and category search. In the online mode, there are three types of searching application: province search, category search and map search. This paper presents the design and implementation by using Apple’s iOS Software Development Kit. The results show that the tourists can search tourist attraction including history, picture, phone number, website and map. The maps can show the current location of the users. In addition, these maps can display in three modes: standard, satellite and hybrid. The user can use navigator function. Overall information on tourist attraction can be shared on Facebook, Twitter and E-mail. The proposed application is better support for the foreign tourists and Thai tourists that they are used iPhone mobile. In the future, the searching application for Southern Thailand Travel Guide for iPhone will be improving the performance of search system. An ontology based approach and name matching will be used to develop of searching application for tourist attraction on the mobile phone.

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