Me-Friends-Web (MFW): A model for navigation assistance through social navigation networks

Modern navigation systems/services are computationally sophisticated gadgets capable of assisting people with mobility in locations where digital road network maps are available. However, despite much advancements in navigation systems/services, they fall short of handling common constraints (e.g., individual preferences, indoor navigation, multimodal transportation, etc.) or the needs of people with specific limitations (e.g., wheelchair users, elderly, etc). Increasing the scope of navigation assistant goes beyond just adding more data or improving existing algorithms, rather new perspectives in requesting and receiving navigation assistance are needed. In this paper, we present a social networking perspective in navigation assistance in which members of the social network can share their navigation experiences. We discuss a navigation network system, called SoNavNet, and a model for it which integrates knowledge and experiences of the user (called “Me”), knowledge and experiences of friends through social networks (called “Friends”), and computation and information available through the Web (called “Web”). The model is called Me-Friends-Web (MFW) and its goal is to overcome the shortcomings of modern navigation systems/services and facilitate personalized navigation assistance.