Artificial Intelligence Changes the Map … Professor Kiyun yu, developed a technology that modify digital maps 


▲ Professor Kiyun yu, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University

 
Nowadays, everyone uses Naver or Daum Kakao maps to find buses, taxis, and directions. It is now time for the whole nation to use digital maps.
 
Who modifies these digital maps? This is done by public organizations such as the National Geographic Information Institute, or by large companies such as Naver and Kakao. This is because digital maps across the country are larger in capacity and cost more than we think. If all of the budgets are added together, it will reach tens of billions of won every year.
 
Recently, Professor Kiyun Yu of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University, has developed the element technology for reducing the cost of digital map correction. The technology uses artificial intelligence (Tensorflow) provided by Google, and it transforms large-scale maps into small-scale maps.
 
Although digital maps seem to have a single scale at first glance, they are in fact technologies that are composed of a large number of maps ranging from large scale to small scale. When a user zooms in or out on a map in a mobile phone, different scale maps are displayed rather than a single map. Those problems could be solved by applying the technology developed by the research team led by Professor Yu.
 
Researcher Jae-eun Lee, who played a key role in technology development, said, "Research has enabled artificial intelligence to become more involved in the world of digital maps. Further development is required for practical use, but if continued efforts are made, it can reduce the cost of editing the map."
 
Meanwhile, the research team applied the technology to the digital topographic map produced by the National Geographic Information Institute to verify its practicality. The result was published in the international journal "International Journal of Geo-Information (October 2017)".