The OPTORER PPE project is implemented under the Action “Synergies of Research and Innovation in the Region of Attica” of the Operational Program “Attica 2014-2020”, with the co-financing of the European Regional Development Fund.
The project introduces a new routing and navigation service for both outdoor and indoor spaces of tourist and cultural interest in the greater Attica area. Using the mobile phone application (smartphones) developed by the researchers of PADA, the project offers a comprehensive solution for guiding users on selected routes. The routes are dynamically created by choosing the starting and ending points of the tour, with emphasis on the user’s personal preferences regarding the tour (e.g., following the shortest route, the most touristic), the mode of transportation (e.g., on foot, by car, or by public transport), as well as the intermediate stops. Additionally, there is the option to select from pre-made routes created by professionals through a special Marketplace of tours, where service providers (e.g., restaurants or retail shops) can also participate by adding their services as points of interest.
The application offers dynamic rerouting not only using the capability to report any incidents (e.g., road closures) but also by monitoring the user’s physical condition through a smartwatch application that detects any user fatigue considering heart rates and step frequency (compliant with GDPR regulations).
OPTORER also allows for the creation of routes in indoor spaces, using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons placed at various points to assist the user in locating their position. As part of the project, the Cartographer tool was developed, providing a user (Service Provider) the ability to design their indoor space on the platform and, combined with the use of beacons, create internal tours.
Project Τitle: Optimal routing and exploration of touristic and cultural areas of interest within Attica given personalized adaptive preferences, promoted underlying purpose and interactive experience.
Project Duration: 04/08/2022 – 04/02/2024
Project Framework & Funding: Regional Operational Programme Attica 2014-2020,
Action: “Research and Innovation Synergies in the Region of Attica”
394.250,00 € (UniWA Cost : 197.500.00 €)
Scientific coordinator (UNIWA): Dr. Helen Aikaterini Leligkou (Professor, Director of “Laboratory of Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Systems – LCIIS” at University of West Attica, Department of Industrial Design and Production Engineering)
UniWA Project Team:
- Kogias G. Dimitrios, Senior Researcher, University of West Attica, Department of Industrial Design and Production Engineering
- Maria Polychronaki, Junior Researcher, University of West Attica, Department of Industrial Design and Production Engineering
- Dimosthenis Margaritis, MSc Student
Consortium – Partners: Vertoyo (Coordinator)
University of West Attica:
- Computer Networks & Services Research laboratory – CoNSeRT
- Laboratory of Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Systems – LCIIS
Research Publications / Results / Patents
[1] Maria Polychronaki, Constantinos Vassilakis, Dimitrios Kogias, Eleni Leligkou and Ioannis Vagiannis, “OPTORER PPE – Optimal routing and exploration of touristic and cultural areas of interest within Attica given personalized adaptive preferences, promoted underlying purpose and interactive experience”, στο 26ο Πανελλήνιο Συνέδριο στην Πληροφορική, 25-27 Νοεμβρίου 2022, Αθήνα, Ελλάδα.
[2] Dimosthenis Margaritis, Dimitrios G. Kogias, and Helen C. Leligou. 2024. An Indoor Mapping Scheme for BLE Beacon Based Navigation. In Proceedings of the 27th Pan-Hellenic Conference on Progress in Computing and Informatics (PCI ’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 274–277. https://doi.org/10.1145/3635059.3635103
[3] Vassilakis, C.; Polychronaki, M.; Margaritis, D.; Kogias, D.G.; LELIGKOU, E. OPTORER: A Dynamic Routing and Touring Service for Indoors and Outdoor Tours. Preprints 2024, 2024020404. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202402.0404.v1
