Discovery of Upcoming Cross Streets in Google Maps Blind Navigation

This paper describes an application aimed at discovering cross streets within navigation routes by using the capabilities of the Google Maps API. The application’s core functionality revolves around locating the name of the succeeding cross street in the direction of the user, determined by their current location. To extract this information, the application synergizes the Nearest Roads library with the Geocoding API, utilizing a pair of points situated at an angle within a circular boundary centered on the user’s position, derived through the haversine formula. To ascertain optimal parameters for the circle’s radius and angle, a thorough sampling process encompassing 100 real-world instances from four Greek cities, Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, and Karystos, was conducted. These cities were selected for their varying urban characteristics, enabling a comprehensive evaluation of the application’s performance across diverse street network complexities. The findings highlight the most effective degrees and radius parameters which exhibit an efficient success rate exceeding 91% in accurately finding the next cross street within navigation routes across the sampled cities. This paper provides a comprehensive account of the solution methodology, the process of sampling locations across diverse urban settings, and the resultant findings.