The directory has always responded to a fundamental need of humanity. By displaying local information, such as a list of restaurants in a shopping mall or movies in a cinema, the directory is an essential step for discovering infomation for social activities at a location. Previously made of wood or metal, the decreasing cost of digital displays has made physical directories able to be replaced by digital directories, which are easier to update. However, digital directories do not solve the limitations of physical directories: the large amount of information displayed, the irrelevance of part of the information and the regular layout making desired information very difficult to find. Meanwhile, the pervasiveness of smartphones nowadays and the increasing number of digital display...[ Read more ]

The directory has always responded to a fundamental need of humanity. By displaying local information, such as a list of restaurants in a shopping mall or movies in a cinema, the directory is an essential step for discovering infomation for social activities at a location. Previously made of wood or metal, the decreasing cost of digital displays has made physical directories able to be replaced by digital directories, which are easier to update. However, digital directories do not solve the limitations of physical directories: the large amount of information displayed, the irrelevance of part of the information and the regular layout making desired information very difficult to find. Meanwhile, the pervasiveness of smartphones nowadays and the increasing number of digital displays at venues have accelerated the development of new types of cyber-physical systems and displays, mainly for advertisement purposes. In line with the past development of directories, this thesis proposes a new cyber-physical system: the cyber-physical directory. The cyber-physical directory overcomes the current limitations of digital directories by making use of both cyber and physical information available from smartphones. It aims to customize the visualization of its information by giving greater prominence to that of interest, speeding up information search for 1) a single user and 2) for multiple users. Finally, an optimized framework ensures that the total area of a directory display is utilized, while customizing the visualization of information. The system is implemented and tested under experiment to prove its feasibility and practicality. Compared to current physical or digital directories, the cyber-physical directory creates a new method of information visualization between people and local information: people are no longer looking for relevant information; relevant information comes directly to them.