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DESIGN OF TOURIST INFORMATION SYSTEM (TIS) AND 
INTEGRATION WITH PANORAMIC IMAGING 
O. Akcay, M. O. Altan 
ITU, Civil Engineering Faculty, 34469 Maslak Istanbul, Turkey - (akcayoz, oaltan)@itu.edu.tr 
WG 1 - Recording, Documentation and Information Management 
KEY WORDS: GIS, Photogrammetry, Databases, Photographic, Recording, Documentation, Video, Panorama 
ABSTRACT: 
Recently, panorama have become widespread by technological development on digital image. Investigation is focused on panorama 
by photogrammetry and image processing at last decade. Especially, panorama is useful for envision of virtual tours and travels. In 
the research, possibility of transferring of panoramic imaging to information system was investigated. Then an information system 
has designed towards tourists. It’s called as Tourist Information System (TIS). Historical Peninsula of Istanbul was chosen as pilot 
area for TIS. First, the maps which represent pilot area were scanned. Therefore, they were obtained in digital form. Scanned maps 
were georeferenced in TopoL software and used as basement of information system. In the information system, four vector layers 
were designed. First layer represents transportation, second one represents accommodation, third one represents historical 
monuments and last layer represents panoramic image. As depending on types of the layers, they were digitised as polyline, node and 
area on georeferenced images (raster data). Photographs which were taken by Nikon Coolpix 950 Digital Camera were used in order 
to create Panorama. The photographs were taken on Sultanahmet Square which is the historical place in Istanbul. To determine 
coordinates of point, where photos were taken, were measured by handheld GPS. As a result, an Tourist Information System was 
designed and video image (panoramic image) was transferred to TIS as a new document. 
1. VECTOR LAYERS AT TIS 
TIS was build with TopoL GIS Software. Four layers were 
designed to present information system. Figure 1 illustrates the 
all layers. 
At last layer, video documentation is georeferenced. Nodes 
determine each Video documentation (panoramic image) at 
fourth layer. 
2. DATABASES 
First layer represent transportation. The layer is digitised as 
node and line. Lines show bus and tramway lanes at historical 
peninsula. Nodes also show the stops which belong to bus and 
tramway lanes. 
Second layer was designed to respond accommodation need. All 
of hotels digitised as node at the peninsula. 
Third layer includes historical monuments. At the project, four 
well-known monument were chosen. These are Hagia Sophia 
Museum, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace Museum and 
Suleymaniye Mosque. The aim of third layer is to introduce 
monument’s various sides to tourist. 
^. Video documentation 
Historical monuments 
-► Accommodation 
Transportation 
1. Vector layers 
At first layer lines were related with data for transportation. 
Database includes relationship among bus and tramway number, 
bus stop names, avenue and region names, length of lane, 
possible main stop bus names which were connected to lanes. 
Nodes also represent same database with lines for bus and 
tramway stop. 
Second layer has database for hotels. Database has a lot of 
attributes about hotels. Each hotel has data which were hotel 
name, star number, venue, price, telephone, address etc. 
Historical monuments’ database was set up a bit different from 
preceding layers. Different kind of files were used as data. Each 
file introduced monuments. Extension of the files were doc, txt, 
jpg and xls format. Every monument has seven files. First file 
was built in txt format. It gives general information about 
historical building. Following four files demonstrated picture of 
monuments which were taken from different aspects. Sixth file 
has xls extension. Xls file explain specific visit possibilities. 
Last file has doc extension. It has information about 
architectural attributes of monuments. 
The files were copied to project directory. File paths were 
entered as data (Table 1). Therefore links were created between 
data and database by TopoL. To provide link, NDI files which 
are capable of linking to TopoL were coded. After the NDI files 
were coded, they were saved as P0001.NDI for regional 
graphic. TopoL isn’t capable of defining other names. The name 
should be L0001 .NDI for lines and B0001 .NDI for nodes.