Indoor Space Collector
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Urban Research Toolkit

Indoor Public Space
Collector

A mobile-first fieldwork platform for capturing human activities, pedestrian flows, and spatial quality in indoor public buildings — purpose-built for urban researchers.

Open the App View Source
Warming up app…
4Research Modules
5Field Tools
<1 minPer Activity Record
Mobile‑FirstPhone & Tablet Ready

Research Context

Indoor public spaces — libraries, transit concourses, civic halls, shopping atria — are critical sites of urban social life, yet systematic fieldwork tools for studying them remain scarce. This platform was developed to support structured behavioral observation, pedestrian flow counting, spatial concept mapping, and route-based environmental quality scoring, all from a researcher's mobile phone on site.

Research Modules

Four dimensions of indoor space

Each module targets a distinct layer of how people inhabit and move through public indoor space. Use them independently or in combination during a single fieldwork session.

Capture

Pin individual or group activities on an indoor floor plan. The most comprehensive data-collection module.

  • Individual or group records; group size counter up to large-group mode
  • Activity category: Moving (walking, cycling…) or Lingering (sitting, standing…)
  • Demographic attributes: gender, age group, ethnic group
  • Facial expression coding
  • Group interaction flag (interacting vs. solitary activities)
Activity Mapping

Flowing

Count bidirectional pedestrian flow at corridors and entrances. Draw a counting line on the floor plan and tally each pass in real time.

  • Draw a crossline on any floor plan position
  • Countdown timer (default 5 minutes) with Start / Reset controls
  • Separate A→B and B→A counters with large-tap buttons
  • Multiple sessions per floor plan supported
Pedestrian Flow

MyHub

Drop categorized idea pins on the floor plan to annotate spatial concepts during or after fieldwork.

  • Configurable category palette (colors + labels)
  • Tap the map to place a pin in the selected category
  • Review and manage all placed ideas in the side panel
  • Designed for post-session synthesis and team workshops
Concept Planning

MyRating

Walk and rate a predefined route through the space. Score environmental qualities at each waypoint to build a spatial quality profile.

  • Free Audit mode: tap any map location to rate it
  • Guided Route mode: follow a pre-configured waypoint sequence
  • Multi-criteria quality scoring per waypoint
  • Visualise the rated route overlaid on the floor plan
Route Quality
Field Tools

Built-in tools for the field

These tools are accessible from the Capture screen toolbar during any session. They let researchers attach richer context without leaving the map view.

Site Observation

Capture a quick photo or typed note about anything on site. Stored separately from structured activity records for later qualitative analysis.

Quick Capture

Intercept Survey

Launch a structured multi-step questionnaire for a visitor you intercept on site. The response is automatically linked to recently saved activity records.

Person Questionnaire

GPS Location

Uses the device's GPS to auto-place your current position on the indoor floor plan. Requires a GPS-to-map calibration file configured per building.

Auto-Locate

POI Location

Overlay named Points of Interest on the floor plan. POIs with associated photos open an image preview — useful for contextualising key spatial features.

Points of Interest

Environmental Audit

Score spatial quality attributes at any location on the floor plan. Rate dimensions such as comfort, safety, legibility, and activity support in real time.

  • Auditors take photos from four angles around the audit point to capture as much of the surrounding environment as possible.
  • The photos are processed with computer vision analysis to assess environmental conditions by identifying visible objects and spatial features.
Four surrounding-view photos for environmental audit
Quality Scoring

Guided Observation

Follow a pre-defined route through the space with sequenced waypoints. The app guides the researcher stop by stop, prompting observations at each designated location.

  • Pre-configured waypoint sequences per building
  • Step-by-step navigation overlaid on the floor plan
  • Observation prompts triggered at each waypoint
  • Progress tracker shows completed and remaining stops
Route Guidance
Workflow

How to use each module

Each module shares the same map-based interface. The Capture module is the most common starting point — a full session takes under a minute per record.

Capture — step by step

1

Select a building & floor

Choose the site from the dropdowns at the top of the screen to load the floor plan.

2

Start a capture session

Tap End Capture (toggle) to begin — the button turns active and the map becomes tappable.

3

Tap a point on the map

Touch the floor plan where the activity is taking place to drop a pin and open the form.

4

Fill in observee details

Set individual/group, activity category & type, gender, age, ethnic group, and facial expression.

5

Optionally attach context

Add a site observation photo or note via the toolbar for richer qualitative data.

6

Save the record

Tap Save Record. The pin appears on the map and data is immediately stored on the server.

Quick guide — all modules

Flowing (Pedestrian Count)

  1. Select building and floor to load the map.
  2. Tap Draw Line and click two points on the floor plan to draw a counting crossline.
  3. Tap Start to begin the 5-minute countdown.
  4. Tap the A→B or B→A counter buttons each time a person passes in that direction.
  5. The session ends when the timer reaches zero. Tap Reset to start a new count.

MyHub (Concept Planning)

  1. Select building and floor to load the map.
  2. Choose a category from the colour palette (e.g. Issue, Opportunity, Note).
  3. Tap any location on the floor plan to drop a pin in that category.
  4. Tap an existing pin to view or edit the attached note.
  5. Open the Ideas panel to see all pins listed by category.

MyRating (Environmental Audit)

  1. Select building and floor to load the map and route.
  2. Choose Free Audit to rate any point, or Guided Route to follow waypoints in sequence.
  3. Tap the next waypoint marker on the map.
  4. Complete the quality rating form for that waypoint (multiple criteria).
  5. Proceed along the route until all waypoints are rated.

Map Navigation (all modules)

  1. Use Pan Mode to drag and scroll the floor plan freely.
  2. Pinch-to-zoom (or scroll wheel on desktop) to zoom in/out.
  3. Tap Fit to reset the view to the full floor plan.
  4. Use the compass button to reset the map rotation after free-rotation.
  5. Tap GPS Location or POI Location to overlay your position or points of interest.
Open Source

Source code & contributions

The app is built with Django (Python) and plain HTML/CSS/JavaScript — no heavy frontend framework. The codebase will be publicly available on GitHub.

BayiLi081 / indoor-activities-collector

Django · Python · Mobile-first HTML/CSS · Azure Web App · PostgreSQL · Azure Blob Storage

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