Developing an Android-Based Maps and Virtual Audio Campus Tour Application for

Bulacan State University Main Campus

Chapter I

Introduction

Project Context

The 21st century is renowned to be the start of the information age. It is the age where
unfettered access is information is available to everyone. This overflow of information is used by
many industries and institutions and employing it in numerous ways to improve their quality of
life. One such application is through navigation.

The world is too complex to navigate on its own, hence being able to easily navigate
through the world is necessary. Online maps, Virtual, and Audio tour applications are created to
ease the navigation process for many people in the world. Online Maps applications provide
satellite imagery aided route navigation, traffic information and street views. Virtual and Audio
tours are sequences of video or still pictures accompanied by audio narration used to present
places as an immersive experience. These applications are employed by people to, not only, find
their way through their destinations but also familiarize themselves in the area they are
exploring.

An overlooked institution that benefits in using online maps and virtual tours are
Universities. University campuses are large and have complex layouts due to having multiple
college buildings and academic facilities. These huge buildings are situated strategically to fit the
land the university is located on. To follow the flow of information, most universities employ
multimedia tools to present their facilities to their new students. Universities use their social
media and internet presence to entice and familiarize future students with the university
premises. It yields more aspiring students to apply and enroll in university. With many
advantages, there should exist a method for students to familiarize themselves with campus
layout that is easily accessible in their hands.

The Bulacan State University (BulSU) is a leading state university located in Bulacan,
Philippines. The University is renowned for producing ethical graduates through its excellence in
teaching. As a leading state university in the country, BulSU is in a sizeable amount of land on
which its main campus stands. The main campus is a seven-hectare campus with 10 main
academic buildings catering, as of 2017, to an estimated 30,000 students in 14 colleges. It is a
huge university that may be hard to navigate for new students due to its sheer size and number of
buildings on campus. In addition, BulSU has started, in the past years, to improve and renovate
parts of its campus grounds and erect new buildings for its ever-growing population. These
improvements and renovations alter the layout of the campus, hence effectively making it more
difficult for new students to navigate. Aside from the renovations, the era of online classes due to
the Covid12 pandemic posed a situation of new students studying in BulSU not being able to set
foot in the campus for their first year of college education. Now that the pandemic is in its
waning stage, many students are now facing returning to the campus to conduct classes. It
produces a problem where new students are going to the campus but do not have the time to
familiarize themselves with the layout of the campus. It creates a difficult conundrum of how to
familiarize these students with the layout of the campus without affecting their college schedule.

New students not being familiar with the ins and outs of the campus grounds is already an
observable problem and is remedied by student orientations and building maps located in the
student handbook. Despite that, the aforementioned situation with the pandemic rendered these
methods inefficient and practical enough for the university to conduct.

Through the use of an android-based map and virtual audio tour application, the process
of orienting, familiarizing and touring students will be done efficiently and without any extra
effort coming from the university. The application contains the functions of displaying campus
maps allowing students to mark their locations and navigate themselves throughout the campus.
It also offers bookmarking rooms and facilities’ route allowing students to plan their route to
efficiently roam through the campus and get to their rooms much faster. In addition, the
application also has built virtual audio tours for students to simply roam around the campus and
learn more about the origins and layout of the campus buildings.

Purpose and Description

The deployment of the Android-Based Maps and Virtual Audio Campus Tour will
generate positive effects to the following:
Freshmen BulSU Students. The project aims to aid users navigating through the campus,
providing them with detailed and accurate directions and interactive visuals to give them a fast
and reliable navigating experience, the project also helps the user to discover and explore more
about the campus grounds.

Aspiring BulSU Students. A clear and defined introduction to the campus grounds may often
intrigue new students to explore and engage on to the BulSU experience, the project highlights
the campus facilities and services for the user to better understand what the campus can provide
to their needs.

Student Government. The project can aid the student government in their advertisement,
orientation programs, services, and initiatives that involve familiarizing students with the
campus, this helps the students to be guided and engaged by these activities.

Faculty. The project will also benefit the faculty, providing them with navigational convenience,
this may also help by pinpointing campus classrooms and facilities to guide their students on
their learning.

Future Researchers. With the data and information gathered throughout the deployment of the
project, future researchers are provided with reference and sources in their study giving them
innovative ways to further improve the research on guidance, navigation, and other future plans.

General and Specific Objectives

General Objectives

The general objective of the study is to create an innovative way to introduce and
familiarize the geography of the campus to first year and aspiring students of the main campus of
Bulacan State University using an Android-based Maps and Virtual Audio application.

Specific Objectives:

In particular, the study aimed to achieve the following specific objectives:

1. To remotely navigate lost first-year students to their respective room.

1. To orderly compile and present building layouts for easy navigation?
2. To create virtual audio tour that comprised of:
 a. Image slides of the campus interior
b. Audio narration
3. To create and develop an interactive map application that is capable of:
a. Displaying the map of the campus
b. Displaying detailed room directions \
c. Bookmarking room locations
d. Route compiling
e. Campus Virtual Audio Tour

Scope and Delimitation

The scope of the development of Android-based maps and virtual audio campus tour
applications for first-year and aspiring students of the main campus of the Bulacan State
University includes the following features such as displaying the map of the campus, providing
detailed room directions, displaying 2d image of buildings, bookmarking room locations,
compilation of room directions for easy routing for students, and providing a virtual audio tour of
the campus comprising of interior photos of the campus accompanied by audio narration. Each
feature is created using the technology used in the development of android-based applications.

The app provides a map of the campus based on previously available maps published by
the university and map provided by satellite google maps. The outdoor map will mostly be
coming from google maps while the indoor is based on the university provided maps. The indoor
maps will be designed as a compilation of maps for every floor of the buildings. The maps are
done in 2d to provide an easier navigation style for students. The direction is seen as both text
directions and outlined path in the maps for clarity. For students can bookmark by clicking on
the room or building then the direction for navigating the pinned location is preserve until the
location in unpinned. The virtual audio tour can be done by watching a video walking tour in the
application or listening to a provided audio tour while roaming the campus.

The researcher does not cover the development of the application in other platforms such
as iOS and windows in addition to not including maps from the satellite campuses of BulSU as
well as the inclusion of GPS tracking when navigating using the application.