Presentation of FOSS4G2019

1. Development of a public toilet search
system using open data and chatbots
Yoichi Kayama
OSGeo Foundation Japan Chapter
Aero Asahi Corporation

2. Self introduction
• OSGeo.JP member
• OSGeo.org Charter member
• A member of GIS Association of Japan
(Also a member of FOSS4G SIG)
• A Coordinator of QGIS Japanese translation team
• GIS Programer and Researcher
at Aeroasahi Corporation
Twitter ID @pokopen
• A member of ITDART
• A member of Code for Japan

3. The Tokyo Metropolitan government
publishes a lot of their data

4. Since 2017,
Tokyo Metropolitan government
has been hosting a contest
to compete in how to use open
data every year.

5. At 2017,Several themes were presented by
the organizers at the contest.
There was a theme to make it easier to find public toilets

6. I thought that a toilet search system could be
created using the FOSS4G tool if toilet location
data was published

7. There were multiple toilet location data in the public
data archive in Tokyo Metropolitan government

8. I found 4 toilet data in the Tokyo archive
Toilet data for parks and public facilities
owned by Tokyo metropolitan government.
Data on public toilets owned by Shinagawa City
and Taito City(Special wards in Tokyo)

9. Each data had coordinates. But those data
had different attribute data formats

10. Items of public toilet information which
in the public facilities and parks owned
by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Name of facility
floor
Toilet name
latitude
longitude
Coordinate system
Existence of taxiway
Position navigation using voice
Door type
Wheelchair access
turn in a wheelchair
Backrest
handrail
Equipment for ostomate
Large bed
Facilities for
changing infants' diapers
Baby chair
Picture URL
Remarks

11. There are links to the photos of the toilet
in the data

12. Items of public toilet information which
in the public facilities and parks owned
by the Shinagawa City
Name of facility
Name of facility
（In English)
Number of men's toilets
Number of wemen's toilets
Number of unisex toilets
Number of barrier-free toilets
Baby bed
Equipment for ostomate
Open time
Close Time
latitude longitude Picture URL
Description
Description (English)

13. Items of public toilet information which
in the public facilities and parks owned
by the Taito City
Major classification
Small classification
name
Address
phone number
Toilet information
latitude
longitude

14. I created index data for searching toilets and
attribute data attached to it separately
Public toilet index
With location data
Toilets attribute data
of Tokyo
Metropolitan Gov
Toilets attribute data
of Shinagawa city
Toilets attribute data
of Taito city

15. I created a Voronoi diagram using the toilet
location as an index to search for public toilets

16. We can find the nearest toilet by searching
the Voronoi diagram.
I installed the Voronoi diagram on GeoServer
If you use GetFeatureInfo on the Voronoi diagram using the location,
you can get the index information of the toilet near that location
{"type":"FeatureCollection",
"features":[{"type":"Feature","id":"boronoi.443",
"geometry":{"type":"MultiPolygon","coordinates":
[[[[139.52236293,35.686222],[139.5217894,35.68823733],
[139.52265736,35.69349495],[139.52832257,35.70079911],
[139.52863594,35.70075584],[139.53256036,35.70003536],
[139.53793244,35.69468782],[139.53787073,35.6946377],
[139.52385133,35.68644029],[139.52236293,35.686222]]]]},
"geometry_name":"the_geom",
"properties":{"kid":2877,"tbname":"park_barrier_free_wc","id":270,
"name":"野川公園 地上 6号トイレ"}}],
"totalFeatures":"unknown","numberReturned":1,
"timeStamp":"2019-08-17T06:12:48.523Z",
"crs":{"type":"name","properties":{"name":"urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326"}}}
GetfeatureInfo (query with location)
Query result( index of toilet data record)

17. The toilet index information contains the
name of the seat to be referenced and the
index of the data in it
Different sheets have different attribute data
structures
Use this information to get information about
public toilets that users can see
You can use this method to return search
results even if the data structure is different
{"type":"FeatureCollection",
"features":[{"type":"Feature","id":"boronoi.443",
"geometry":{"type":"MultiPolygon","coordinates":
[[[[139.52236293,35.686222],[139.5217894,35.68823733],
[139.52265736,35.69349495],[139.52832257,35.70079911],
[139.52863594,35.70075584],[139.53256036,35.70003536],
[139.53793244,35.69468782],[139.53787073,35.6946377],
[139.52385133,35.68644029],[139.52236293,35.686222]]]]},
"geometry_name":"the_geom",
"properties":{"kid":2877,"tbname":"park_barrier_free_wc","id":270,
"name":"野川公園 地上 6号トイレ"}}],
"totalFeatures":"unknown","numberReturned":1,
"timeStamp":"2019-08-17T06:12:48.523Z",
"crs":{"type":"name","properties":{"name":"urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326"}}}

18. Public toilet search mechanism I created
Location info
from GNSS
Address
String
Geocoding
Search to
Voronoi
polygon
using location
information
Get a Public
toilet
information
index
Public toilet
information
Google Spread Sheet
(Tokyo Metropolitan
Government)
Public toilet
information
Google Spread Sheet
(Shinagawa city)
Public toilet
information
Google Spread Sheet
(Taito City)
Result
Toilet
information

19. I had to create a user interface for this mechanism
Location info
from GNSS
Address
String
Geocoding
Search to
Voronoi
polygon
using location
information
Get a Public
toilet
information
index
Public toilet
information
Google Spread Sheet
(Tokyo Metropolitan
Government)
Public toilet
information
Google Spread Sheet
(Shinagawa city)
Public toilet
information
Google Spread Sheet
(Taito City)
Result
Toilet
information

20. What is required of the user interface of this
system
The ability to use this
function on a smartphone
Usage is not complicated

21. I thought
it would be nice to create a toilet
search system using the message
application for smartphones
that many people use

22. There is a chat system called LINE
with many users in Japan

23. Many users use LINE on smartphones

24. We can post text, location information, etc,
in LINE chat.
location Text picture etc

25. In LINE, we can create a program called
chatbot and let the program respond to users
Chatbot Program
Send information
Response
Send information
Response

26. I thought that if I sent location information to a
chatbot on LINE, I could search for nearby toilets
using that location and display the results.
Search to
Voronoi
polygon
using location
information
Get a Public
toilet
information
index
Public toilet
information
Google Spread Sheet
(Tokyo Metropolitan
Government)
Public toilet
information
Google Spread Sheet
(Shinagawa city)
Public toilet
information
Google Spread Sheet
(Taito City)
Result
Toilet
information
Input
location
Display result
chatbot

27. I have prepared two ways to enter location
information

28. The first location information input method is to
send the current location information acquired
using the smartphone's GNSS to the chatbot.

29. The second location input method is to send
the address text to the chatbot
Enter the address string
Entered address
Searched toilet information

30. System configuration
Search to
Voronoi
polygon
using location
information
Get a Public
toilet
information
index
Public toilet
information
Google Spread Sheet
(Tokyo Metropolitan
Government)
Public toilet
information
Google Spread Sheet
(Shinagawa city)
Public toilet
information
Google Spread Sheet
(Taito City)
Result
Toilet
information
Input location
From GNSS
chatbot
Input location Address String

31. Toilet data displayed as search results.

32. Click the link of photo

33. Public toilet search system with chat
system(LINE) as user interface

34. What was the result of the contest?
I'm not in
the photo of
the award

35. What was the result of the contest?
However,
my system was
highly evaluated
by the judges
for the location
information search
system using the chat system.

36. Problems and challenges
• Conditional search is not implemented
• The use of transportation means should be included in the search for
nearby toilets
• Not internationalized（Most of the data is only in Japanese）
• There are few toilets in the data of Tokyo and the data of two cities
（This year, data including toilet data of railway operators was
released）

37. New Application using LINE
• System development using LINE is increasing in
Japan
• I have created an information reporting system
when a disaster occurs using the LINE
• Building a system using LINE can reduce the coding
effort for the user interface and communication

38. Conclusion
• If we have data with location information and FOSS4G tool, it is easy
to create a search tool
• We can easily create a data management mechanism using cloud
services such as Google Spread Sheet.
• We can easily create a user interface with Line chatbots. In particular,
we can easily create a user interface for a system using a smartphone
with a LINE chatbot.
• It is difficult for us to internationalize the system unless usage data is
internationalized

39. Thank you !
Question ?