Restructuring Perception | Rethink Subway Map
Cognitive Wormholes Construction Based on Urban Data and Machine Learning


Keywords: Machine Learning, Object Detection, Image Segmentation, Urban Perception, NLP, Augmented Reality, Wormhole
Role:  Research, Concept, Data Visualization, Machine Learning, Design

Date: 2023
Individual Work

Reflecting on the fact that while bringing convenient transportation like wormholes and fast cognition, the subway system and the shape of the subway map fold people’s perception of the city in a two- and three-dimensional way. Dominated by the power of space, it generates a difference from the traditional perception of the city, which may lead tourists, students and even daily residents to overlook other attributes of the city. This project aims to explore three representations of people’s different perceptions of the city.

Before, individuals always only knew certain 'official recommended spots' for landmarks views, auditory senses including both noise and pleasant sound were sometimes disregarded, while emotions posted on social media were confined to personal expression. Through mapping the places where people can see landmarks through object detection with 436,602 street views, mapping the soundscape and soundmarks through image segmentation and classification, and mapping people’s emotions in digital social media through natural language processing with 126,017 Weibo posts, this project brings out that the three dimensions could distort the subway map and form new wormholes for understanding the city, restructuring people’s cognition to the urban environment.



Cognitive Distortion | City Image Perception Bias from Subway Map

Perception Bias from Subway Map Shaped by Power of Space






Three Ways to Perceive the City











Data | Urban Perception




Inverse Landmark | Places to See Landmark

Object Dectection Result




Visualize Soundscape | Street Sound Perceptions

Image Segmentation Result




Unfold Digital Emotion | Sentiment of Social Media Posts

Word Frequency Analysis




Reconfigure Subway Map | Perception Field Distortion





Perception Wormhole Construction | Tunnels to Shorten Perceptual Distance





Perception Augment | AR Subway Map Platform