Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Madalina Bulat and I am a sophomore majoring in computer science. I am passionate about utilizing technology to improve people's lives and am particularly interested in researching innovative solutions to accomplish this. My ultimate goal is to create real-world applications that make a positive impact on society!

Color Your Commute: A Guide to Vibrant Transit Lines

Abstract

Transit maps are a useful tool in navigating transportation. Despite its necessity, many maps, including the FSU bus system, are difficult to read and especially inaccessible to those with color vision deficiencies. As a result, we produce a program that can dynamically generate a set of colors. Our program generates n colors that are different from each other; these colors are different for both the average population as well as for colorblind individuals. To produce an optimal set of colors, we used a perceptually uniform color space, Oklab, to accurately maximize the minimum Euclidean distance between any two colors from the set of colors for those with deuteranopia. After accounting for a common color vision deficiency, we further optimize our color set for normal vision and then integrate our color generating program into a functional website, giving users the opportunity to interact with our code. When we compare our program’s generated colors to FSU’s transit map, we perceive a noticeable improvement in color contrasts. 

Keywords: Maps, Color, Transit