PAST NYC

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Product Spec
3. Wireframes
4. Schema

Overview

Description

This app will use your GPS location and show you how the area you're in looked like in the early 1900s.

App Evaluation

• Category: Education
• Mobile: This app would most likely be mobile.
• Story: Analyzes location data and retrieves the closest image from the early 1900s taken nearest to your location. (e.g if you're standing on Astor Pl. you'll see the crossroad of Lafayette St. and Astor Pl. or Broadway and 8th St.)
• Market: Anyone will be able to use this app. No groupings neccesary
• Habit: This app could be used as often as one would like. It would mostly be used for educational purpose.
• Scope: First we can use this app to engage people with the history of NYC. This could evolve to other cities where different version of this app could exist like "PAST Paris" or "PAST London".

Product Spec

1. User Stories

• User can view their location on a Map
• User can view pictures taken nearest to their location
• User can register for an account
• User can have a favorites section

2. Screen Archetypes

• Map View Screen

  • Allows user to view their current location on a map
  • User can explore the entire city and the images within:
  • Application startup demo:
  • 
  • Scrolling demo:
  • 

• Nearest Picture Screen

  • Shows user the picture of the nearest intersection.
  • Allows user to go back and forth with the next closest picture
  • Shows crossroad names.
  • 

3. Navigation

Tab Navigation (Tab to Screen)

• "View Map"
• "View Picture"

Optional:

• "Favorites"

Flow Navigation (Screen to Screen)

• Show All NYC -> Seperates by boroughs
• Show Near me -> Shows pictures taken closest to user

Wireframes

Models

Historical Image model:

Property	Type	Description
photoURL	String	A URL to the historical image
thumbnailURL	String	A URL to a minified version of the image
photoID	String	A unique ID for the photograph in NYPL servers
latitude	Float	Latitude component of image location
longitude	Float	Longitude component of image location
intersection	String	A name for the intersection or address at which the photo was taken

User model:

Property	Type	Description
username	String	A unique identifier for the user
password	String	A secure code to verify the user
favoritePhotos	[HistoricalImage]	Images saved by the user

Networking

• Requests:
  • Main map screen
    • (Read) Get nearby images from local cache:

    •   fileprivate func fetchImages(inRange coordinateRange: [(Float, Float)], withContext context: NSManagedObjectContext) throws -> [HistoricalImage]?{
        let request = HistoricalImage.fetchRequest()
        request.fetchLimit = 5
        // The first element of coordinateRange is the south-west corner of the search region
        // The second element is the north-east corner
        let predicate = NSPredicate(
            format: "(%K >= %@) && (%K <= %@) && (%K >= %@) && (%K <= %@)",
            argumentArray: [
                #keyPath(HistoricalImage.latitude), coordinateRange[0].0,
                #keyPath(HistoricalImage.latitude), coordinateRange[1].0,
                #keyPath(HistoricalImage.longitude), coordinateRange[0].1,
                #keyPath(HistoricalImage.longitude), coordinateRange[1].1
            ]
        )
        request.predicate = predicate
      
        request.propertiesToFetch = ["photoID", "latitude", "longitude", "thumbnailURL", "imageWidth", "imageHeight"]
      
        do {
            let nearbyImages = try context.fetch(request)
            return nearbyImages
        }
        catch {
            print(error)
            return nil
        }

    }

Endpoints:

• NYPL Old NYC image database:

Resource	Type	URL
Thumbnail Image	Image	http://oldnyc-assets.nypl.org/thumb/{id}.jpg
Full Resolution Image	Image	http://oldnyc-assets.nypl.org/600px/{id}.jpg