A fitting algorithm based on multi-touch gesture for rapid generation of railway line

Human-computer interaction (HCI) technology plays a critically essential role in the computer-aided design of railway line locations. However, the traditional interactive design with a mouse+keyboard cannot well meet the rapid generation requirements of the railway line during scheme discussion. This research presents a fitting algorithm for the rapid generation of railway lines by using a multi-touch gesture algorithm. The fitting method from free hand-drawing lines to satisfied railway lines is proposed. Then the interactive operation hand gestures are defined and implemented into the railway line location design. The hand-drawing lines generated by defined gestures are automatically fitted with the target horizontal line by using the inflection detection algorithm based on Euclidean Distance (ED). Meanwhile, the vertical line can be fitted by a similar algorithm with an extreme point-to-point (EPP) and chord-to-point distance accumulation (CPDA). Moreover, a real-world example verification is carried out. The multi-touch gesture algorithm is applied for the automatic fitting of the railway line. Compared with the traditional interactive methods, the consumption time of railway line generation by using the multi-touch interactive mode is decreased by about 15%. This research provides fundamental support for rapid scheme discussion of railway line generation based on natural HCI, which is well-matched with modern handheld devices, and the requirements of rapid selection as well as the quick comparison of railway line schemes in the early stage of design.