Using Orientation Information for Qualitative Spatial Reasoning

A new approach to representing qualitative spatial knowledge and to spatial reasoning is presented. This approach is motivated by cognitive considerations and is based on relative orientation information about spatial environments. The approach aims at exploiting properties of physical space which surface when the spatial knowledge is structured according to conceptual neighborhood of spatial relations. The paper introduces the notion of conceptual neighborhood and its relevance for qualitative temporal reasoning. The extension of the benefits to spatial reasoning is suggested. Several approaches to qualitative spatial reasoning are briefly reviewed. Differences between the temporal and the spatial domain are outlined. A way of transferring a qualitative temporal reasoning method to the spatial domain is proposed. The resulting neighborhood-oriented representation and reasoning approach is presented and illustrated. An example for an application of the approach is discussed.