Spatiotemporal Analysis of Rambling Activities: Approach to Inferring Visitor Satisfaction

A method for investigating trajectories of rambling objects is proposed. The goal of this study is to infer people’s satisfaction with their experiences by using their trajectories. Two aspects of rambling activities—multi-stop and multi-purpose trips, and trips with unplanned stops at various destination—are examined using mathematical knot theory. A two-dimensional trajectory is transformed into a three-dimensional curve composed of geographical location and dwell time at the visited spots. The aspects of rambling activities are reflected in the shapes of the knots obtained by deforming the curve. An experiment using 135 participant trajectories obtained at a campus festival confirmed: (1) trajectories caused by rambling were effectively detected; and (2) our method reproduced the relation between rambling activities and a participant’s satisfaction with the festival. Namely, the more satisfied a participant was with the festival, the more likely he was to move around the venue. It is concluded that this method infers visitors’ satisfaction with their experiences and is useful for designing ideal spaces to induce rambling activities.