Spatial Cognition Priority Program

	Spatial Structures in Aspect Maps   Interpretative und konstruktive Prozesse auf räumlich organisierten Wissensstrukturen   Räumliche Strukturen in Aspektkarten

	Summary:
	The project investigates geographic maps and map-like depictions as knowledge representation structures which combine spatial and symbolic knowledge in a joint representation medium. Of particular interest are representations which focus on specific aspects of the spatial environment they represent. The construction and interpretation of these structures is analyzed and modeled under an interdisciplinary perspective. From a cognitive science point of view, examining maps is interesting as this may help to improve the understanding of mental spatial knowledge processing; this, in turn, may lead to cognitively more adequate presentations of spatial information. The project deals with schematic maps (e.g. public transportation network maps) to examine how these maps represent spatial knowledge and how they are used and misused for spatial information purposes. Moreover, automatic schematization methods for map-like representations are developed. An artificial intelligence architecture for representing and processing spatial knowledge has been designed and implemented. The project's results are applied in using schematic spatial representations for the communication with autonomous robots and in designing cognitively adequate you-are-here maps for human orientation purposes.
	Contact Information:
	University of Hamburg  Department for Informatics  AB WSV  Vogt-Kölln-Str. 30  D-22527 Hamburg Principal Investigator: Prof. Christian Freksa, Ph.D.
	Project Information:
	Project Members Selected Publications 1998 Poster explaining the aspect maps concept Documentation of SIMSIS, a system for the implementation of spatial information systems Maps and Robots: A joint research effort with project "Spatial Inference"