Region-Based Qualitative Geometry. (2000)

by B Bennett, A G Cohn, P Torrini, S M Hazarika
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Qualitative Spatial Representation and Reasoning: An Overview

by A G Cohn, S M Hazarika - FUNDAMENTA INFORMATICAE , 2001
"... The paper is a overview of the major qualitative spatial representation and reasoning techniques. We survey the main aspects of the representation of qualitative knowledge including ontological aspects, topology, distance, orientation and shape. We also consider qualitative spatial reasoning inclu ..."
Abstract - Cited by 264 (18 self) - Add to MetaCart
The paper is a overview of the major qualitative spatial representation and reasoning techniques. We survey the main aspects of the representation of qualitative knowledge including ontological aspects, topology, distance, orientation and shape. We also consider qualitative spatial reasoning including reasoning about spatial change. Finally there is a discussion of theoretical results and a glimpse of future work. The paper is a revised and condensed version of [33, 34].

Qualitative Spatial Representation and Reasoning

by Anthony G Cohn, Jochen Renz - An Overview”, Fundamenta Informaticae , 2001
"... The need for spatial representations and spatial reasoning is ubiquitous in AI – from robot planning and navigation, to interpreting visual inputs, to understanding natural language – in all these cases the need to represent and reason about spatial aspects of the world is of key importance. Related ..."
Abstract - Cited by 71 (10 self) - Add to MetaCart
The need for spatial representations and spatial reasoning is ubiquitous in AI – from robot planning and navigation, to interpreting visual inputs, to understanding natural language – in all these cases the need to represent and reason about spatial aspects of the world is of key importance. Related fields of research, such as geographic information science
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A Categorical Axiomatisation of Region-Based Geometry

by Brandon Bennett , 2001
"... . Region Based Geometry (RBG) is an axiomatic theory of qualitative congurations of spatial regions. It is based on Tarski's Geometry of Solids, in which the parthood relation and the concept of sphere are taken as primitive. Whereas in Tarski's theory the combination of mereological and ..."
Abstract - Cited by 27 (8 self) - Add to MetaCart
. Region Based Geometry (RBG) is an axiomatic theory of qualitative congurations of spatial regions. It is based on Tarski's Geometry of Solids, in which the parthood relation and the concept of sphere are taken as primitive. Whereas in Tarski's theory the combination of mereological and geometrical axioms involves set theory, in RBG the interface is achieved by purely 1st-order axioms. This means that the elementary sublanguage of RBG is extremely expressive, supporting inferences involving both mereological and geometrical concepts. Categoricity of the RBG axioms is proved: all models are isomorphic to a standard interpretation in terms of Cartesian spaces over R. 1. Introduction Many researchers in the eld of Qualitative Spatial Reasoning (QSR) have argued that it is useful to have representations in which spatial regions are the basic entities [10, 8]. This ontology contrasts with the approach of classical geometry, where lines, surfaces and regions are typically thought of as ...

Grounding geographic categories in the meaningful environment

by Simon Scheider, Krzysztof Janowicz, Werner Kuhn - CONFERENCE ON SPATIAL INFORMATION THEORY (COSIT 2009), VOLUME 5756 OF LNCS , 2009
"... Ontologies are a common approach to improve semantic interoperability by explicitly specifying the vocabulary used by a particular information community. Complex expressions are defined in terms of primitive ones. This shifts the problem of semantic interoperability to the problem of how to ground p ..."
Abstract - Cited by 24 (15 self) - Add to MetaCart
Ontologies are a common approach to improve semantic interoperability by explicitly specifying the vocabulary used by a particular information community. Complex expressions are defined in terms of primitive ones. This shifts the problem of semantic interoperability to the problem of how to ground primitive symbols. One approach are semantic datums, which determine reproducible mappings (measurement scales) from observable structures to symbols. Measurement theory offers a formal basis for such mappings. From an ontological point of view, this leaves two important questions unanswered. Which qualities provide semantic datums? How are these qualities related to the primitive entities in our ontology? Based on a scenario from hydrology, we first argue that human or technical sensors implement semantic datums, and secondly that primitive symbols are definable from the meaningful environment, a formalized quality space established through such sensors.
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A Proximity Approach to Some Region-Based Theories of Space

by D. Vakarelov, G. Dimov, I. Düntsch, B. Bennett , 2002
"... This paper is a continuation of [41]. The notion of local connection algebra, based on the primitive notions of connection and boundedness, is introduced. It is slightly different but equivalent to... ..."
Abstract - Cited by 24 (14 self) - Add to MetaCart
This paper is a continuation of [41]. The notion of local connection algebra, based on the primitive notions of connection and boundedness, is introduced. It is slightly different but equivalent to...

Physical Objects, Identity and Vagueness

by Brandon Bennett - Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference (KR2002 , 2002
"... The paper presents an approach to constructing an ontology of physical objects founded on a theory of the spatio-temporal distribution of matter types. The starting point for this construction is the formal theory O of `space, time, matter and things' given in (Bennett 2001c), in which ph ..."
Abstract - Cited by 18 (1 self) - Add to MetaCart
The paper presents an approach to constructing an ontology of physical objects founded on a theory of the spatio-temporal distribution of matter types. The starting point for this construction is the formal theory O of `space, time, matter and things' given in (Bennett 2001c), in which physical objects are modelled as maximal self-connected portions of some matter type. However, that theory is not compatible with the commonsense view of `physical objects' according to which it is normal to regard an object as persisting (i.e. retaining its identity) despite the loss (or possibly gain) of small parts, which are deemed `insigni cant'. The current paper gives a more elaborate theory of the nature of physical objects and speci es their identity criteria in a way that allows for possible loss of small particles. This is achieved by explicitly taking account of an intrinsic vagueness in the identity criteria for commonsense physical objects. The paper also uses this theory to characterise various degrees of physical damage which an object can undergo.

Abducing Qualitative Spatio-Temporal Histories from Partial Observations

by Shyamanta M Hazarika, Anthony G Cohn
"... We present a logic-based framework in which a qualitative spatio-temporal world model is constructed from local surveys i.e. partial spatio-temporal knowledge. Complete space-time histories are obtained through an abductive process driven by continuity constraints and a library of possibly dom ..."
Abstract - Cited by 14 (5 self) - Add to MetaCart
We present a logic-based framework in which a qualitative spatio-temporal world model is constructed from local surveys i.e. partial spatio-temporal knowledge. Complete space-time histories are obtained through an abductive process driven by continuity constraints and a library of possibly domain specific behaviour patterns. The abduction technique is circumscription, which implements the heuristic that changes should only occur when forced to. We then discuss various additional heuristics to drive the selection of preferred explanations.

Spatial Locations via Morpho-Mereology

by M. Cristani, A. G. Cohn, B. Bennett - in Proceedings of KR'2000 , 2000
"... We present a calculus for representing and reasoning about the location of rigid objects which may move within some region (we will speak of mobile parts). The calculus has both a mereological primitive and a morphological one, hence the title of the paper. We present an axiomatisation for con ..."
Abstract - Cited by 14 (10 self) - Add to MetaCart
We present a calculus for representing and reasoning about the location of rigid objects which may move within some region (we will speak of mobile parts). The calculus has both a mereological primitive and a morphological one, hence the title of the paper. We present an axiomatisation for congruence, our chosen morphological primitive, define the notion of mobile part, describe a subset of morphomereological relations suitable for representing spatial locations, and analyze the computational complexity of this set. 1 Introduction Developing formalisms for representing and reasoning about qualitative spatial information is now an active research area, both within AI, and within the field of geographical information systems [14]. Much of the e#ort has been devoted to developing e#cient representations for reasoning about topological information [2, 25, 24, 20], although other aspects such as orientation [22, 19], distance [18] and qualitative morphology [12] have also been ...
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Formalising Bio-Spatial Knowledge

by Anthony Cohn - Proc. 2nd International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS’01 , 2001
"... There is now a growing literature on qualitative spatial representations covering many aspects of spatial representation including mereology, topology, orientation and distance. In this paper I will briefly outline some of these approaches to qualitative spatial representation and then apply these t ..."
Abstract - Cited by 13 (1 self) - Add to MetaCart
There is now a growing literature on qualitative spatial representations covering many aspects of spatial representation including mereology, topology, orientation and distance. In this paper I will briefly outline some of these approaches to qualitative spatial representation and then apply these theories to the task of formalising a non-trivial domain: that of representing cell structure. The paper is thus a contribution to the evaluation of qualitative spatial representations and spatial ontologies and may form the basis of a bio-informatic information system.
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Constructing Bodies and their Qualities from Observations

by Simon Scheider , Florian Probst , Krzysztof Janowicz
"... The principle challenge for information semantics lies in the degrees of freedom to interpret symbols in terms of thoughts and experiences which leads to incompatible views on the world. Consequently, incompatible information ontologies and interpretations of the described data will remain. Even tho ..."
Abstract - Cited by 8 (4 self) - Add to MetaCart
The principle challenge for information semantics lies in the degrees of freedom to interpret symbols in terms of thoughts and experiences which leads to incompatible views on the world. Consequently, incompatible information ontologies and interpretations of the described data will remain. Even though there is usually a common experiential ground, it stays often unknown to users of semantically annotated data. This symbol grounding problem is a bottleneck of information semantics, which remains largely unsolved in ontological practice. In this paper, we suggest – in the spirit of Jeremy Bentham – to introduce formal primitives which are directly grounded in inter-subjective experience, and which serve to expose and construct complex qualities in information ontologies.