Interoperable Spatial Information Model and Design Environment Based on Ucr Technology
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IEICE TRANS. INF. & SYST., VOL.E96–D, NO.1 JANUARY 2013 51 PAPER Interoperable Spatial Information Model and Design Environment Based on ucR Technology Yukihiko SHIGESADA†a), Nonmember, Shinsuke KOBAYASHI††, Member, Noboru KOSHIZUKA††,†††, and Ken SAKAMURA††,†††, Nonmembers SUMMARY Context awareness is one of the ultimate goals of ubiqui- commonly use a geographic identifier of location; for exam- tous computing, and spatial information plays an important role in building ple, the name of building such as Tokyo tower, or address. context awareness. In this paper, we propose a new interoperable spatial Geographic identifier is very useful because people remem- information model, which is based on ucode relation (ucR) and Place Iden- tifier (PI), for realizing ubiquitous spatial infrastructure. In addition, we ber a location by the name of the location. propose a design environment for spatial information database using our International standard ISO 19112 [4] is based on geo- model. Our model is based on ucode and its relation. ucode is 128 bits num- graphic identifier method. But, industries and communities ber and the number itself has no meaning. Hence, it is difficult to manage have proposed dedicated specifications such as Google map, the relation between ucodes without using a tool. Our design environment ffi provides to describe connection between each ucode visually and is able to then, it is di cult to interoperate the geographic identifier. manipulate data using the target space map interactively. To evaluate the To solve the problem, Place Identifier (PI) [5] has been pro- proposed model and environment, we designed three spaces using our tool. posed. PI is a specification to unify such identifiers, and it is In addition, we developed a web application using our spatial model. From submitted to ISO/TC211 [6] for consideration. PI is not uni- ff evaluation, we have been showed that our model is e ective and our design fied geographic identifier for worldwide use, but it provides environment is useful to develop our spatial information model. key words: spatial information system, ubiquitous computing, ubiquitous interoperability for dedicated identifiers that are proposed spatial infrastructure, spatial databases and GIS, web based services for each community. However, PI is not flexible enough to deal with complex geographic identifiers, because there are 1. Introduction many identifiers for the same location, and PI requires every identifier to be registered. For instance, suppose a depart- ment store and users want to refer to the information about Many researchers are interested in ubiquitous computing, a shop of the department store. Users can specify the shop pervasive computing, or the Internet of Things [1] which is by using the name of the shop like “UNIQLO”. However, a new paradigm of information and communication tech- users can also specify it by the name of the shop and the nology. One of the important technologies to realize such floor like “UNIQLO at 6th floor”. In such case, PI frame- paradigms is context-awareness. Context is defined as “any work requires each identifier to be registered to geographical information that can be used to characterize the situation of dictionary. Hence, huge numbers of geographic identifiers an entity.” [2] Generally, context includes four categories; should be registered for every location. location, identity, activity and time. Especially, location In this paper, we propose a novel spatial information plays an important role to realize ubiquitous or pervasive model based on ucR (ucode Relation) [7]. “ucR” is a repre- computing. Spatial modeling is required in order to utilize sentation for context which uses identifiers called “ucode” location information on computers efficiently. and relationships between identifiers. These relations form Traditionally, coordinate methods have been used for a very large directed graph like RDF [8], where each node is modeling spaces. However, it is difficult to match human a ucode or a string literal (that is an attribute of the ucode), context because coordinate method can only represent phys- and each edge is a relation between a ucode and another ical place. It cannot represent location for human under- ucode or between a ucode and a string literal. The feature of standing such as building, floor, and room. International this model is high scalability because it is based on dynamic standard ISO 19111 [3] is one of the examples. The fea- linking. In addition, we use triplestore to build our database, ture of ISO 19111 is to describe the location in the globe and its schema is more flexible and extensible than relational uniquely and accurately. Meanwhile, coordinates such database schema. Moreover, we propose a flexible method as latitude and longitude are not used in daily life, we to create new geographic identifiers by using combination of Manuscript received March 5, 2012. registered geographic identifiers. As mentioned before, pre- Manuscript revised August 19, 2012. vious work such as PI requires registering every identifier in †The author is with Hosei University, Tokyo, 102–8160 Japan. a geographical dictionary even if they can be defined by the †† The authors are with YRP Ubiquitous Networking Labora- combination of identifiers that are already registered in the tory, Tokyo, 141–0031 Japan. dictionary. Using our method, operation cost and amount of †††The authors are with The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113– 0033 Japan. data can be reduced. a) E-mail: [email protected] In addition, we propose a design environment to de- DOI: 10.1587/transinf.E96.D.51 velop spatial information database using our model. It is Copyright c 2013 The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers IEICE TRANS. INF. & SYST., VOL.E96–D, NO.1 JANUARY 2013 52 difficult to develop the proposed spatial model without using neighbor, and range. Moreover, our method provides gen- our environment because our model is based on dynamic erating new identifiers to solve a problem of PI framework linking, so the model is not human friendly but machine that we mentioned in Sect. 1. friendly. In our method, connection between each ucode ISO/TC211 discusses standardization about digital ge- can be seen visually and can be manipulated using the target ometric information services. ISO/TC211 consists of sev- space map interactively. eral projects. ISO19111 is the project for spatial referencing The main differences between this work and previous by coordinates, and ISO19112 is the project for spatial refer- ones [9], [10] are that we have shown the design environ- encing by geographic identifiers. As we mentioned before, ment of our spatial model, and have shown that the envi- the feature of ISO19111 is to describe the location in the ronment is effective to describe spatial information. ucode globe uniquely and accurately by using coordinate. Mean- is 128 bits number and the number itself has no meaning. while, coordinate such as latitude and longitude is not used Hence, it is difficult to manage the relation between ucodes in daily life, we commonly use an identifier of geographic without using a tool. In experimental result, we have shown location. Hence, geographic location based method is re- that an indoor place, such as a museum or a department quired. ISO19112 is one of the activities to specify geo- store, can be described within several hours. In addition, graphic location based method. However, it is difficult to we have developed an application using our spatial model, interoperate geographic identifiers, because there are many and showed the effectiveness of our spatial model. dedicated geographic location based specifications proposed The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In the by industries and communities. next section, we discuss about related work. In Sect. 3, the Place Identifier is a specification to unify such identi- proposed model is described. In Sect. 4, we describe the fiers, and it is discussed at ISO/TC211 as an international proposed method and environment using our spatial model. standard (ISO19155). In PI, the term PI is also used for the In Sect. 5, we describe experiment using our model. Finally, geographic identifier. Therefore, in the rest of the paper, we the conclusion is described. use the term “PI framework” for the framework of PI, and the term “PI” for the geographic identifier of the PI frame- 2. Related Work work. In the PI framework, PI interfaces are defined in order to communicate between PI platform and users [14]. In this section, we describe methods of location modeling There are 6 kinds of PI interfaces such as “PI registration for context awareness, and international standards for loca- interface” to register spatial reference system and PI, and tion modeling. “PI conversion interface” to convert a geographic identifier Many researchers have already proposed methods of to another geographic identifier which represents the same location modeling. Paper [11] surveys location modeling. It place. By implementing web API PI interfaces for every mentioned that four queries are needed in order to realize geographic database which is represented by the PI frame- location-based application; position, nearest neighbor, nav- work, we can interoperate geographic identifier and can cre- igation, and range queries. According to the paper, there ate worldwide geographic database. In the PI framework, are two categories of location modeling; one is geographic PI LocationInstance is defined to describe data of PI. It model and the other is symbolic model. Symbolic model can represent not only the geographic identifier, but also the consists of four categories; set-based, hierarchical, graph- position and the relationship between other PIs (Table 1). based, combined (set-based and graph-based). In addition, “alternativeGeographicIdentifier” is defined in order to reg- hybrid models that support geometric and symbolic have ister the alternative geographic identifier of location. How- been proposed. It mentioned two types of hybrid location ever, this information cannot be used as a formal PI.