Skip to main content

Landmarks and a Hiking Ontology to Support Wayfinding in a National Park During Different Seasons

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space

Abstract

This chapter describes the results of an empirical study aiming to provide additional knowledge on human verbal descriptions of routes and landmarks. The purpose of the present study is also to provide a theoretical basis for the design and implementation of our terrain navigator — a Location Based Service (LBS) for hikers. The central question regarding a terrain navigator concerns what kinds of spatial concepts and terms people use when hiking, and whether the concepts and terms are different from previous studies on route descriptions that have mostly been carried out in urban environments. We are also interested in what kind of role the seasons play in navigating; whether we would need remarkably different navigational instructions during winter compared to summertime. Altogether ten subjects participated in our thinking aloud experiment during summer conditions and another ten during snowy winter conditions. The landmarks were included in most of the propositions (79 % in the summer and 70 % in the winter). The analyzed propositions were classified into landmark groups and formalized as a hiking ontology, that also covers modalities. The results of this empirical study emphasize the role of landmarks in wayfinding when hiking during both summer and winter.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bittner T, Donnelly M, Winter S (2005) Ontology and semantic interoperability. In: Zlatanova S, Prosperi D (eds) Large-scale 3D data integration, Taylor & Francis Ltd, London, pp 139–160

    Google Scholar 

  • Blades M (1991) Wayfinding theory and research: the need for a new approach. In Mark DM, Frank AU (eds) Cognitive and linguistic aspects of geographic space, NATO ASI Series, Series D: behavioural and social sciences, vol 63. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 137–165

    Google Scholar 

  • Boren MT, Ramey J (2000) Thinking aloud: reconciling theory and practice. IEEE Trans Prof Commun 43(3):261–278

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brosset D, Claramunt C, Saux E (2008) Wayfinding in natural and urban environments: a comparative study. Cartographica 43(1):21–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caduff D, Timpf S (2008) On the assessment of landmark salience for human navigation. Cogn Process 9:249–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denis M (1997) The description of routes: a cognitive approach to the production of spatial dis-course. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive 16(4):409–458

    Google Scholar 

  • Daniel M-P, Denis M (2004) The production of route directions: investigating conditions that favour conciseness in spatial discourse. Appl Cognitive Psychol 18(1):57–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dean M, Schreiber G (eds) (2004) OWL web ontology language reference. W3C. Online. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-ref/ Accessed 30 April 2011

  • Golledge R (1999) Human wayfinding and cognitive maps. In: Golledge R (ed) Wayfinding behaviour. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, pp 5–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Gruber TR (1993) A translation approach to portable ontology specifications. Knowl Acquis 5(2):199–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guarino N (1998) Formal ontology and information systems. Formal ontology and information systems (FOIS’98). IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp 3–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Elias B, Hampe M, Sester M (2005) Adaptive visualisation of landmarks using an MRDB. In: Meng L, Zipf A, Reichenbacher T (eds) Map-based mobile services, theories, methods and implementations. Springer, New York, pp 73–86

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • HaptiMap (2008) HaptiMap, haptic, audio and visual interfaces for maps and location based services. Online. http://www.haptimap.org/ Accessed 18 Nov 2011

  • HFST (2011) Helsinki finite-state transducer technology (HFST). University of Helsinki, Department of Modern Languages. Online. http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/kieliteknologia/tutkimus/hfst/index.shtml Accessed 12 April 2011

  • Ishikawa T, Montello DR (2006) Spatial knowledge acquisition from direct experience in the en-vironment: individual differences in the development of metric knowledge and the integration of separately learned places. Cogn Psychol 52:93–129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobson RD (1998) Cognitive mapping without sight: four preliminary studies of spatial learn-ing. J Environ Psychol 18:289–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janzen G, van Turennout M (2004) Selective neural representation of objects relevant for navigation. Nat Neurosci 7(6):673–677

    Google Scholar 

  • Kavouras M, Kokla M (2008) Theories of geographic concepts: ontological approaches to semantic integration. Taylor & Francis Ltd, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  • Kettunen P, Sarjakoski LT (2011) A context-sensitive wayfinding ontology for hiking based on an empirical study. In: Moratz R, Giudice N (eds) Extended abstracts from the poster session of the conference on spatial information theory, COSIT’11, 12–16 Sept 2011, Belfast, Maine

    Google Scholar 

  • Klippel A, Winter S (2005) Structural salience of landmarks for route directions. In: Cohn AG, Mark DM (eds) Spatial information theory—COSIT05. Springer, Ellicottville, pp 347–362

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kovanen J, Sarjakoski T, Sarjakoski LT (2010) A client-server architecture for audio supported mobile route guiding for hiking. Proceedings of UPINLBS 2010, Ubiquitous positioning, Indoor navigation and location-based service, 14–15 Oct 2010, Helsinki (Kirkkonummi) Finland, CD-ROM. Online. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/UPINLBS.2010.5654302

  • Laakso M, Sarjakoski T, Sarjakoski LT (2011) Improving accessibility information in pedestrian maps and databases. Cartographica 46(2):101–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Le Yaouanc J-M, Saux É, Claramunt C (2010) A semantic and language-based representation of an environmental scene. Geoinformatica 14:333–352

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu L (2010) Data model and algorithms for multimodal route planning with transportation networks. Dissertation, Technische Universität München

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch K (1960) The image of the city. The MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Magnusson C, Brewster S, Sarjakoski T, Roselier S, Sarjakoski LT, Tollmar K (2009) Exploring future challenges for haptic, audio and visual interfaces for mobile maps and location based services. Proceedings of the CHI 2009 –locweb workshop, April 4–9, Boston. ACM 978-1-60558-247-4/08/04

    Google Scholar 

  • Manning C, Schütze H (1999) Foundations of statistical natural language processing. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • McGookin D, Sarjakoski LT, Anastassova M, Ferguson S (eds) (2011) Final prototypes and final report on the perceptualization of map data, context sensing and reasoning, and hardware development. Public report, Deliverable 2.2, HaptiMap, haptic, audio and visual interfaces for maps and location based services, FP7-ICT-224675, 29 April 2011, p 196

    Google Scholar 

  • Montello DR (2005) Navigation. In: Shah P, Miyake A (eds) The cambridge handbook of visuospatial thinking. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 257–294

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Navteq (2011) Online. http://corporate.navteq.com/products_data_advanced_discover_cities.html. Accessed 12 April 2011

  • NLTK (2011) Natural language toolkit. Online. http://www.nltk.org/. Accessed 12 April 2011

  • Nothegger C, Winter S, Raubal M (2004) Computation of the salience of features. Spat Cogn Comput 4:113–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Paepen B, Engelen J (2006) Using a walk ontology for capturing language independent navigation instructions. Proceedings of ELPUB 2006 conference on electronic publishing, June 2006, Bansko, Bulgaria

    Google Scholar 

  • Pick HL, Heinrichs MR, Montello DR, Smith K, Sullivan CN, Thompson WB (1995) Topographic map reading. In: Hancock PA, Flach JM, Caird J, Vicente KJ (eds) Local applications of the ecological approach to human-machine systems. Erlbaum, New York, pp 255–284

    Google Scholar 

  • Protégé (2011) Protégé ontology editor. Online. http://protege.stanford.edu/. Accessed 18 Nov 2011

  • Raubal M, Winter S (2002) Enriching wayfinding instructions with local landmarks. Geographic information science, vol 2478. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 243–259

    Google Scholar 

  • Rehrl K, Leitinger S, Gartner G, Ortag, F (2009) An analysis of direction and motion concepts in verbal descriptions of route choices. In: Hornsby KS, Claramunt C, Denis M, Ligozat G (eds) COSIT 2009. LNCS, vol 5756. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 471–488

    Google Scholar 

  • Rehrl K, Häusler E, Leitinger S (2010) Comparing the effectiveness of GPS-enhanced voice guidance for pedestrians with metric- and landmark-based instruction sets. In: Fabrikant, S, Reichenbacher T, van Kreveld M, Schlieder C (eds) Geographic information science, vol 6292. Springer, Berlin, pp 189–203

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross T, May A, Thompson S (2004) The use of landmarks in pedestrian navigation instructions and the effects of context. In: Brewster S, Dunlop M (eds) Mobile human-computer interaction—Mobile HCI 2004, LNCS, vol 3160. Springer, Berlin, pp 1–5

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarjakoski LT, Sarjakoski T (2008) User interfaces and adaptive maps. In: Xiong H, Shekhar S (eds) Encyclopedia of GIS. Springer, Berlin, pp 1205–1212

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sarjakoski LT, Kettunen P, Flink H-M, Laakso M, Rönneberg M, Sarjakoski T (2012) Analysis of verbal route descriptions and landmarks for hiking. Pers Ubiquit Comput 16(8):1001–1011. Online. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00779-011-0460-7. Accessed 21 Sept 2011

  • Smith B (2003) Ontology. In: Floridi L (ed) Blackwell guide to the philosophy of computing and information. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 155–166

    Google Scholar 

  • Snowdon C, Kray, C (2009) Exploring the use of landmarks for mobile navigation support in natural environments. Mobile HCI 2009, Sept 15–18, Bonn. ACM 978-1-60558-281-8/09/09

    Google Scholar 

  • Stigmar H (2010) Making twenty first century maps legible—methods for measuring and improving the legibility and usability of real-time maps. Doctoral thesis, Lund University. ISBN 978-91-7473-039-5

    Google Scholar 

  • Sorrows ME, Hirtle SC (1999) The nature of landmarks for real and electronic spaces. In: Freksa C, Mark DM (eds) Spatial information theory: cognitive and computational foundations of geographic information science, International Conference COSIT’99. Springer, Stade, pp 37–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorndyke PW, Hayes-Roth B (1982) Differences in spatial knowledge acquired from maps and navigation. Cogn Psychol 14:560–589

    Google Scholar 

  • Tversky B (1993) Cognitive maps, Cognitive Collages, and Spatial Mental Models. COSIT 1993. LNCS, vol 716. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 14–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Tversky B (2003) Structures of mental spaces: how people think about space. Environ Behav 35(1):66–80

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This survey is a part of two research projects. The European Commission supported HaptiMap project (FPT-ICT-224675) is coordinated by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Group of Lund University’s Department of Design Sciences. The UbiMap project is funded by the Academy of Finland, Motive programme and is carried out in co-operation with the FGI, Department of Geoinformatics and Cartography, and the University of Helsinki, Department of Cognitive Science.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tiina Sarjakoski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Sarjakoski, T. et al. (2013). Landmarks and a Hiking Ontology to Support Wayfinding in a National Park During Different Seasons. In: Raubal, M., Mark, D., Frank, A. (eds) Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34359-9_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics