Requirements, definitions, and notations for spatiotemporal application environments
Dieter Pfoser, Nectaria Tryfona · 1998
Modeling spatiotemporal applications is a complex task involving intricate issues, such as the representation of objects' position in time, and spatial attributes that change values depending on specific locations in time periods.Due to this complexity, the analysis of users' requirements-as the first phase of an application development methodology-is often rteg~ected, focusing, mainly, on physical design aspects.In this paper, we address the set of spatial, temporal and spatiotemporal concepts as they are drawn from users' needs.The goal k to support the developer's better understanding about spatiotemporal applications, by providing the concepts and the notations needed in such environments; these concepts wiIl, later, be translated into specf~c constructs and implementation issues.More specifically, space, spatiul objects, spatial adributes,jidds, time and ntodek of time are presented and then combined to accommodate spatiotemporal peculiarities, resulting into the new, spatioternporal, concepts of sn4zps7zots, changes, and verswm of objects and maps, motion andpkenonzena.Examples taken from two real large-scale applications show the necessity and adequacy of the presented concepts.Permission 10 make digital or hard copiss of all or part of this work for personal or cl-am use is gramed withmrl fee pmuided that COPIES are not made or dtibuted for pmfn or commers"ml advan.tage and tha$ copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page.To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on serves or to red~sribute 10 lists, requires prior specific perrrksion andlor a fee.