A Next Generation of Geographic Information Systems 

Max J. Egenhofer
National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis
Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering
Department of Computer Science
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469-5711, USA
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http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~max

Abstract. Over the next decade many developments in existing and new information technologies are likely to affect the ways in which science is done, decisions are made, and society operates. Early evidence of these trends is already available in the form of new satellite sensors, the diffusion and miniaturization of GPS receivers, greater Internet bandwidth, cheaper and larger storage, digital libraries, the growth of the WWW, palm-top and pen-based computers, and wireless communication. These technologies will provide exciting new opportunities to improve dramatically decision making and problem solving in the geo-spatial domain. They will also accelerate the trend of moving information technology off the desktop and into the field and into the hands of scientists, professionals, and citizens who discover, work, or perform leisure activities. Devices that combine a hand-held computer with a GPS receiver, a cellular phone, and a digital camera will enable users to integrate spatial analysis into their daily lives, opening geographic information systems (GISs) to the mass markets of day-to-day use. Such Spatial Information Appliances (SIAs) will differ significantly from today’s multi-purpose GISs, because we envision a whole family of portable SIAs that will be tailored to specific needs. Smart glasses, for instance, will allow people to augment reality by seeing additional thematic information or seeing through obstacles. Smart Compasses will be based on entry-level Personal Digital Assistants, giving directions in the field on such dynamic phenomena as weather-fronts or congestions. The Geo-Wand will allow users to query geographic space by pointing to features in the real world.  This talk will sketch this vision of ubiquitous geospatial computing and will discuss challenging new research questions about the spatial concepts people employ when they move through space, the interaction styles and modalities people use in the field, the particularities about processing spatial queries posed in the field, the efficient handling of massive amounts of spatio-temporal data, and the on-the-fly integration of new field observations with data warehouses across a distributed information network.

1. Introduction

Geographic information systems (GISs) as they are known in the late 1990s have reached a state of maturity and a level of saturation. They have seen unprecedented growth and popularity over the last 15 years, but to make the next quantum leap so that GISs become a true asset for new, broader user communities, significant design changes must occur. Pondering about “more of the same” use for GISs (e.g., as advanced map maintenance systems) will not generate challenging research questions, nor will “more of the same” research— more R-trees, more spatial SQL dialects, more formalisms of spatial relations— generate significant advancements. A fundamental assumption behind today’s GIS architectures was that these systems are located on the desktops of office users; therefore, the platforms— initially mainframe computers— are primarily workstations and Personal Computers (including laptops, their portable descendants aimed at office-like work). Considerations about what manifests a GIS, its data models, user interfaces, software architectures, and data storage do not scale to new use of GISs, such as in a wireless computing environment in the field or on the street. A similar dead-end is the concept of the generic GIS that is supposed to be applicable for the whole range of geospatial application domains. Such GIS platforms expose serious usability problems and build unnatural gaps between user tasks and platforms. Clutching at the top of the GISs does not work, because the underlying assumptions are not synchronized with the concepts needed.

The remainder of this paper presents the opportunities provided by new spatial information appliances, the personal spatial assistants of the future. Since they are only a concept at this time, not a product, we discuss technological assumptions and requirements for advancement of our knowledge to make them a reality.