Route adaptive selection of salient features

Abstract

Human communication on wayfinding makes extensive use of landmarks. With a formal model of salience, route planning services can include landmarks as well. Such a model was presented considering visual, semantic, and structural properties of spatial features. This model measures saliency independent from a given route. Our hypothesis is that an additional factor is cognitively relevant for the selection of appropriate salient features: advance visibility for a person approaching a destination point We will propose a computational measure for advance visibility. The new measure is used to identify suited salient features at route decision points: a feature is suited for a wayfinding instruction if it is (a) salient, and (b) in advance visible. The relevance of advance visibility is tested by a comparison of wayfinding success with instructions made with and without this additional measure. Computational effort is observed to check feasibility. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.