Title: Geo-Mobile Query-by-Sketch

Authors: David Caduff, Max J. Egenhofer

Addresses: Department of Geography, University of Zurich – Irchel, Winterthurerstr. 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland. ' Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering, 5711 Boardman Hall, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

Abstract: The advent of wireless technology, such as cellphones, PDAs, tablet PCs, and sub-notebooks, allows transferring portions of traditional, desktop-based GIS technology to mobile environments. This paper introduces Geo-Mobile Query-by-Sketch, a sketch-based spatial querying system for mobile GIS environments that combines techniques for spatial querying with mobile technologies. The system implements an adaptive client-server architecture, which copes with restrictions of mobile environments, such as fluctuating bandwidth and frequent disconnections. The core concept analysed is the mobile sketch, a multi-representation data structure of a sketched scene, which enables an adaptation strategy that is tailored to the available transmission rates. We analyse the transmission cost of Geo-Mobile Query-by-Sketch and develop a protocol that optimises the adaptation level in order to guarantee quality of service.

Keywords: mobile GIS; wireless GIS; GIS; geographical information systems; spatial queries; sketch-based query languages; location-based services; spatial information retrieval.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWET.2007.012052

International Journal of Web Engineering and Technology, 2007 Vol.3 No.2, pp.157 - 175

Published online: 15 Jan 2007 *

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