A virtual test bed in support of cognitively-aware geomatics technologies
pp. 140-155
in: Daniel D. Montello (ed), Spatial information theory, Berlin, Springer, 2001Abstract
Current efforts concerned with research at the interface between cognitive science and geographic information science or geomatics is beginning to shift towards a larger focus on how the theory developed may be applied to concrete applications. In order to provide some quality control on the development and evaluation of cognitively-aware geomatics systems and technologies, this paper proposes to consolidate current theory into a virtual test bed. The virtual test bed requires an appropriate and adequate categorization of spatial cognitive behaviors, itself a non-trivial task. In addition, the test bed must be sufficiently general to evaluate different kinds of cognitively aware systems. In this paper, three characteristics of such systems are discussed – their plausibility, their compatibility and their scope. The relationships between these concepts and the Turing test are also explored. A tentative categorization scheme, based on information processing needs, is then proposed as an initial framework for developing a virtual test bed. Several design issues are also presented, and the paper finishes with the presentation of two case studies that illustrate how the test bed might be used.