Understanding landmark types in human navigation from a database perspective

Abstract. Delivering location based information to support human navigation in unfamiliar environments has been a long standing research topic in Location-based Service (LBS). Enriching route and direction communication with landmark information not only increases the efficiency of navigation applications but also facilitates spatial knowledge learning among users (Lovelace et al. 1999, Wunderlich & Gramann 2018). Landmarks are salient geographic entities anchored at fixed positions in an environment. In wayfinding and navigation, landmarks serve for multiple purposes as and organizing concept that help people build up structured spatial knowledge representation and as navigational tools to support navigational decision-making (Sorrows & Hirtle 1999). In previous work, landmarks are often conceptualized as reference points. However, in Geodatabase landmarks are not always represented as point features. Moreover, non-point features are also important references in route instructions, especially for pedestrian navigation. The signs, though often considered as point elements not only provide something about “here”, but also directional information (Gibson 2009). In this work, we attempt to provide a categorization of landmark for route communications from a database perspective. The proposed view is intended to be extended to a landmark model to generate various route communication, such as verbal instructions or symbolic visualizations.