{"id":{"repo_id":"mit","oai_identifier":"oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/44415"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mit/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/44415","repository":{"repo_id":"mit","name":"MIT","base_url":"https://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Cognitively-inspired direction giving","abstract":"Online mapping services and portable GPS units make it easy to get very detailed driving directions. While these directions are sufficient for an automaton to follow, they do not present a big picture description of the route. As a result, while people can follow these detailed turn-by-turn directions, it can be difficult for them to actually comprehend where they are going. Our goal is to make such directions more comprehensible. Our approach is to apply findings from human spatial cognition, the study of how people conceptualize and organize their knowledge of large-scale space, to create a system that generates written route overviews. Route overviews provide a big picture description of a route, and are intended to supplement the information in turn-by-turn directions. Our route overviews are based on cognitively-inspired design criteria such as: the use of spatial hierarchy, goal-directed descriptions, selective suppression of detail, and the use of the trunk segments and cognitive anchor points along the route. In our experiments, we show that we can make directions more comprehensible independent of the particular places a person knows - by using what we know about how people think about space to structure the way we present spatial information.","abstract_html":"Online mapping services and portable GPS units make it easy to get very detailed driving directions. While these directions are sufficient for an automaton to follow, they do not present a big picture description of the route. As a result, while people can follow these detailed turn-by-turn directions, it can be difficult for them to actually comprehend where they are going. Our goal is to make such directions more comprehensible. Our approach is to apply findings from human spatial cognition, the study of how people conceptualize and organize their knowledge of large-scale space, to create a system that generates written route overviews. Route overviews provide a big picture description of a route, and are intended to supplement the information in turn-by-turn directions. Our route overviews are based on cognitively-inspired design criteria such as: the use of spatial hierarchy, goal-directed descriptions, selective suppression of detail, and the use of the trunk segments and cognitive anchor points along the route. In our experiments, we show that we can make directions more comprehensible independent of the particular places a person knows - by using what we know about how people think about space to structure the way we present spatial information.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Look, Gary Wai Keung, 1978-"],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Howard E. Shrobe."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2008,"date_issued":"2008","date_published":"2008","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:21:55Z","subjects":["Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission."],"rights_urls":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44415","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Howard E. Shrobe."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.other","label":"Dc Contributor Other","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Look, Gary Wai Keung, 1978-"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2009-01-30T16:44:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2009-01-30T16:44:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2008"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission."]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44415"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2008.","Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-140)."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Online mapping services and portable GPS units make it easy to get very detailed driving directions. While these directions are sufficient for an automaton to follow, they do not present a big picture description of the route. As a result, while people can follow these detailed turn-by-turn directions, it can be difficult for them to actually comprehend where they are going. Our goal is to make such directions more comprehensible. Our approach is to apply findings from human spatial cognition, the study of how people conceptualize and organize their knowledge of large-scale space, to create a system that generates written route overviews. Route overviews provide a big picture description of a route, and are intended to supplement the information in turn-by-turn directions. Our route overviews are based on cognitively-inspired design criteria such as: the use of spatial hierarchy, goal-directed descriptions, selective suppression of detail, and the use of the trunk segments and cognitive anchor points along the route. In our experiments, we show that we can make directions more comprehensible independent of the particular places a person knows - by using what we know about how people think about space to structure the way we present spatial information."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Cognitively-inspired direction giving"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Howard E. Shrobe."],"dc:contributor.department":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."],"dc:contributor.other":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."],"dc:creator":["Look, Gary Wai Keung, 1978-"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2009-01-30T16:44:00Z"],"dc:date.available":["2009-01-30T16:44:00Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2008"],"dc:description":["Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2008.","Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-140)."],"dc:description.abstract":["Online mapping services and portable GPS units make it easy to get very detailed driving directions. While these directions are sufficient for an automaton to follow, they do not present a big picture description of the route. As a result, while people can follow these detailed turn-by-turn directions, it can be difficult for them to actually comprehend where they are going. Our goal is to make such directions more comprehensible. Our approach is to apply findings from human spatial cognition, the study of how people conceptualize and organize their knowledge of large-scale space, to create a system that generates written route overviews. Route overviews provide a big picture description of a route, and are intended to supplement the information in turn-by-turn directions. Our route overviews are based on cognitively-inspired design criteria such as: the use of spatial hierarchy, goal-directed descriptions, selective suppression of detail, and the use of the trunk segments and cognitive anchor points along the route. In our experiments, we show that we can make directions more comprehensible independent of the particular places a person knows - by using what we know about how people think about space to structure the way we present spatial information."],"dc:description.degree":["Ph.D."],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44415"],"dc:language.iso":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"],"dc:rights":["M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission."],"dc:rights.uri":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"],"dc:subject":["Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."],"dc:title":["Cognitively-inspired direction giving"],"dc:type":["Thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:21:55Z"}