A geo-temporal information extraction service for processing descriptive metadata in digital libraries

In the context of digital map libraries, resources are usually described according to metadata records that define the relevant subject, location, time-span, format and keywords. On what concerns locations and time-spans, metadata records are often incomplete or they provide information in a way that is not machine-understandable (e.g. textual descriptions). This paper presents techniques for extracting geotemporal information from text, using relatively simple text mining methods that leverage on a Web gazetteer service. The idea is to go from human-made geotemporal referencing (i.e. using place and period names in textual expressions) into geo-spatial coordinates and time-spans. A prototype system, implementing the proposed methods, is described in detail. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed approaches

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio

Smart Geographic object: Toward a new understanding of GIS Technology in Ubiquitous Computing

One of the fundamental aspects of ubiquitous computing is the instrumentation of the real world by smart devices. This instrumentation constitutes an opportunity to rethink the interactions between human beings and their environment on the one hand, and between the components of this environment on the other. In this paper we discuss what this understanding of ubiquitous computing can bring to geographic science and particularly to GIS technology. Our main idea is the instrumentation of the geographic environment through the instrumentation of geographic objects composing it. And then investigate how this instrumentation can meet the current limitations of GIS technology, and offers a new stage of rapprochement between the earth and its abstraction. As result, the current research work proposes a new concept we named Smart Geographic Object SGO. The latter is a convergence point between the smart objects and geographic objects, two concepts appertaining respectively to

MusA: Using Indoor Positioning and Navigation to Enhance Cultural Experiences in a museum

In recent years there has been a growing interest into the use of multimedia mobile guides in museum environments. Mobile devices have the capabilities to detect the user context and to provide pieces of information suitable to help visitors discovering and following the logical and emotional connections that develop during the visit. In this scenario, location based services (LBS) currently represent an asset, and the choice of the technology to determine users' position, combined with the definition of methods that can effectively convey information, become key issues in the design process. In this work, we present MusA (Museum Assistant), a general framework for the development of multimedia interactive guides for mobile devices. Its main feature is a vision-based indoor positioning system that allows the provision of several LBS, from way-finding to the contextualized communication of cultural contents, aimed at providing a meaningful exploration of exhibits according to visitors' personal interest and curiosity. Starting from the thorough description of the system architecture, the article presents the implementation of two mobile guides, developed to respectively address adults and children, and discusses the evaluation of the user experience and the visitors' appreciation of these application

Video summarisation: A conceptual framework and survey of the state of the art

This is the post-print (final draft post-refereeing) version of the article. Copyright @ 2007 Elsevier Inc.Video summaries provide condensed and succinct representations of the content of a video stream through a combination of still images, video segments, graphical representations and textual descriptors. This paper presents a conceptual framework for video summarisation derived from the research literature and used as a means for surveying the research literature. The framework distinguishes between video summarisation techniques (the methods used to process content from a source video stream to achieve a summarisation of that stream) and video summaries (outputs of video summarisation techniques). Video summarisation techniques are considered within three broad categories: internal (analyse information sourced directly from the video stream), external (analyse information not sourced directly from the video stream) and hybrid (analyse a combination of internal and external information). Video summaries are considered as a function of the type of content they are derived from (object, event, perception or feature based) and the functionality offered to the user for their consumption (interactive or static, personalised or generic). It is argued that video summarisation would benefit from greater incorporation of external information, particularly user based information that is unobtrusively sourced, in order to overcome longstanding challenges such as the semantic gap and providing video summaries that have greater relevance to individual users

Geographical information retrieval with ontologies of place

Geographical context is required of many information retrieval tasks in which the target of the search may be documents, images or records which are referenced to geographical space only by means of place names. Often there may be an imprecise match between the query name and the names associated with candidate sources of information. There is a need therefore for geographical information retrieval facilities that can rank the relevance of candidate information with respect to geographical closeness of place as well as semantic closeness with respect to the information of interest. Here we present an ontology of place that combines limited coordinate data with semantic and qualitative spatial relationships between places. This parsimonious model of geographical place supports maintenance of knowledge of place names that relate to extensive regions of the Earth at multiple levels of granularity. The ontology has been implemented with a semantic modelling system linking non-spatial conceptual hierarchies with the place ontology. An hierarchical spatial distance measure is combined with Euclidean distance between place centroids to create a hybrid spatial distance measure. This is integrated with thematic distance, based on classification semantics, to create an integrated semantic closeness measure that can be used for a relevance ranking of retrieved objects

Exploration of documents concerning Foundlings in Fafe along XIX Century

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Informatics EngineeringThe abandonment of children and newborns is a problem in our society. In the last few decades, the introduction of contraceptive methods, the development of social programs and family planning were fundamental to control undesirable pregnancies and support families in need. But these developments were not enough to solve the abandonment epidemic. The anonymous abandonment has a dangerous aspect. In order to preserve the family identity, a child is usually left in a public place at night. Since children and newborns are one of the most vulnerable groups in our society, the time between the abandonment and the assistance of the child is potentially deadly. The establishment of public institutions in the past, such as the foundling wheel, was extremely important as a strategy to save lives. These institutions supported the abandoned children, while simultaneously providing a safer abandonment process, without compromising the anonymity of the family. The focus of the Master’s Project discussed in this dissertation is the analysis and processing of nineteenth century documents, concerning the Foundling Wheel of Fafe. The analysis of sample documents is the initial step in the development of an ontology. The ontology has a fundamental role in the organization and structure of the information contained in these historical documents. The identification of concepts and the relationships between them, culminates in a structured knowledge repository. Other important component is the development of a digital platform, where users are able to access the content stored in the knowledge repository and explore the digital archive, which incorporates the digitized version of documents and books from these historical institutions. The development of this project is important for some reasons. Directly, the implementation of a knowledge repository and a digital platform preserves information. These documents are mostly unique records and due to their age and advanced state of degradation, the substitution of the physical by digital access reduces the wear and tear associated to each consultation. Additionally, the digital archive facilitates the dissemination of valuable information. Research groups or the general public are able to use the platform as a tool to discover the past, by performing biographic, cultural or socio-economic studies over documents dated to the ninetieth century.O abandono de crianças e de recém-nascidos é um flagelo da sociedade. Nas últimas décadas, a introdução de métodos contraceptivos e de programas sociais foram essenciais para o desenvolvimento do planeamento familiar. Apesar destes avanços, estes programas não solucionaram a problemática do abandono de crianças e recém-nascidos. Problemas socioeconómicos são o principal factor que explica o abandono. O processo de abandono de crianças possui uma agravante perigosa. De forma a proteger a identidade da família, este processo ocorre normalmente em locais públicos e durante a noite. Como crianças e recém-nascidos constituem um dos grupos mais vulneráveis da sociedade, o tempo entre o abandono da criança e seu salvamento, pode ser demasiado longo e fatal. A casa da roda foi uma instituição introduzida de forma a tornar o processo de abandono anónimo mais seguro. O foco do Projeto de Mestrado discutido nesta dissertação é a análise e tratamento de documentos do século XIX, relativos à Casa da Roda de Fafe preservados pelo Arquivo Municipal de Fafe. A análise documental representa o ponto de partida do processo de desenvolvimento de uma ontologia. A ontologia possui um papel fundamental na organização e estruturação da informação contida nos documentos históricos. O processo de desenvolvimento de uma base de conhecimento consiste na identificação de conceitos e relações existentes nos documentos. Outra componente fundamental deste projecto é o desenvolvimento de uma plataforma digital, que permite utilizadores acederem à base de conhecimento desenvolvida. Os utilizadores podem pesquisar, explorar e adicionar informação à base de conhecimento. O desenvolvimento deste projecto possui importância. De forma imediata, a implementação de uma plataforma digital permite salvaguardar e preservar informação contida nos documentos. Estes documentos são os únicos registos existentes com esse conteúdo e muitos encontram-se num estado avançado de degradação. A substituição de acessos físicos por acessos digitais reduz o desgaste associado a cada consulta. O desenvolvimento da plataforma digital permite disseminar a informação contida na base documental. Investigadores ou o público em geral podem utilizar esta ferramenta com o intuito de realizar estudos biográficos, culturais e sociais sobre este arquivo histórico