Navigation-to-thing and highly-context-focused 'around me' use cases

Abstract

The models for representing, maintaining and using "navigable" geographic features are evolving from a 2D centerline roadway model, through a highly detailed 3D pedestrian, indoor and multimodal model and into a Internet of (Locatable) Things. As this evolution proceeds, the volume of data that can be processed and delivered to end user applications could reach an untenable torrent, both from a human cognition as well as a machine resource perspective. The key as always is information, not just data. Contextualized interpretation, not just a collection of undifferentiated ground truth facts. What's needed at the edges of the GeoWeb - particularly for relatively network and processing challenged mobile devices - is the notion of "byte-sized" (pun intended) content that's "right-sized" for each individual actor based on highly dynamic personal or organizational usage contexts. It's clear that edge applications will continue to play a role in providing such a contextual filter. Less obvious is how other GeoWeb participants will also provide contextual value. The application developer interface to a geodata provider is a pathway for application development time, product creation time and run time information exchange. This exchange will inform the processes and business rules that a data provider uses to prioritize the gathering, processing and correlation of observations, the mediation of geodata product quality level guarantees, and the delivery models for the application-ready features themselves. The effectiveness of this pathway will depend on low processing latencies, not only between observation detection and feature change availability, but also between an end user's context and what features are provided at what levels of detail. There is ample precedent in the current vehicle navigation ecosystem for leveraging this pathway to make the resulting user experience compelling and economically viable. Moving to an integrated 3D model of the built and natural world as a framework for an Internet of Things will require enriching and formalizing this interface in order to build contextual value into the GeoWeb.