Resolution of ambiguities in query interpretation for geographical pictorial query languages

Abstract

The main problem of visual query languages for geographical data concerns ambiguity of the query. In fact a query can have different visual representation and a visual representation of a query can have different interpretations. Increasing the number of the objects of the query increases the ambiguity. This ambiguity derives from the fact that a query can lead to multiple interpretations both for the system, and for the user. He, by his actions may not represent his intentions so that the system can be brought to a wrong interpretation. So, he cannot express his exact query and different queries can be formulated to obtain the user goals. The present work proposes an approach that allows the user to represent only desired constraints and to avoid the representation of undesired constraints in the visual representation of the query