Skyline Queries for Spatial Objects: A Method for Selecting Spatial Objects Based on Surrounding Environments

A skyline query finds objects that are not dominated by another object from a given set of objects. Skyline queries help us to filter unnecessary information efficiently and provide us clues for various decision making tasks. In this paper, we present a method for computing spatial skyline objects such as hotels. Conventional skyline queries select hotels based on non-spatial attributes of hotels such as price and rating. However, they do not utilize surrounding environments well. In contrast, the proposed method takes into account surrounding facilities of each hotel such as restaurants and supermarkets that are close to the hotel when we select skyline hotels. Like the hotel example, when we select a spatial object in a database, surrounding environment is as important as other attributes. Therefore, the proposed skyline query function is significant for spatial databases.