Geographic information retrieval in a mobile environment: evaluating the needs of mobile individuals

  • Authors:

  • David Mountain;Andrew Macfarlane

  • Affiliations:

  • City University, London, UK;City University, London, UK

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Information Science
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

This paper describes research that aims to define theinformation needs of mobile individuals, to implement a mobileinformation system that can satisfy those needs, and finally toevaluate the performance of that system with end-users. First areview of the emerging discipline of geographic informationretrieval (GIR) is presented as background to the more specificissue of mobile information retrieval. Following this, a user needsstudy is described evaluating the requirements of potential usersof a mobile information system; the study finds that there is astrong geographic component to users' information needs. Next, fourgeographic post-query filters are described which attempt torepresent the region of space associated with an individual's querymade at some specific spatial location. These filters are spatialproximity (distance in space), temporal proximity (travel time),speed-heading prediction surfaces (likelihood of visitinglocations) and visibility (locations that can be seen). Two ofthese filters - spatial proximity and speed-heading predictionsurfaces - are implemented in a mobile information system andsubsequently evaluated with users in an outdoor setting. Theresults of evaluation suggest that retrieved information to whichpost-query geographic filters have been applied is considered morerelevant than unfiltered information, and that users findinformation sorted by spatial proximity to be more relevant thanthat sorted by a prediction surface of likely future locations. Thepaper closes with a discussion of the wider implications of theseresults for developers of mobile information systems andlocation-based services.