Making human place knowledge digestible by computers

该项目旨在开发工具，使人们能够直观地与计算机互动，了解地点以及地点之间的关系。人们理解环境的方式与计算机不同；他们思考地点和它们之间的关系，而计算机使用坐标和地图。人们与地图的交互在认知上是昂贵的，而且容易出错，在需要进行时间关键决策的情况下，这变得站不住脚。该项目将彻底改变信息服务的设计，在这种服务中，计算机在时间关键或压力很大的情况下处理人和位置问题，包括紧急呼叫、灾难响应和本地搜索查询。工业采用这种设计将带来经济利益，以及在更智能的环境中生活的更安全的社会。

This project aims to develop the tools that will enable people to interact intuitively with computers about places and the relations between places. People understand their environment in a different way to computers; they think of places and their relations, while computers use coordinates and maps. People’s interaction with maps is cognitively costly and error-prone, which is becoming untenable in situations needing time-critical decision making. The project will revolutionise the design of information services where computers deal with humans and location in time-critical or stressful situations, including emergency calls, disaster response and local search queries. The uptake of this design by industry will lead to economic benefits as well as a safer society living in a smarter environment.