From motion observation to qualitative motion representation

Since humans usually prefer to communicate in qualitative and not in quanti tative categories, qualitative spatial representations are of great importa nce for user interfaces of systems that involve spatial tasks. Abstraction is the key for the generation of qualitative representations from observed data. This paper deals with the conversion of motion data into qualitative representations, and it presents a new generalization algorithm that abstra cts from irrelevant details of a course of motion. In a further step of abs traction, the shape of a course of motion is used for qualitative represent ation. Our approach is motivated by findings of our own experimental resear ch on the processing and representation of spatio-temporal information in t he human visual system.