Travels in Attribute Space

Prof. André Skupin

Department of Geography

San Diego State University

Date: Friday, March 3, 2006
Place: Humanities and Social Sciences, 1173
Time: 2:00 pm — 3:00 pm (Reception to follow)

Abstract:
As we move across geographic space, aren’t we simultaneously traveling through a high-dimensional attribute space in which the geographic entities are located that we encounter along the way? Of course, such movement may be difficult to imagine in concrete terms, especially when dealing with a very large number of dimensions. In order to aid the human mind in understanding the paths taken during this type of attribute space travel, it is here proposed to create map-like visualizations of high-dimensional paths. A specific methodology is presented for achieving this by integrating a form of artificial neural network known as Kohonen map or self-organizing map (SOM) with space-time paths captured by GPS. Among the envisioned applications are novel forms of surrogate or virtual travel and comparative studies of people’s movement across separate geographic territories. A number of case studies serve to illustrate the technique, including a traversal of the Austrian capital, Vienna, and urban travel in the U.S. combined with population attributes for all 200,000+ census block groups.

ANDRÉ SKUPIN is an assistant professor of geography at San Diego State University. He previously held an associate professor position at the University of New Orleans. Areas of interest and expertise include text document visualization, geographic visualization, cartographic generalization, and visual data mining. Much of his research revolves around new perspectives on geographic metaphors, methods, and principles, outside of traditional geographic domains. Recent efforts include the visualization of text documents through a combination of self-organizing neural maps, GIS, and cartographic design. Results of this research have been published within the information science, computer graphics, and cartographic communities, as well as in interdisciplinary outlets, such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

André Skupin received a Dipl.-Ing. degree in cartography from the Dresden University of Technology, Germany, and a PhD in geography from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Host: Professor Keith Clarke, Geography