Marcottage: A Navigational Approach to Object Networks

In many situations involving highly connected networks of objects, such as semantic networks in AI, hypermedia networks, or scene representations in computer graphics, the notion of "current viewpoint" or "current focus of attention" is important. In traditional systems, the network structures are considered relatively fixed, while the user's viewpoint is considered to move through the structure. But it is also possible to take the alternative approach, where the viewpoint is considered fixed and the surrounding structure is constantly changing to maintain the consistency of the user's viewpoint. As the theory of relativity asserts the equivalence of all frames of reference, this unconventional approach is just as good as the traditional one. But keeping a fixed viewpoint has significant advantages for algorithms in which the current viewpoint plays an important role.