Modelling Conceptual Neighbourhoods of Toplogical Line-Region Relations

Based on the 9-intersection for binary topological relations, two models of conceptual neighborhoods among topological relations between a line and a region are developed. The snapshot model derives the neighborhoods by comparing pairs of topological relations and selects neighbors based on least noticeable differences, whereas the smooth-transition model develops neighborhoods based on the knowledge of the deformations that may change a topological relation. The resulting similarity diagrams show some differences, which were compared with the results from tests in which human subjects were asked to organized lineregion relations into groups of similar relations. The groupings the subjects made indicate that the smooth-transition model captures more important aspects of the similarity of topological lineregion relations than the snapshot model.