Requirements on Building Models Enabling the Guidance in a Navigation Scenario Using Cognitive Concepts

The increased growth of location-based services and the ongoing work on 3D GIS applications along with the fact that people spend most of their time indoors lead to a strong motivation for support and development in indoor space applications. When we ask someone the way, it is noticeable that people give route descriptions in an abstract and symbolic manner referring to landmarks or signs. Moreover, we know that people comprehend and structure space in recurring imaginative patterns—image schemata—while moving through and interacting with their environment. However, existing indoor navigation frameworks as well as building models do not integrate these cognitive concepts since mechanisms for defining such required semantics have not been developed yet. In order to support a navigation scenario in indoor environments by integrating human wayfinding principles in route instructions, we (1) identified potential landmarks based on cognitive concepts; (2) evaluated them according to a set of requirements; and (3) established a thematic framework for enhancing existing building models with the needed semantics and requirements. This framework will help developers to add the required attributes to the correct semantic classes of CityGML, IFC, or KML models to provide suitable routing instructions in terms of in-house routing out of these models.