A Qualitative Model for Natural Language Communication about Vehicle Traffic

Reasoning with Mental and External Diagrams: Computational Modeling and Spatial Assistance

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Reasoning with Mental and External Diagrams: Computational Modeling and Spatial Assistance

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In this paper we describe a qualitative approach for natural language communication about vehicle traffic. It is an intuitive and simple model that can be used as the basis for defining more detailed position descriptions and transitions.It can also function as a framework for relating different aggregation levels. We apply a diagrammatic abstraction of traffic that mirrors the different possible interpretations of it and with this the different mental abstractions that humans might make. The abstractions are kept in parallel and according to the communicative context it will be switched to the corresponding interpretation.