Spatial Reasoning
Decoding Geometric Properties in Non-Random Data from First Information-Theoretic Principles
Zenil, Hector, Abrahão, Felipe S.
Based on the principles of information theory, measure theory, and theoretical computer science, we introduce a univariate signal deconvolution method with a wide range of applications to coding theory, particularly in zero-knowledge one-way communication channels, such as in deciphering messages from unknown generating sources about which no prior knowledge is available and to which no return message can be sent. Our multidimensional space reconstruction method from an arbitrary received signal is proven to be agnostic vis-a-vis the encoding-decoding scheme, computation model, programming language, formal theory, the computable (or semi-computable) method of approximation to algorithmic complexity, and any arbitrarily chosen (computable) probability measure of the events. The method derives from the principles of an approach to Artificial General Intelligence capable of building a general-purpose model of models independent of any arbitrarily assumed prior probability distribution. We argue that this optimal and universal method of decoding non-random data has applications to signal processing, causal deconvolution, topological and geometric properties encoding, cryptography, and bio- and technosignature detection.
Information Cascade Prediction under Public Emergencies: A Survey
Zhang, Qi, Wang, Guang, Lin, Li, Xia, Kaiwen, Wang, Shuai
These emergencies are unexpected events that occur suddenly and result in or have the potential to result in significant casualties, property damage, ecological harm, and serious social consequences [147]. Throughout history, natural disasters (such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, storms, floods, avalanches, droughts, and wildfires) and accident disasters (including environmental disasters, traffic accidents, explosions, and gas leaks) have caused numerous fatalities, infrastructure damage, and extensive economic loss. According to the Emergencies Database (EM-DAT), between 2000 and 2023, 5,922 public emergencies occurred, leading to 480,000 casualties and 3.5 trillion in economic losses, as shown in Figure 1 [1]. Therefore, it is increasingly vital to use data, information, and various models to predict potential public emergencies that jeopardize public safety and well-being. Predicting the cascade of information in the event deduction process under public emergencies assists governments, organizations, and individuals in taking proactive measures to mitigate the impact of emergencies and minimize damage. Public emergencies are classified into different categories. The most common categories of public emergencies include (1) Natural disasters, (2) Accident disasters.
A Survey of Generative Techniques for Spatial-Temporal Data Mining
Zhang, Qianru, Wang, Haixin, Long, Cheng, Su, Liangcai, He, Xingwei, Chang, Jianlong, Wu, Tailin, Yin, Hongzhi, Yiu, Siu-Ming, Tian, Qi, Jensen, Christian S.
This paper focuses on the integration of generative techniques into spatial-temporal data mining, considering the significant growth and diverse nature of spatial-temporal data. With the advancements in RNNs, CNNs, and other non-generative techniques, researchers have explored their application in capturing temporal and spatial dependencies within spatial-temporal data. However, the emergence of generative techniques such as LLMs, SSL, Seq2Seq and diffusion models has opened up new possibilities for enhancing spatial-temporal data mining further. The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of generative technique-based spatial-temporal methods and introduces a standardized framework specifically designed for the spatial-temporal data mining pipeline. By offering a detailed review and a novel taxonomy of spatial-temporal methodology utilizing generative techniques, the paper enables a deeper understanding of the various techniques employed in this field. Furthermore, the paper highlights promising future research directions, urging researchers to delve deeper into spatial-temporal data mining. It emphasizes the need to explore untapped opportunities and push the boundaries of knowledge to unlock new insights and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of spatial-temporal data mining. By integrating generative techniques and providing a standardized framework, the paper contributes to advancing the field and encourages researchers to explore the vast potential of generative techniques in spatial-temporal data mining.
Geospatial Knowledge Graphs
Geospatial knowledge graphs have emerged as a novel paradigm for representing and reasoning over geospatial information. In this framework, entities such as places, people, events, and observations are depicted as nodes, while their relationships are represented as edges. This graph-based data format lays the foundation for creating a "FAIR" (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) environment, facilitating the management and analysis of geographic information. This entry first introduces key concepts in knowledge graphs along with their associated standardization and tools. It then delves into the application of knowledge graphs in geography and environmental sciences, emphasizing their role in bridging symbolic and subsymbolic GeoAI to address cross-disciplinary geospatial challenges. At the end, new research directions related to geospatial knowledge graphs are outlined.
Scene Action Maps: Behavioural Maps for Navigation without Metric Information
Humans are remarkable in their ability to navigate without metric information. We can read abstract 2D maps, such as floor-plans or hand-drawn sketches, and use them to navigate in unseen rich 3D environments, without requiring prior traversals to map out these scenes in detail. We posit that this is enabled by the ability to represent the environment abstractly as interconnected navigational behaviours, e.g., "follow the corridor" or "turn right", while avoiding detailed, accurate spatial information at the metric level. We introduce the Scene Action Map (SAM), a behavioural topological graph, and propose a learnable map-reading method, which parses a variety of 2D maps into SAMs. Map-reading extracts salient information about navigational behaviours from the overlooked wealth of pre-existing, abstract and inaccurate maps, ranging from floor-plans to sketches. We evaluate the performance of SAMs for navigation, by building and deploying a behavioural navigation stack on a quadrupedal robot. Videos and more information is available at: https://scene-action-maps.github.io.
Boosting House Price Estimations with Multi-Head Gated Attention
Sellam, Zakaria Abdellah, Distante, Cosimo, Taleb-Ahmed, Abdelmalik, Mazzeo, Pier Luigi
Evaluating house prices is crucial for various stakeholders, including homeowners, investors, and policymakers. However, traditional spatial interpolation methods have limitations in capturing the complex spatial relationships that affect property values. To address these challenges, we have developed a new method called Multi-Head Gated Attention for spatial interpolation. Our approach builds upon attention-based interpolation models and incorporates multiple attention heads and gating mechanisms to capture spatial dependencies and contextual information better. Importantly, our model produces embeddings that reduce the dimensionality of the data, enabling simpler models like linear regression to outperform complex ensembling models. We conducted extensive experiments to compare our model with baseline methods and the original attention-based interpolation model. The results show a significant improvement in the accuracy of house price predictions, validating the effectiveness of our approach. This research advances the field of spatial interpolation and provides a robust tool for more precise house price evaluation. Our GitHub repository.contains the data and code for all datasets, which are available for researchers and practitioners interested in replicating or building upon our work.
A Multi-Channel Spatial-Temporal Transformer Model for Traffic Flow Forecasting
Traffic flow forecasting is a crucial task in transportation management and planning. The main challenges for traffic flow forecasting are that (1) as the length of prediction time increases, the accuracy of prediction will decrease; (2) the predicted results greatly rely on the extraction of temporal and spatial dependencies from the road networks. To overcome the challenges mentioned above, we propose a multi-channel spatial-temporal transformer model for traffic flow forecasting, which improves the accuracy of the prediction by fusing results from different channels of traffic data. Our approach leverages graph convolutional network to extract spatial features from each channel while using a transformer-based architecture to capture temporal dependencies across channels. We introduce an adaptive adjacency matrix to overcome limitations in feature extraction from fixed topological structures. Experimental results on six real-world datasets demonstrate that introducing a multi-channel mechanism into the temporal model enhances performance and our proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art models in terms of accuracy.
FusionTransNet for Smart Urban Mobility: Spatiotemporal Traffic Forecasting Through Multimodal Network Integration
Wang, Binwu, Leng, Yan, Wang, Guang, Wang, Yang
This study develops FusionTransNet, a framework designed for Origin-Destination (OD) flow predictions within smart and multimodal urban transportation systems. Urban transportation complexity arises from the spatiotemporal interactions among various traffic modes. Motivated by analyzing multimodal data from Shenzhen, a framework that can dissect complicated spatiotemporal interactions between these modes, from the microscopic local level to the macroscopic city-wide perspective, is essential. The framework contains three core components: the Intra-modal Learning Module, the Inter-modal Learning Module, and the Prediction Decoder. The Intra-modal Learning Module is designed to analyze spatial dependencies within individual transportation modes, facilitating a granular understanding of single-mode spatiotemporal dynamics. The Inter-modal Learning Module extends this analysis, integrating data across different modes to uncover cross-modal interdependencies, by breaking down the interactions at both local and global scales. Finally, the Prediction Decoder synthesizes insights from the preceding modules to generate accurate OD flow predictions, translating complex multimodal interactions into forecasts. Empirical evaluations conducted in metropolitan contexts, including Shenzhen and New York, demonstrate FusionTransNet's superior predictive accuracy compared to existing state-of-the-art methods. The implication of this study extends beyond urban transportation, as the method for transferring information across different spatiotemporal graphs at both local and global scales can be instrumental in other spatial systems, such as supply chain logistics and epidemics spreading.
ST-MambaSync: The Complement of Mamba and Transformers for Spatial-Temporal in Traffic Flow Prediction
Shao, Zhiqi, Yao, Xusheng, Wang, Ze, Gao, Junbin
Accurate traffic flow prediction is crucial for optimizing traffic management, enhancing road safety, and reducing environmental impacts. Existing models face challenges with long sequence data, requiring substantial memory and computational resources, and often suffer from slow inference times due to the lack of a unified summary state. This paper introduces ST-MambaSync, an innovative traffic flow prediction model that combines transformer technology with the ST-Mamba block, representing a significant advancement in the field. We are the pioneers in employing the Mamba mechanism which is an attention mechanism integrated with ResNet within a transformer framework, which significantly enhances the model's explainability and performance. ST-MambaSync effectively addresses key challenges such as data length and computational efficiency, setting new benchmarks for accuracy and processing speed through comprehensive comparative analysis. This development has significant implications for urban planning and real-time traffic management, establishing a new standard in traffic flow prediction technology.
TrafficGPT: Towards Multi-Scale Traffic Analysis and Generation with Spatial-Temporal Agent Framework
Ouyang, Jinhui, Zhu, Yijie, Yuan, Xiang, Wu, Di
The precise prediction of multi-scale traffic is a ubiquitous challenge in the urbanization process for car owners, road administrators, and governments. In the case of complex road networks, current and past traffic information from both upstream and downstream roads are crucial since various road networks have different semantic information about traffic. Rationalizing the utilization of semantic information can realize short-term, long-term, and unseen road traffic prediction. As the demands of multi-scale traffic analysis increase, on-demand interactions and visualizations are expected to be available for transportation participants. We have designed a multi-scale traffic generation system, namely TrafficGPT, using three AI agents to process multi-scale traffic data, conduct multi-scale traffic analysis, and present multi-scale visualization results. TrafficGPT consists of three essential AI agents: 1) a text-to-demand agent that is employed with Question & Answer AI to interact with users and extract prediction tasks through texts; 2) a traffic prediction agent that leverages multi-scale traffic data to generate temporal features and similarity, and fuse them with limited spatial features and similarity, to achieve accurate prediction of three tasks; and 3) a suggestion and visualization agent that uses the prediction results to generate suggestions and visualizations, providing users with a comprehensive understanding of traffic conditions. Our TrafficGPT system focuses on addressing concerns about traffic prediction from transportation participants, and conducted extensive experiments on five real-world road datasets to demonstrate its superior predictive and interactive performance