| As GIS theories developing by this time, its theoretic limitation is gradually emerging. GIS users are suffering from a big trouble, GIS system’s lacking of true and potential behavior interpretation. Users have more and more requirement to explain actuality and forecast the future in system’s user interface. So we do some study in this field seems very meaningful. Existing literatures about user interface appeared to repeat us a story, when using the system, users have huge need to consist observation and anticipation while the need is not often satisfied.In fact studies about users building system aptitude module have validated, users developed theories (or module) to satisfy the need. This situation makes us to think of procedure confirmation in Thomas Kuhn scientific history, fresh theory always emerged after the failure of general problem solutions.When users come up with theories, how to help them with understanding and communication with spatial information processing and how to consist what they see with their anticipant are problems we must handle with. Obviously, these theories will not be abstract and complicated frame of data module and date structure. In exact words, we should supply users with a whole set of theories which are direct and easy to understand to build a system which is easy to use but not rough.In this thesis the author proposed that metaphors remedy the deficiency of user’s criterion theory. They provide needed interpreting power to map executed criterion theory and a set of correlative familiar theories. The author enumerate some languages which existed in this field and promoted its development, analysis their limitation, then import temporal-spatial conception module, present a GIS visual inquerying based on friendly user’s interface.The thesis’s study consists of following parts:(1) Relations between Metaphor, Linguistics, and CartographyMetaphor as a rhetoric means is always paid much attention on. It’s a hotspot of philosophers’and linguistics’research. Metaphor is using our familiar concrete concept to understand, think and apperceive concepts which are abstract, difficult to straightly understand. The mode is mapping the structure in origin area to object area. This mapping is realized in two different cognitive areas, the base is experience. The essence of metaphor is experiencing and understanding a kind of business by another kind of business. Human’s cognition about the space must map into natural languages, its audition appeared as speech, and vision appeared as words. At all times, map is one of the most important mediations for exchanging information between two symbol systems-spatial information and natural languages. It is a 2 dimensional language presenting spatial information.(2) Metaphor essence for map symbolsAs production level is developing and people’s recognition to nature and social environment is getting increasingly deeper, objective things that need to be expressed on the map is more and more, visual drawing is getting hard to satisfy the requirement. And mathematics and surveying are developing, methods on map expression develop from drawing landscape to symbols that of certain mathematic basement. So the content that expressed in the map can be accurately located. After that individual symbol that reflect objective things developed to classification, which makes map symbols have metaphor essence. That is using abstract and much in common symbols to express a certain kind (or class) of objective things. As a result of natural connection between linguistics and semiotics, both Carto-semiotics and Carto-linguistics two concepts are cited in theoretical cartography. Different cartographers of different research intention and thought alternately use them. Head (1999) distinguished them like this: "Cartographic semiotics is a research method for cartography using some semiotic theories, and cartographic linguistics is exploded from linguistics thinking." Concluding, classifying objective things and then formulating abstract and conceptual cartographic symbols is a metaphor to objective things, this is the base of map metaphor. The forming procession of map symbols is an assumed procession. Any symbol is admitted and abided by some social group; it has legal meaning in a way. Just as metaphor is based on users existing experience, recognition to the world and gotten training. Especially that symbols in common maps have been checked for a long time, they are familiar with common users.(3) Function of metaphor thinking in spatial cognition fieldsIn aspects of the depth and breadth of developing language and cognitive, metaphor has played a important role we had not fully recognized before. When people think the material world and the spiritual world with language perception, the role of metaphor is finding similarities from the original separate things, concepts and language and establishing extremely rich imagination. This is not a quantitative change, but a qualitative leap in understanding. New relationships, new things, new ideas and new language are born by the way, which is difficult to describe the rules. The basis of metaphor is not the similarity of two things, is not naming the new thing, nor is the decoration of language forms, but to help thinking. In summary, the metaphor is the thinking processes of formation of metaphor and understanding in the brain; specifically, in the process of cognitive of the world, due to the lack of clear categories concepts and abstract concept language, people can express new things, new experiences only by specific imagery of the known things, the link between the two types of things is established by finding some similarity between their perceptual phenomenon by analog and association of ideas, different things, experience and the phenomenon can contact each other with the opportunity.(4) Application of metaphor thinking in spatial information expressionMetaphor’s function in language and thinking has been understood and developed by cognitive linguistics. Under this opinion, metaphor’s function in human-machine alternation is to supply a consisted structure to computer area; original area must produce proper ontology-a set of user criterion theories. For information communication, metaphor is not just a casual decoration, it of center importance to our cognition not only in language but also in thinking and action. If we understand metaphor in this mode, it will be essential part and major considering factor to any user’s interface. The function of metaphor is creative, by building system concepts which are consisted with user’s criterion and familiar to users, metaphors play a part of sense creator. By the emerging of user’s interface metaphor, desktop metaphor is a necessary part of most workstation and personal computer’s users’interface. These theories that metaphor studies on have surprising creativities, they are the base to create proper user’s priority theory. When using information systems, user and system’s interaction is finished by system operation interface. So a friendly users’ interface is very important to operate the system and ensure the running of system. An interface metaphor must communicate with users and always by visualizing. Interface metaphor is an important visualizing decoration for interface languages. Visualization is natural extension of information and function under metaphor thinking. Intuitional and effective interactive visualized environment is of increasingly importance to complex and a large amount of date. Spatial information theories should face system’s users besides serving designers and executors. Spatial information theory as a scientific theory searches features except for mathematic accuracy. These features must supply stronger user’s location.In recent years, citizen oriented applications have been developed with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This is the reason why visual querying appears to be crucial. Many approaches for visual querying or browsing spatio-temporal data have been proposed recently. Geographic databases represent a spatio-temporal continuum. This is the reason why visual languages must integrate temporal data handling. We develop a visual language based on a query-by-example philosophy for spatial and temporal data. A query is formulated by means of predefined icons which map spatial and temporal objects and operators. New visual metaphors such as balloons and anchors are proposed in order to express spatial and temporal criteria. After a state of the art of visual querying for geographic databases, we define a spatio-temporal model. The visual language and its user interface are then explained. In the thesis the author proposed a friendly user’s interface querying language based on instance querying, and it is an extending spatio-temporal information system based on Cigales. The author proposing this module is absorbed in the necessity of the extension of languages to handle spatio-temporal querying. At one hand, this kind of model included definition of spatio-temporal objects; at the other hand it includes the definition of spatial, temporal and spatio-temporal querying classes. The author also proposed icon, balloon and anchor as visual metaphor along with query visualized expression as a whole. At last, stated system structure design and users’interface languages, explained them with examples and then conclude about our future work. |
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