Landmark weights - an alternative to spatial distances in shortest route algorithms

• Published in: Spatial cognition and computation Vol. 23; no. 3; pp. 206 - 232
• Main Authors: Nuhn, Eva, Timpf, Sabine
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Mahwah Taylor & Francis 03.07.2023; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Algorithms; landmark route; navigation and wayfinding; Navigation systems; shortest route; Spatial cognition; Weighting methods
• ISSN: 1387-5868; 1542-7633; 1573-9252
• DOI: 10.1080/13875868.2022.2130330

Although numerous studies have shown that landmarks are important for navigation, almost all navigation systems implement a shortest-route algorithm without considering landmarks. Which options do we have to integrate landmarks into a route calculation? How would the resulting routes differ from shortest routes? We propose a weighting method for Dijkstra's shortest route algorithm to generate "landmark routes" and compare them to their corresponding shortest routes. We show that the extra distance and time needed to walk the landmark routes is acceptable in most of the routes. The main contribution is a thorough discussion of the differences between the two types of routes. Since the results are promising, we discuss variations in computing the weights as well as recommend human subject tests.