Motivation
Why the usual way of linking GPS stays to places is not good enough.
The usual way is deterministic: it gives one fixed answer. Each stay goes to the nearest building, or to the building that contains the GPS points. This has two problems:
- Streets and open spaces are left out. People also spend time on streets, in parks and in plazas. Urban researchers such as Jacobs, Gehl and Whyte describe these places as real sites of daily life (Tension with the street-space argument).
- GPS error is ignored. The method forces one answer, even when the GPS position is uncertain and two or three places are equally possible.
Probabilistic methods already exist for people who are moving. These methods (called map matching) give probabilities for which road a moving person is on. But nobody had used this idea for a person who stays in one place. And nobody had combined it with all three place types: building, street and open space (Extending map matching to stationary stays).
This leads to the Research questions. Part of Problem and positioning.