Identity-Based Change Operations for Composite Objects
Kathleen Hornsby and
Max Egenhofer Eighth International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling, Vancouver, Canada,
T. Poiker and N. Chrisman (eds.), pp. 202-213, July 1998.
Abstract
Incorporating abstraction methods, such as aggregation and
association, into information system design methodologies has
improved our ability to model the real world. The
semantically-higher level objects that result from these
abstractions are referred to as composite objects. These objects
play an important role in spatio-temporal knowledge representation
and query formulation, although little has been done so far on
formalizing operations involving these types of objects. In this
investigation, the semantics associated with composite objects are
explored as is the role of object identity for composite objects.
Object identity refers to that trait which distinguishes an object
from all others. The different semantics associated with creating
composite objects and adding parts to composites are discussed and
a set of basic identity-based change operations for composites,
including separation and elimination operations, are described.
Formalizing the operations relating to composite objects aids in
improving current spatial data models and leads to advances in
spatial-temporal query languages.
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Kathleen Hornsby and
Max Egenhofer