Largely driven by advances in communication and information technology, such as the increasing availability and accuracy of GPS technology and the miniaturization of wireless communication devices, Location–Based Services (LBS) are continuously gaining popularity. Innovative LBSes integrate knowledge about the users into the service. Such knowledge can be derived by analyzing the location data of users. Such data contain two unique dimensions, space and time, which need to be analyzed. The objectives of this thesis are three–fold. First, to extend popular data mining methods to the spatio–temporal domain. Second, to demonstrate the usefulness of the extended methods and the derived knowledge in two promising LBS examples. Finally, to eliminate privacy concerns in connection with spatio–temporal data mining by devising systems for privacy–preserving location data collection and mining.   To this extent, Chapter 2 presents a general methodology, pivoting, to extend a popular data mining method, namely rule mining, to the spatio–temporal domain. By considering the characteristics of a number of real–world data sources, Chapter 2 also derives a taxonomy of spatio–temporal data, and demonstrates the usefulness of the rules that the extended spatio–temporal rule mining method can discover. In Chapter 4 the proposed spatio–temporal extension is applied to find long, sharable patterns in trajectories of moving objects. Empirical evaluations show that the extended method and its variants, using high–level SQL implementations, are effective tools for analyzing trajectories of moving objects. Real–world trajectory data about a large population of objects moving over extended periods within a limited geographical space is difficult to obtain. To aid the development in spatio–temporal data management and data mining, Chapter 3 develops a Spatio–Temporal ACTivity Simulator (ST–ACTS). ST–ACTS uses a number of real–world geo–statistical data sources and intuitive principles to effectively generate realistic spatio–temporal activities of mobile users.   Chapter 5 proposes an LBS in the transportation domain, namely cab–sharing. To deliver an effective service, a unique spatio–temporal grouping algorithm is presented and implemented as a sequence of SQL statements. Chapter 6 identifies ascalability bottleneck in the grouping algorithm. To eliminate the bottleneck, the chapter expresses the grouping algorithm as a continuous stream query in a data stream management system, and then devises simple but effective spatio–temporal partitioning methods for streams to parallelize the computation. Experimental results show that parallelization through adaptive partitioning methods leads to speed–ups of orders of magnitude without significantly effecting the quality of the grouping. Spatio–temporal stream partitioning is expected to be an effective method to scale computation–intensive spatial queries and spatial analysis methods for streams.   Location–Based Advertising (LBA), the delivery of relevant commercial information to mobile consumers, is considered to be one of the most promising business opportunities amongst LBSes. To this extent, Chapter 7 describes an LBA framework and an LBA database that can be used for the management of mobile ads. Using a simulated but realistic mobile consumer population and a set of mobile ads, the LBA database is used to estimate the capacity of the mobile advertising channel. The estimates show that the channel capacity is extremely large, which is evidence for a strong business case, but it also necessitates adequate user controls.   When data about users is collected and analyzed, privacy naturally becomes a concern. To eliminate the concerns, Chapter 8 first presents a grid–based framework in which location data is anonymized through spatio–temporal generalization, and then proposes a system for collecting and mining anonymous location data. Experimental results show that the privacy–preserving data mining component discovers patterns that, while probabilistic, are accurate enough to be useful for many LBSes.   To eliminate any uncertainty in the mining results, Chapter 9 proposes a system for collecting exact trajectories of moving objects in a privacy–preserving manner. In the proposed system there are no trusted components and anonymization is performed by the clients in a P2P network via data cloaking and data swapping. Realistic simulations show that under reasonable conditions and privacy/anonymity settings the proposed system is effective. / QC 20120215

This dissertation challenges an unstudied area in moving objects database domains; predicting (long-term) future locations of moving objects. Moving object prediction enables us to provide a wide range of applications, such as traffic prediction, pre-detection of an aircraft collision, and reporting attractive gas prices for drivers along their routes ahead. Nevertheless, existing location prediction techniques are limited to support such applications since they are generally capable only of short-term predictions. In the real world, many objects exhibit typical movement patterns. This pattern information is able to serve as an important background to tackle the limitations of the existing prediction methods. We aims at offering foundations of pattern-aware prediction for moving objects, rendering more precise prediction results. Specifically, this thesis focuses on three parts. The first part of the thesis studies the problem of predicting future locations of moving objects in Euclidean space. We introduce a novel prediction approach, termed the hybrid prediction model, which utilizes not only the current motion of an object, but also the object's trajectory patterns for prediction. We define, mine, and index the trajectory patterns with a novel access method for efficient query processing. We then propose two different query processing techniques along given query time, i.e., for near future and for distant future. The second part covers the prediction problem for moving objects in network space. We formulate a network mobility model that offers a concise representation of mobility statistics extracted from massive collections of historical objects trajectories. This model captures turning patterns of the objects at junctions, at the granularity of individual objects as well as globally. Based on the model, we develop three different algorithms for predicting the future path of a mobile user moving in a road network, named the PathPredictors. The third part of the thesis extends the prediction problem for a single object to that for multiple objects. We introduce a convoy query that retrieves all groups of objects, i.e., convoys, from the objects' historical trajectories, each convoy consists of objects that have traveled together for some time; thus they may also move together in the future. We then propose three efficient algorithms for the convoy discovery, called the CuTS family, that adopt line simplification methods for reducing the size of the trajectories, permitting efficient query processing. For each part, we demonstrate comprehensive experimental results of our proposals, which show significantly improved accuracies for moving object prediction compared with state-of-the-art methods, while also facilitating efficient query processing.

This dissertation challenges an unstudied area in moving objects database domains; predicting (long-term) future locations of moving objects. Moving object prediction enables us to provide a wide range of applications, such as traffic prediction, pre-detection of an aircraft collision, and reporting attractive gas prices for drivers along their routes ahead. Nevertheless, existing location prediction techniques are limited to support such applications since they are generally capable only of short-term predictions. In the real world, many objects exhibit typical movement patterns. This pattern information is able to serve as an important background to tackle the limitations of the existing prediction methods. We aims at offering foundations of pattern-aware prediction for moving objects, rendering more precise prediction results. Specifically, this thesis focuses on three parts. The first part of the thesis studies the problem of predicting future locations of moving objects in Euclidean space. We introduce a novel prediction approach, termed the hybrid prediction model, which utilizes not only the current motion of an object, but also the object's trajectory patterns for prediction. We define, mine, and index the trajectory patterns with a novel access method for efficient query processing. We then propose two different query processing techniques along given query time, i.e., for near future and for distant future. The second part covers the prediction problem for moving objects in network space. We formulate a network mobility model that offers a concise representation of mobility statistics extracted from massive collections of historical objects trajectories. This model captures turning patterns of the objects at junctions, at the granularity of individual objects as well as globally. Based on the model, we develop three different algorithms for predicting the future path of a mobile user moving in a road network, named the PathPredictors. The third part of the thesis extends the prediction problem for a single object to that for multiple objects. We introduce a convoy query that retrieves all groups of objects, i.e., convoys, from the objects' historical trajectories, each convoy consists of objects that have traveled together for some time; thus they may also move together in the future. We then propose three efficient algorithms for the convoy discovery, called the CuTS family, that adopt line simplification methods for reducing the size of the trajectories, permitting efficient query processing. For each part, we demonstrate comprehensive experimental results of our proposals, which show significantly improved accuracies for moving object prediction compared with state-of-the-art methods, while also facilitating efficient query processing.

With the growth in the size of datasets, data mining has been an important research topic and is receiving substantial interest from both academia and industry for many years. Especially, spatio-temporal data mining, mining knowledge from large amounts of spatio-temporal data, is a highly demanding field because huge amounts of spatio-temporal data are collected in various applications. Therefore, spatio-temporal data mining requires the development of novel data mining algorithms and computational techniques for a successful analysis of large spatio-temporal databases. In this thesis, a spatio-temporal mining technique is proposed and applied on Turkish meteorological data which has been collected from various weather stations in Turkey. This study also includes an analysis and interpretation of spatio-temporal rules generated for Turkish Meteorological data set. We introduce a second level mining technique which is used to define general trends of the patterns according to the spatial changes. Genarated patterns are investigated under different temporal sets in order to monitor the changes of the events with respect to temporal changes.

Congestion is a major problem in most metropolitan areas and given the increasingrate of urbanization it is likely to be an even more serious problem in the rapidlyexpanding mega cities. One possible method to combat congestion is to provide in-telligent traffic management systems that can in a timely manner inform drivers aboutcurrent or predicted traffic congestions that are relevant to them on their journeys. Thedetection of traffic congestion and the determination of whom to send in advance no-tifications about the detected congestions is the objective of the present research. Byadopting a grid based discretization of space, the proposed system extracts and main-tains traffic flow statistics and mobility statistics from the grid based recent trajectoriesof moving objects, and captures periodical spatio-temporal changes in the traffic flowsand movements by managing statistics for relevant temporal domain projections, i.e.,hour-of-day and day-of-week. Then, the proposed system identifies a directional con-gestion as a cell and its immediate neighbor, where the speed and flow of the objectsthat have moved from the neighbor to the cell significantly deviates from the histori-cal speed and flow statistics. Subsequently, based on one of two notification criteria,namely, Mobility Statistic Criterion (MSC) and Linear Movement Criterion (LMC),the system decides which objects are likely to be affected by the identified conges-tions and sends out notifications to the corresponding objects such that the numberof false negative (missed) and false positive (unnecessary) notifications is minimized.The thesis discusses the design and DBMS-based implementation of the proposedsystem. Empirical evaluations on realistically simulated trajectory data assess the ac-curacy of the methods and test the scalability of the system for varying input sizes andparameter settings. The accuracy assessment results show that the MSC based systemachieves an optimal performance with a true positive notification rate of 0.67 and afalse positive notification rate of 0.05 when min prob equals to 0.35, which is superiorto the performance of the LMC based system. The execution time of- and the spaceused by the system scales linearly with the input size (number of concurrently movingvehicles) and the methods mutually dependent parameters (grid resolution r and RTlength l) that jointly define a spatio-temporal resolution. Within the area of a large  city (40km by 40km), assuming a 60km/h average vehicle speed, the system, runningon a commodity personal computer, can manage the described congestion detectionand three-minute-ahead notification tasks within real-time requirements for 2000 and20000 concurrently moving vehicles for spatio-temporal resolutions (r=100m, l=19)and (r=2km, l=3), respectively.

Continuous monitoring of coastal ecosystems aids in better understanding of their dynamics and inherent harmful effects. As many of these ecosystems prevail over space and time, there is a need for mining this spatio-temporal information for building accurate monitoring and forecast systems. Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) pose an enormous threat to the U.S. marine habitation and economy in the coastal waters. Federal and state coastal administrators have been devising a state-of-the-art monitoring and forecasting systems for these HAB events. The efficacy of a monitoring and forecasting system relies on the performance of HAB detection. A Machine Learning based Spatio-Temporal data mining approach for the detection of HAB (STML-HAB) events in the region of Gulf of Mexico is proposed in this work. The spatio-temporal cubical neighborhood around the training sample is considered to retrieve relevant spectral information pertaining to both HAB and Non-HAB classes. A unique relevant feature subset combination is derived through evolutionary computation technique towards better classification of HAB from Non-HAB. Kernel based feature transformation and classification is used in developing the model. STML-HAB model gave significant performance improvements over the current optical detection based techniques by highly reducing the false alarm rate with an accuracy of 0.9642 on SeaWiFS data. The developed model is used for prediction on new datasets for further spatio-temporal analyses such as the seasonal variations of HAB, and sequential occurrence of algal blooms. New variability visualizations are introduced to illustrate the dynamic behavior and seasonal variations of HABs from large spatiotemporal datasets. The results outperformed the ensemble of the currently available empirical methods for HAB detection. The ensemble method is implemented by a new approach for combining the empirical models using a probabilistic neural network model. The model is also compared with the results obtained using various feature extraction techniques, spatial neighborhoods and classifiers.

Face à l'explosion des nouvelles technologies (mobiles, capteurs, etc.), de grandes quantités de données localisées dans l'espace et dans le temps sont désormais disponibles. Les bases de données associées peuvent être qualifiées de bases de données spatio-temporelles car chaque donnée est décrite par une information spatiale (e.g. une ville, un quartier, une rivière, etc.) et temporelle (p. ex. la date d'un événement). Cette masse de données souvent hétérogènes et complexes génère ainsi de nouveaux besoins auxquels les méthodes d'extraction de connaissances doivent pouvoir répondre (e.g. suivre des phénomènes dans le temps et l'espace). De nombreux phénomènes avec des dynamiques complexes sont ainsi associés à des données spatio-temporelles. Par exemple, la dynamique d'une maladie infectieuse peut être décrite par les interactions entre les humains et le vecteur de transmission associé ainsi que par certains mécanismes spatio-temporels qui participent à son évolution. La modification de l'un des composants de ce système peut déclencher des variations dans les interactions entre les composants et finalement, faire évoluer le comportement global du système.Pour faire face à ces nouveaux enjeux, de nouveaux processus et méthodes doivent être développés afin d'exploiter au mieux l'ensemble des données disponibles. Tel est l'objectif de la fouille de données spatio-temporelles qui correspond à l'ensemble de techniques et méthodes qui permettent d'obtenir des connaissances utiles à partir de gros volumes de données spatio-temporelles. Cette thèse s'inscrit dans le cadre général de la fouille de données spatio-temporelles et l'extraction de motifs séquentiels. Plus précisément, deux méthodes génériques d'extraction de motifs sont proposées. La première permet d'extraire des motifs séquentiels incluant des caractéristiques spatiales. Dans la deuxième, nous proposons un nouveau type de motifs appelé "motifs spatio-séquentiels". Ce type de motifs permet d'étudier l'évolution d'un ensemble d'événements décrivant une zone et son entourage proche. Ces deux approches ont été testées sur deux jeux de données associées à des phénomènes spatio-temporels : la pollution des rivières en France et le suivi épidémiologique de la dengue en Nouvelle Calédonie. Par ailleurs, deux mesures de qualité ainsi qu'un prototype de visualisation de motifs sont été également proposés pour accompagner les experts dans la sélection des motifs d'intérêts. / Thanks to the new technologies (smartphones, sensors, etc.), large amounts of spatiotemporal data are now available. The associated database can be called spatiotemporal databases because each row is described by a spatial information (e.g. a city, a neighborhood, a river, etc.) and temporal information (e.g. the date of an event). This huge data is often complex and heterogeneous and generates new needs in knowledge extraction methods to deal with these constraints (e.g. follow phenomena in time and space).Many phenomena with complex dynamics are thus associated with spatiotemporal data. For instance, the dynamics of an infectious disease can be described as the interactions between humans and the transmission vector as well as some spatiotemporal mechanisms involved in its development. The modification of one of these components can trigger changes in the interactions between the components and finally develop the overall system behavior.To deal with these new challenges, new processes and methods must be developed to manage all available data. In this context, the spatiotemporal data mining is define as a set of techniques and methods used to obtain useful information from large volumes of spatiotemporal data. This thesis follows the general framework of spatiotemporal data mining and sequential pattern mining. More specifically, two generic methods of pattern mining are proposed. The first one allows us to extract sequential patterns including spatial characteristics of data. In the second one, we propose a new type of patterns called spatio-sequential patterns. This kind of patterns is used to study the evolution of a set of events describing an area and its near environment.Both approaches were tested on real datasets associated to two spatiotemporal phenomena: the pollution of rivers in France and the epidemiological monitoring of dengue in New Caledonia. In addition, two measures of quality and a patterns visualization prototype are also available to assist the experts in the selection of interesting patters.

空間認知(Spatial Cognition)指出人所理解的空間複雜度，也就是人與環境互動的過程中，經由記憶與感官經驗，透過內化與重建產生物體在空間的關係認知。認知圖(Cognitive Map)是最常被使用在評估空間認知。分析學生所畫的認知圖有助於老師們瞭解學生的空間認知能力，進而擬定適當的地理教學設計。我們視空間認知發展的學習歷程檔案是由這些認知圖所構成。隨著數位學習科技的進步，我們可以透過探勘認知圖的方式，探討空間認知發展的學習歷程檔案。因此，我們藉由透過圖像的空間資料探勘，分析學生空間認知發展的學習歷程。 空間資料探勘(Spatial Data Mining)主要是從空間資料庫或圖像資料庫中找出有趣且有意義的樣式。在論文中，我們介紹一種空間樣式(Spatial Co-orientation Pattern)探勘以提供空間認知發展學習歷程的分析。Spatial Co-orientation Pattern是指圖像資料庫中，具有共同相對方向關係的物體(Object)常一起出現。例如，我們可以從圖像資料庫中發現物體P常出現在物體Q的左邊，我們利用二維字串(2D String)來表示物體分佈在圖像中的空間方向關係。我們透過Pattern-growth的方法探勘此種空間樣式，藉由實驗結果呈現Pattern-growth的方法與過去Apriori-based的方法[14]之優缺點。 我們延伸Spatial Co-orientation Pattern的概念至時空資料庫(Spatio-temporal Database)，提出從時空資料庫中，探勘Temporal Co-orientation Pattern。Temporal Co-orientation Pattern是指Spatial Co-orientation Pattern隨著時間的變化。論文中，我們提出兩種此類樣式，即是Coarse Temporal Co-orientation Pattern與Fine Temporal Co-orientation Pattern。針對此兩種樣式，我們提出三階段(three-stage)演算法，透過實驗分析演算法的效率。 / Spatial cognition means how human interpret spatial complexity. Cognitive maps are mostly used to test the spatial cognition. Analyzing cognitive maps drawn by students is helpful for teachers to understand students’ spatial cognitive ability and to draft geography teaching plans. Cognitive maps constitute the portfolios of spatial cognitive development. With the advance of e-learning technology, we can analyze portfolios of spatial cognitive development by spatial data mining of cognitive images. Therefore, we can analyze portfolios of spatial cognitive development by spatial data mining of images. Spatial data mining is an important task to discover interesting and meaningful patterns from spatial or image databases. In this thesis, we investigate the spatial co-orientation patterns for analyzing portfolios of spatial cognitive development. Spatial co-orientation patterns refer to objects that frequently occur with the same spatial orientation, e.g. left, right, below, etc., among images. For example, an object P is frequently left to an object Q among images. We utilize the data structure, 2D string, to represent the spatial orientation of objects. We propose the pattern-growth approach for mining co-orientation patterns. An experimental evaluation with synthetic datasets shows the advantages and disadvantages between pattern-growth approach and Apriori-based approach proposed by Huang [14]. Moreover, we extend the concept of spatial co-orientation pattern to that of temporal patterns. Temporal co-orientation patterns refer to the change of spatial co-orientation patterns over time. Two temporal patterns, the coarse temporal co-orientation patterns and fine temporal co-orientation patterns are introduced to be extracted from spatio-temporal databases. We propose the three-stage algorithms, CTPMiner and FTPMiner, for mining coarse and fine temporal co-orientation patterns, respectively. An experimental evaluation with synthetic datasets shows the performance of these algorithms.