Location Prediction and Queries for Tracking Moving Objects O. Wolfson, B. Xu, and S. Chamberlain   View Paper (PDF)   Return to Demo Session 2 Abstract Consider a database that represents information about moving objects and their location. For example, for a database representing the location of taxi-cabs a typical query may be: retrieve the free cabs that are currently within 1 mile of 33 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago (to pick-up a customer); or for a trucking company database a typical query may be: retrieve the trucks that are currently within 1 mile of truck ABT312 (which needs assistance); or for a database representing the current location of objects in a battlefield a typical query may be: retrieve the friendly helicopters that are in a given region, or, retrieve the friendly helicopters that are expected to enter the region within the next 10 minutes. The queries may originate from the moving objects, or from stationary users. We will refer to applications with the above characteristics as moving-objects-database (MOD) applications, and to queries as the ones mentioned above as MOD queries. Our Mobitrack prototype is intended to serve as a platform, or a toolkit for developing MOD type of applications. The system is the third in a three-layer architecture. The first layer is an Object Relational DBMS. The database stores the information about each moving object, including its plan of motion. The second layer is a GIS that adds capabilities and user interface primitives for storing, querying, and manipulating geographic information. The third layer, Mobitrack, adds temporal capabilities, capabilities of managing the uncertainty that is inherent in future motion plans, capabilities for location prediction, and a simulation testbed. Currently, Mobitrack runs on both Unix and MS/Windows. On both platforms Mobitrack uses the Arc-View GIS. It uses the Informix DBMS on Unix, and DBAccess on MS/Windows. DiSC'01 Copyright ©2002 ACM Inc.