Seeing Things: Inventive Reasoning with Geometric Analogies and Topographic Maps

This paper examines two seemingly unrelated qualitative spatial reasoning domains; geometric proportional analogies and topographic (landcover) maps. We present a Structure Matching algorithm that combines Gentner's structure mapping theory with an attribute matching process. We use structure matching to solve geometric analogy problems that are centered on manipulating attribute information, such as colors and patterns. Structure matching is also used to creatively interpret topographic (land-cover) maps, serving to add a wealth of semantic knowledge and providing a far richer interpretation of the raw data. We return to the geometric proportional analogy problems and identify alternate attribute matching processes that are required to solve different categories of geometric proportional analogy problems. Finally, we assess some implications for computationally creative and inventive models.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: NGC
• Authors: Diarmuid P. O'Donoghue, Amy J. Bohan, Mark T. Keane
• Keywords: Analogy Problems, Communications, Geometric Proportional Analogy, NGC 2006, Proportional Analogy Problems