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Analytical methods for error propagation in planar space–time prisms

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Abstract

The space–time prism demarcates all locations in space–time that a mobile object or person can occupy during an episode of potential or unobserved movement. The prism is central to time geography as a measure of potential mobility and to mobile object databases as a measure of location possibilities given sampling error. This paper develops an analytical approach to assessing error propagation in space–time prisms and prism–prism intersections. We analyze the geometry of the prisms to derive a core set of geometric problems involving the intersection of circles and ellipses. Analytical error propagation techniques such as the Taylor linearization method based on the first-order partial derivatives are not available since explicit functions describing the intersections and their derivatives are unwieldy. However, since we have implicit functions describing prism geometry, we modify this approach using an implicit function theorem that provides the required first-order partials without the explicit expressions. We describe the general method as well as details for the two spatial dimensions case and provide example calculations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Utah, 260 S. Central Campus Dr. Room 270, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-9155, USA

    Tetsuo Kobayashi & Harvey J. Miller

  2. Theoretical Computer Science Group, Department WNI, Hasselt University, Agoralaan, Gebouw D, 3590, Diepenbeek, Belgium

    Walied Othman

Authors
  1. Tetsuo Kobayashi
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  2. Harvey J. Miller
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  3. Walied Othman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Harvey J. Miller.

Appendix: spatial sets involved in prisms and prism–prism intersections

Appendix: spatial sets involved in prisms and prism–prism intersections

See (Tables 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

Table 2 Temporal subintervals and prism geometry: stationary activity time
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Table 3 Equations describing temporal boundaries in Table 2
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Table 4 Spatial sets involved in prism–prism intersections: no stationary activity time in both prisms
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Table 5 Spatial sets involved in prism–prism intersections: stationary activity time in one prism (prism r)
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Table 6 Spatial sets involved in prism–prism intersections: stationary activity time in both prisms
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Kobayashi, T., Miller, H.J. & Othman, W. Analytical methods for error propagation in planar space–time prisms. J Geogr Syst 13, 327–354 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10109-010-0139-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10109-010-0139-z

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