Fig. 1

Example community map. Imagine standing at the bank (yellow oval) and needing to find a grocery store. Landmark information differs in the visual character of different buildings or other spaces. Here landmark information could be the parking lot, a house, or the shopping center. Landmark configuration can be seen in the relative density or layout of landmarks. A useful landmark configuration here could be a housing development next to a parking lot which is across the street from a business center. A grocery store is less likely to be in a housing development than a shopping center, and a parking lot is indicative of a lot of traffic (which could be near a shopping center). Geometric information relates to the shape or layout of the entire environment and here can be examined globally as the grid-like layout of the streets on this map or locally with the rectangular layout of the business center. Although the figure gives only a snapshot of the community, its rectangular form reflects the overall environment geometry