This paper proposes a novel method of analysing trajectories followed by people while they perform navigational tasks. The results indicate that modelling trajectories with Bézier curves provides a basis for the diagnosis of navigational patterns. The method offers five indicators: goodness of fit, average curvature, number of inflexion points, lengths of straight line segments, and area covered. Study results, obtained in a virtual environment show that these indicators carry important information about user performance, specifically spatial knowledge acquisition.
This paper is the first to explore the interplay between spatial behaviour and trajectory analysis. It consists of a novel method of analysing trajectories followed by people during navigational tasks, and the findings suggest that modelling trajectories with B'zier curves provides a basis for the diagnosis of navigational patterns. This paper in the KAIS journal is an extended version of the one presented at a workshop at the International Conference on Multimodal Interfaces 2005 (acceptance rate 35%). RAE_import_type : Journal article RAE_uoa_type : Computer Science and Informatics