ON THE PROBLEM OF PLACING NAMES IN A GEOGRAPHIC MAP

Abstract

The automatic placement of names on a geographic map, a seemingly straightforward computer task, is, in fact, remarkably complex. This paper describes the results of a research study which has led to the development of AUTONAP, an expert system for automatic name placement. The system attempts to emulate the manner in which an expert cartographer would place names. It utilizes heuristic knowledge about map placement and visual perception, embeds this in a set of explicit rules that form the knowledge base of the system, and draws on techniques from machine pattern analysis to achieve fully automatic placement of all the names in a map.