Spatial computing: Understanding the peculiar dimensionality of the real world through computing

Research transforms our lives by creating a new understanding of locations

Spatial computing encompasses the ideas, solutions, tools, technologies, and systems that transform our lives by creating a new understanding of locations—how we know, communicate, and visualize our relationship to locations and how we navigate through them. Pervasive GPS allows hikers in national parks, boaters on lakes, children visiting new places, and taxis (or Uber drivers or self-driving cars) and unmanned aerial vehicles to know their locations, nearby facilities, and routes to reach places of interest.

University of Minnesota Computer Science and Engineering Professor Shashi Shekhar discusses how computers have come to understand the peculiar dimensionality of our real world, in this video about spatial computing.

Spatial Computing from CACM on Vimeo.