Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!uwvax!ai!gautier
From: gautier@ai.WISC.EDU (Jorge Gautier)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: spatial reference in natural language
Message-ID: <4874@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
Date: 15 Dec 87 22:07:33 GMT
References: <6818@sunybcs.UUCP> <1557@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Sender: news@spool.cs.wisc.edu
Reply-To: gautier@ai.WISC.EDU (Jorge Gautier)
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 21

Inarticle <1557@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk> jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) writes:
>There is one kind of spatial language 
>you want to avoid AT ALL COSTS in anything
>that will be interacting with car drivers 
>(or people controlling other fast and
>dangerous machines) - "left" and "right". ...

It works just the opposite for me.  I absolutely hate it when I'm driving and
the person giving directions says ``go that way'' and points his/her finger.
My eyes are too busy with the road to turn to the person and figure out
where the finger is pointing.  It is also difficult to interpret where it
is pointing, since it usually is somewhere in front of the vehicle (or else
it is too late to turn :-).  The only time finger-pointing is useful comes
when identifying to the driver an unfamiliar landmark related to giving
directions: ``after THAT (point finger) red building, turn right.''

``Left and right'' are unambiguous and objective.  Anything else forces me
to figure out what's going on inside the other person's head, distracting me
from the task of controlling the vehicle.

Jorge