Mobility Data

Book excerpt: Mobility of people and goods is essential in the global economy. The ability to track the routes and patterns associated with this mobility offers unprecedented opportunities for developing new, smarter applications in different domains. Much of the current research is devoted to developing concepts, models, and tools to comprehend mobility data and make it manageable for these applications. This book surveys the myriad facets of mobility data, from spatio-temporal data modeling, to data aggregation and warehousing, to data analysis, with a specific focus on monitoring people in motion (drivers, airplane passengers, crowds, and even animals in the wild). Written by a renowned group of worldwide experts, it presents a consistent framework that facilitates understanding of all these different facets, from basic definitions to state-of-the-art concepts and techniques, offering both researchers and professionals a thorough understanding of the applications and opportunities made possible by the development of mobility data.