The internet spatial spreadsheet: enabling remote visualization of dynamic spatial data and ongoing query results over a network

Moving object databases store and process data for objects that change location frequently. Materialized views maintained over time must be updated to reflect changes due to the motion of objects in their environment. To visualize view query results, displays must be updated to reflect the change. In this paper we present the Internet Spatial Spreadsheet (ISS) as a means to organize, query, and visualize changing spatial data in a network environment such as the Internet.The goal of the ISS is to keep client visualizations of query results up to date with the server state. This is accomplished by pushing the minimal set of spatial data needed for rendering query results on the client. Incremental changes to query results are subsequently transmitted to the client as the database is updated to keep the visualization current. Additional constraints in the network environment such as firewall limitations are also considered.