Kazuhiko Sakakibara, Yoshikazu Fukui, Okinori Taniguchi, Fumiko Perry
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 20(4-5) 275-287, 1996 Peer-reviewed
The authors have attempted to build a computer system, with graphics, to assist in configuring spatial images. It aims to solve design problems, and it consists of five major subsystems: a design information database, an image-configuring mechanism, a problem-solving system, a design analysis routine, and a landscape simulation model. In this paper, the theory, possibilities and problems of the system will be studied. The authors will describe fundamental ideas, methodology and system composition by focusing mainly on the design information database and the image-configuring system, especially the latter. The processes of conception and perception of images and the development of an image from the vague form to a definite form, as it corresponds to the human design process, will also be discussed. Finally, it will be shown that applications in road design demonstrated how the system appears to be useful and has met its initial targets. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.