Semantic Trajectories: A Survey from Modeling to Application

Trajectory data analysis has recently become an active research area. This is due to the large availability of mobile tracking sensors, such as GPS-enabled smart phones. However, those GPS trackers only provide raw trajectories (x, y, t), ignoring information about the activity, transportation mode, etc. This information can contribute in producing significant knowledge about movements, which transforms raw trajectories into semantic trajectories. Therefore, research lately has focused on semantic trajectories; their representation, construction, and applications. This paper investigates the current studies on semantic trajectories so far. We propose a new classification schema for the research efforts in semantic trajectory construction and applications. The proposed classification schema includes three main classes: semantic trajectory modeling, computation, and applications. Besides, we discuss the current research gaps found in this research area.