Efficient continuously moving top-k spatial keyword query processing

Abstract

Web users and content are increasingly being geo-positioned. This development gives prominence to spatial keyword queries, which involve both the locations and textual descriptions of content. We study the efficient processing of continuously moving top-k spatial keyword (MkSK) queries over spatial keyword data. State-of-the-art solutions for moving queries employ safe zones that guarantee the validity of reported results as long as the user remains within a zone. However, existing safe zone methods focus solely on spatial locations and ignore text relevancy. We propose two algorithms for computing safe zones that guarantee correct results at any time and that aim to optimize the computation on the server as well as the communication between the server and the client. We exploit tight and conservative approximations of safe zones and aggressive computational space pruning. Empirical studies with real data suggest that our proposals are efficient.