Rules engine for spatial and temporal reasoning?
- by John
I have an application that receives a number of datums that characterize spatial / temporal processes.  It then filters these datums and creates actions which are then sent to processes that perform the actions.  Rinse and repeat.
At present, I have a collection of custom filters that perform a lot of complicated spatial/temporal calculations.
Many times as I discuss my system to individuals in my company, they ask if I'm using a rules engine.
I have yet to find a rules engine that is able to reason well temporally and spatially.  (Things like When are two entities ever close?  Is entity A ever in region B?  If entity C is near entity D but oriented backwards relative to C then perform action D.)
I have looked at Drools, Cyc, Jess in the past (say 3-4 years ago).  It's time to re-examine the state of the art.  Any suggestions?  Any standards that you know of that support this kind of reasoning?  Any defacto standards?  Any applications?
Thanks!