spatial ciphers/cryptanalysis techniques based on neighborhood spaces in a grid?

Question

Are there spatial ciphers/cryptanalysis techniques based on neighborhood spaces in a grid? More specially are there 5 orientation spaces with the values being north, south, east, west, neutral? Thanks for the help guys.

I know this sounds more like rigorous math, but just need a simple explanation or some direction, as in resources or keywords or links (springerlink, arxiv, etc.)? I have also posted on mathoverflow, so if this needs to be marked/deleted for being slightly off-tangent, that's understandable. Thanks again.

Answer 1

misspelled techniques.

Answer 2

(update)

Well, in the context of the way I am handling the problem, I assigned these 5 values/symbols (N,S,E,W,I). Basically, I have globular shapes (whose descriptors don't matter) that are in a n x n grid of these "neighborhood spaces". They are not given - just a method I am tackling the problem with. I base these values (N,S,E,W,I) on whether these globules cross into neighboring spaces or are strictly inside a grid-cell. I treated globules extending/touching the grid lines shared between two neighboring cells as still crossing over into a neighboring space.

Also, it may not use a cipher, but a code. So foremost, I am looking for ways to construct a cipher or a code based on spatial alignments. I hope this is clear, so let me know if clarifications are needed.

Note: I - inside/ neutral.