Thursday, June 5. 2008

SatNav Teddy Bear

iXs Research Corporation did things right. It licensed a patent from Fujitsu, which holds rights to "doll-based" navigation. Then it built a 1 foot articulated bear that can point in the direction to go and speak the details. There no mention of how you program the bear, nor about its antenna(e) to received signals, but the bear is apparently equipped with an alcohol sensor.

Hoax? Hard to tell as it's sourced to a Japanese article by Pink Tentacle. The company's English site is quite dated and the Japanese version does not seem to note the product in it's news section. The bear was introduced, per Pink Tentacle on June 3. (Of course, some companies are not able to update their websites when they launch new products...) The bear does have history: 2006 on Engadget, when the bear was white, not brown, like that noted above.

Esquire Magazine: What I Learned Looking for Steve Fossett

Luke Dittrich, like many others, set out to find the lost aviator. Of course he and others were disappointed. But he learned quite a lot about the desert, the search, the other wrecks and shares his first person story in Esquire.

JK Rowling Sues Mapmaker for Putting her Home on the Map

The London Star Map includes locations and directions to celebrity homes.

- Celebrity News Service via GantDaily.com

Sources: Nokia/NAVTEQ is Go

Reuters has the report.

Quote of the Week

"If we'd had that report, we could have calculated within 100 percent accuracy."

Kirk Larson of Midland GIS Solutions, in the Warrenton Journal explaining how access to elevation and hydrlogy data would have allowed officials in Warren County, Ohio to notify only those residents who would be impacted by a dam breach in the area. Instead, the county assessor used the data in hand to identify 800 properties whose owners were notified, perhaps more than necessary. The county sheriff agreed it was better to err on the side of safety. I for one am impressed officials could use the GIS that was installed only a few days before the crisis. The dam, while its not noted in the article cited, did not breach.