Wednesday, October 1. 2008

Oracle Acquires Space Planning Software Firm

Oracle acquired UK-based Advanced Visual Technology which makes 3D space planning software for retailers.
It's product Retail Focus has tools to plan store floors and shelf space. There's an add-on product, Retail Focus Merchandiser, for 3D walkthroughs. It'll be part of Oracle's Retail application suite but it makes one wonder about future geospatial visualization options.

- C|net

Where is Spatial at MySQL?

I regularly get the MySQL monthly newsletter and I always look to see what's up with support for spatial data. There is never much to be found. This month, there is an announcement about a call for papers for the 2009 MySQL conference. And in the list of suggested topics, I expected to see something about spatial. No such luck. The question is, why? Here is the leading open source database that supports spatial data primitives and not a word about it for their conference. Location technology and spatial data support is no longer sequestered to the back room. It's front and center in BI, LBS, and enterprise computing. It should be one of the key topics at the MySQL conference. I expect many attendees would want to know what's going on. Let's hope that Sun (now owners of MySQL) and O'Reilly (conference organizers) make an effort to include spatial in the future.

Text Message Scavenger Game Company Makes Money!

Ok, it's not a lot ($25,000) but it suggests the five person company based in Boston is on to something. What does SCVNGR offer?

SCVNGR’s shtick is running text-message-based interactive games for corporations, associations, and non-profits, using proprietary algorithms designed by two Princeton professors to efficiently direct large numbers of game players (or museum visitors, or anyone moving in space) through a series of checkpoints.

It sounds simple, but to avoid jam ups decisions about which teams are sent where for the next clue are developed on the fly. So, each time played a team would likely follow a different route. Also noteworthy: an upcoming free version anyone can use.
- Xconomy

"Tricorder" Prototype

I called it that. The folks who developed the software call it 'Real Space See-through Mobile.' It's just a prototype and comes from KDDI's R&D laboratory and Tokyo University and it being shown off this week at CEATEC in Japan this week. Here's what it is supposed to do:

Three acceleration sensors combine with a similar number of geomagnetic sensors and a GPS chip to work out exactly where the phone is and in what direction it's pointing.

Using some sort of digital voodoo, the software then uses OpenGL to draw on the screen what it has 'sensed' is in the immediate surroundings.

- Tech Radar
- TechOn

Another "GPS-caused" Accident Reveals Response Challenges

You can read the details but essentially, a driver, blindly following his satnav got stuck on the railroad tracks in Bedford Hills, New York and a train hit the car. No one was hurt.

Two items of importance fall out of the story:

(1) The driver called 911 for help instead of the MTA number posted at the crossing. The MTA number currently includes letters and numbers, perhaps making it more difficult to call when under stress. The MTA is considering changing it to all letters. That's probably a good move, but how are they going to get drivers (or anyone) who is panicked to call it over 911? The 911 operator who does receive such a call must then forward it to MTA officials sometimes losing precious time. In this case, the 911 call occurred one minute and the call from 911 to MTA happened in the next minute. That's not too bad in my book.

(2) This is scary: "The state Department of Transportation and the Department of Motor Vehicles, the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration do not keep statistics on GPS-related traffic accidents." Why not? I think it's time someone did! An MTA spokesperson noted 4 accidents at that crossing since 2000; the last two involved GPS devices.

- LoHud.com

FOSS4G IRC Logs

Geospatial Reddit shares access information for IRC for FOSS4G currently going on in Capetown South Africa.

OsGeo IRC Logs can be found at here. It's a bit of a mess (IRC always seems that way to me!), but there are some tidbits and links to videos etc.