Monday, June 8. 2009

Intermap Brings Terrain Data to the Masses on the iPhone

Monday, Intermap will announce its AccuTerra applications for the iPhone. The company is well known in the geospatial industry as the source of NextMap Britain and NextMap USA, two nationwide detailed topographic datasets collected using synthetic aperture radar (corrected per comment - originally said LiDAR). Aerial imagery is collected at the same time. Most of that data has been sold (on spec or later) to national mapping agencies and defense interests, though some has made it into car navigation use and higher-end ruggedized GPS units for backcountry enthusiasts.

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Facebook Removing Regional Networks/News Filtering

As Search Engine Watch notes the networks tend to be too large to have value, so Facebook is slowly doing away with them, as announced on June 2. There'll be nothing to replace them, though users can still include a location in their profile. The first few comments (of 615 to date) are not positive about the change.

- via Search Engine Watch

Japanese Govt Funding "Infection Tracking" via Cell Experiment

The idea is see how/if cell phones that track location can help track and respond to a "made up" illness and thus be valuable in a real situation. A subsidiary of Softbank Corp., a major Japanese Internet and cellular provider, proposed a system that uses phones to limit pandemics and hopes to be selected to test it in an elementary school. Students will carry cell phones and be tracked minute by minute. Several will be identified as "infected" and those they "interact with" may thus be infect too. Parents will be notified to bring the child to the doctor.

There are many issues related to privacy, participation, notification to be addressed, so testing out reactions in a "made up scenario" is a good way to identify them.

- AP

Garmin Recalls Boating Data Products

The 2009 version of Garmin's BlueChart g2 and g2 Vision data cards may have incorrect depth marking off the coast of Sweden and Denmark and, the company fears, other locations. That has led the company to stop selling the products and begin an immediate worldwide recall. The company suspects and algorithm error produced the erroneous data.

Kudos to Garmin for acting fast based on an "abundance of caution."

- PC World

Chimps Don't Need LBS Apps

The BBC reports on a study in Animal Cognition that suggests chimps not only can keep the locations of perhaps 1000 fruit trees in their heads, but also navigate directly to them and keep track of when they'll have fruit to eat.

The article is open access (under CC) so you can read it in its entirety, among other things, without payment.

Integral GIS Maps Lebanon Elections

The Seattle Times profiles the work of Integral GIS under contract to Arabia GIS on behalf of Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform, a coalition of Lebanese groups committed to open and democratic elections. Three staffers visited the country in March to pull together data and a GIS to track the elections and report on outcomes. At least one Lebanese broadcasters used a Microsoft Surface display to review the results.