Friday, July 10. 2009

Lancaster CA Looking at Citywide Overhead Surveillance Solution

Remember those stories about how well meaning law enforcement officers would call one of the satellite companies and ask for shot around 2 pm of a guy running down Main Street on Thursday? We'd laugh since they clearly didn't get satellite imagery. Now, Lancaster, California is looking at aerial video surveillance that would circle the city continuously. It could zoom in on anyway, and thus, you'd never know if you'd be on camera. And, thus, no way you'd commit a crime, right? I'm not sure of the logic or the privacy issues, but it's still in the works. The tech is the same as the military, NASA and some federal agencies use, but this'd be the first use in public safety.

via Slashdot

Update: Let them read and comment on U.S. patent applications

Bad news: the Peer to Patent website was shut down last month (and apparently almost no one noticed). Officially, the pilot was closed, but it doesn't look good for a reopening. Mike Masnick suggests that there was simply not enough incentive for people to review patents before they were given. Comments to his post point out the interface for the site was poor.

- Tech Dirt

Continue reading "Update: Let them read and comment on U.S. patent applications"

New York State Recovery Map

The map's here. Google Maps and Google Earth and Excel. Far different than that from other states.

Per a press release:

The map uses the State’s Critical Infrastructure Information System, a state-of-the-art geographic information system that utilizes hundreds of mapped data layers, in combination with Google Maps for map display and searches, as well as integration with Google Earth for more advanced searching and display. An easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet export function allows users to download the underlying data, enabling unlimited ways to examine, analyze and make use of project-specific information.

Education Tidbits

Tamara Davis and Frank Chiachiere are developing a website site that will for the first time combine traffic and incident data from both King County and Washington state onto one map.

Says Seattle-PI: "Their project, developed as coursework in the master's of science in information management program at the University of Washington's Information School, involved systems management, technical wizardry and a fair share of diplomacy."

Davis works in IT for the county and has run into situations where "border" issues mean incomplete transportation maps, which in turn anger citizens.

- Seattle-PI

The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant of $149,909 to the Community College of Aurora (Colorado) for support of the Community College GIS Faculty Institute. The Institute will train CCA faculty across the disciplines in GIS and its use in the classroom. The award is effective August 1.

- YourHub

University of Chicago students and community residents are working on a neighborhood mapping project as part of an effort to assess the health of South Side residents. The grant is from the University of Chicago Medical Center's Urban Health Initiative.

- Chicago Tribune

Apple ID app Patent Application: More Information About Object Around You

The patent is called "Systems and methods for identifying objects and providing information related to identified objects," or ID app for short. It revolves around a solution for somehow identifying (via RFID, GPS, photo, etc.) an object and then comparing it to a database of objects to provide further information on the object. There are already some apps out there that use photos of objects or photos of barcodes for just that purpose.

- InformationWeek

Update: LA Times: Crimes Missing from LAPD Map

Thursday LAPD Chief William Bratton thanked the LA Times (pdf) for its investigation which revealed that many crimes listed in department summaries did not appear on the department's online maps. Bratton pointed to contractors as the source of the error. PSOMAS and Lightray are currently working to fix the problem. In the meantime, the site remains up.

Sadly, the whole effort may mean less access to data instead of more. Bratton has asked the city attorney to look into the terms by which the LA Times had access to the crime listings. He suggests having to make this data available to any might put undue burden on the department.

- LA Times

Continue reading "Update: LA Times: Crimes Missing from LAPD Map"