D Magazine (that's for Dallas) is looking for feedback on its rendering of neighborhoods in the city. The goal is to use these for identifying bars, restaurants, etc. so residential areas are not so important.
- D Magazine
What Was There is a crowdsourced effort to tag old photos so we can look back in time either on a map or via cell phone app ("augmented reality -ish" it seems you have to georef the photos).
The premise is simple: provide a platform where anyone can easily upload a photograph with two straightforward tags to provide context: Location and Year. If enough people upload enough photographs in enough places, together we will weave together a photographic history of the world (or at least any place covered by Google Maps). So wherever you are in the world, take a moment to upload a photograph and contribute to history!
- Whatwasthere.com via engadget
CrowdFlower, the leader in enterprise crowdsourcing, today announced general availability of the industry's first enterprise crowdsourcing platform to address the data management needs of Fortune 500 companies. Built on the patent-pending CrowdEngine technology system, CrowdFlower's technology platform enables companies to streamline large-scale business processes and obtain automated, high-quality results at exceptionally low costs. Examples include eCommerce product categorization, SEO content creation, business and marketing data verification and enrichment, and brand sentiment analysis.
This sounds more like Amazon's Mechanical Turk than what I expected.
- press release
The Bermuda Cultural Map Trust announced the launch of ’Are you on the map?’, a campaign designed to offer organizations and individuals involved in Bermuda’s creative and cultural industries a no-cost marketing and cross-promotion opportunity.
The Bermuda Cultural Map Trust is a Bermuda-registered charity whose vision is to provide a platform for Bermuda’s creative and cultural assets and explore how they can contribute to Bermuda economically, socially and culturally.
The Trust oversees the development and management of the Bermuda Cultural Map, a Google Maps-based directory that is fully editable and extendable with user-controlled updates.
- Bernews.com
by Adena Schutzberg on 09/23 at 03:00 AM |
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Narrow your search further:
augmented reality,
bermuda cultural map,
crowdsourcing,
dallas,
enterprise crowdsourcing,
geotagging,
google,
google maps,
hstory,
neighborhoods,
vgi
Traffic Information (a Texas LLC) is suing a long list of financial and geo companies (below) for infringing on U.S. Patent No. 6,466,862 issued Oct. 15, 2002, for System for Providing Traffic Information.
Abstract:
A system for providing traffic information to a plurality of mobile users connected to a network. The system comprises a plurality of traffic monitors, each comprising at least a traffic detector and a transmitter, the traffic detector generating a signal in response to vehicular traffic and the transmitter transmitting the signal. A receiver receives the signals from the traffic monitors. A computer system is connected to the receiver and is further connected to the network. The computer system in response to a request signal received from one of the users transmits in response thereto information representative of the signals transmitted by the traffic monitoring units. Alternative systems for gathering traffic information are disclosed.
The defendants are Bok Financial Corp., Bank of Texas, National Association, Capital One Financial Corp., Capital One Bank (USA), National Association, Glympse Inc., Layar B.V., Move Inc., Opentable Inc., Poynt Corp., Redfin Corp., Scvngr Inc., Smarter Agent LLC and Trulia Inc. and Traffic Information is asking the court to issue an injunction and for an award of damages, interest, court costs and attorney's fees.
by Adena Schutzberg on 09/21 at 04:08 AM |
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I admit it, I look at the headlines of press releases and if interesting, the first paragraph. But three press releases from last week required a revisit because the topics were so...interesting.
First off, Depiction, which offers a "what if" visualization tool announced (press release) at State of the Map apparently (I'm not sure why but I guess it uses OMS?) a new product: DepictionPrep. The idea: it's software to help you and your neighborhood prepare for an upcoming emergency. No details on pricing; it's coming this fall. I have mixed feelings about this and note that Glenn just shared another related offering: Safety Maps which creates a custom "we'll meet here in case of emergency" map for free and is built on OpenStreetMap. And licensed under CC.
Second, Fox, the bike shocks folks joined the Ant+ alliance teamed with and Garmin the GPS folks (press release) to walk users through setting up the suspensions on the their moutain bikes. It's a proof of concept that does not require GPS. As I undrstand it, sensors in the pumps (that serve as shock absorbers best I understand, I'm a road biker) talk to the Garmin Edge and walk the user through the process. You can then save different settings for different terrains. I wonder if this is a solution in search of a problem. I'll have to ask my mountain biking friends.
Finally and this is the most big brother of them all: CrowdOptic (press release) has a platform to keep track of where cell phones are "looking" during an event like a football game or a concert. Then, that information can be used to feed more info (say stats on the player) or ads (Time for a coke!). The release does not say but I'm guessing you'd have to give the company access to your location and compass info. Sadly, this also suggests that at such events people spend a good deal of their time taking pictures from, lookng through or looking at their phones.
by Adena Schutzberg on 09/19 at 05:03 AM |
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The patent, Augmented Reality Maps was filed in February of 2010. It is credited to Jaron Waldman of Placebase fame.
Abstract:
A user points a handheld communication device to capture and display a real-time video stream. The handheld communication device detects geographic position, camera direction, and tilt of the image capture device. The user sends a search request to a server for nearby points of interest. The handheld communication device receives search results based on the search request, geographic position, camera direction, and tilt of the handheld communication device. The handheld communication device visually augments the captured video stream with data related to each point of interest. The user then selects a point of interest to visit. The handheld communication device visually augments the captured video stream with a directional map to a selected point of interest in response to the user input.
AppleInsider contends the idea here is not re-invent AR but to merge it with navigation.
- AppleInsider
by Adena Schutzberg on 08/18 at 05:19 AM |
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If you are feeling bombarded by the latest and greatest for 3D visualization you are not alone. This week I was struck that news about augmented reality seems to be percolating again. I sensed a lull in the action in AR over the last few months but now both Layar and metaio reloaded with recent announcements. Layar announced their Layar Vision (watch the video below), an enhancement to their platform with more realism and metaio announced a conference on AR plus something called The Augmented City (watch the video below). (See the news on all recent AR announcements.)
In particular, watching the Augmented City demo by metaio I was trying to determine who their audience would be. The demo shows a more dynamic view of a modeled city with location-based advertising placement and other external stylizing of building facades. But I had to question if the technology was more for city managers or was it truly more consumer oriented.
In general, the buzz around building information models, that learns toward the integration of more internal building information, and LiDAR point clouds that render external building and road features with true location accuracy got me thinking about a convergence with AR and the intended audience.
The camps of architects and engineers, remote sensing geospatialists, and the augmented reality folks have pieces of the visualization puzzle that provide aspects of 3D that could, but don't have to, come together. But you should rightfully ask who the audience is for all of these visualization model types and are the products they produce useful to each. You see, we love our techno toys without realizing whether they are useful ... technology in search of a market, if you will. But these visualization tools are begging for convergence or integration. Whether they should or not is the question.
Continue reading...
by Joe Francica on 08/11 at 02:31 PM |
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