Geodata Collection for Illiterate Peoples and their Threatened Lands

Can new data collection tools and even location-based games help endangered people's map and keep their lands?

Part of the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) programme, launched on Friday at University College London, UK, the work builds on research from anthropologist Jerome Lewis into data collection in extreme environments. Lewis has been working with indigenous people in the Republic of Congo and Cameroon since 2005 to develop tools for use by non-literate people. 

Working with hardware manufacturers he's helped develop icon-based data collection devices where local geotag trees with key foods or resources. Once the maps are made, the next step is teaching the locals to read those maps. How? Using "find me" type mobile games built on the maps.

- New Scientist

MIT Researchers Working on 3D Data Capture/Gesture Interface for Cell Phones

3D data capture and gesture recognition are hot and that' what Vivek Goyal, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, and his group at MIT’s Research Lab of Electronics are working on. Two of his colleagues Kirmani and Colaco were selected as one of eight winners (out of 146 university applicants) of a $100,000 grant through its 2011 Innovation Fellowship program. The detail of how the sensors can be made small enough and cheap enough are worth reviewing if you want the gory details.

- MIT

Patent Suit Against Layar, Glympse, Trulia (and others) for using Traffic Information

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.

Making Museums More Interesting via Maps and other Geospatial Innovation News

Gaetano Ling, an Imperial College London postgraduate, is using various technologies to make museums more ineresting and accessible to young people. One of his inventions is a gallery map.

Ling also developed a Harry Potter-style interactive map, made from heat activated material called thermochromatic film. Transistors embedded inside this film are electronically switched on by a computer when it senses, via the barcodes, that a user has seen all the artwork in a space. The transistors then heat up a new section of the thermochromatic film to reveal another part of the map, providing a pathway to a new gallery space for the map user to explore.

The new tools were created by Ling as part of his final project for the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) course, which is run jointly by Imperial and the Royal College of Art (RCA). Students receive a joint MA (RCA) and MSc (Imperial) in Innovation Design Engineering after they have completed the 21 month course.

- Science 2.0

Inventor Stephen D. Heslin argues current mounts for GPS devices on windshield can cause drivers to be uncomfortable, annoyed and unsafe. They require drivers to lean forward to program the device. His new devices eliminate this need to reach by implementing a GPS Extender, a portable mounting bracket that brings the device 16 inches from the windshield. It's been licensed and Heslin is looking for a manufacturer. He expects to sell them widely - including to the military.

- Santa Barbara Indepedent

New digital devices, developed by researchers at Sony, don't just make distant views seem close, they actually video tape that view. It might be a view of rare birds, a ball game or a play. The GPS enbaled "Vinoculars", or video binoculars use two video camera to capture the views which can then be rewound and replayed for the capturer. The videos might also be sent to others.

I'm trying to think about how these could be use for geospatial data capture...

- MSN India