Willbros Group, Inc. is collaborating GeoEye for imagery and Google for data serving to deliver a cloud-based pipeline integrity management solution.
This cloud-based solution will provide customers easy access to real-time pipeline information integrated with GeoEye's high-resolution, map-accurate commercial satellite imagery served from the Google Earth Builder platform.
This is the first announcement that I've seen of a product built on GEB.
- press release
by Adena Schutzberg on 04/17 at 03:00 AM |
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Google Maps Floor Plan Marker for Android was announced late last week. But first, a disclaimer from The Verge:
It's important to emphasize that this app is intended only for those that have provided the company with floor plans for an indoor venue. Google flatly states that the software will primarily be of interest "to map enthusiasts and venue owners," and hopefully that disclaimer will be enough to ward off erroneous downloads.
Those who do run the app are basically giving Google detailed information on local wi-fi/cell coverage to better locate devices (and thus people) in the venue. I have a question I've seen in comments on the news already: Who has permission to collect and share this data with Google? The ownder of the property? The vendor renting it? Those who work there? Those who shop there? I'm wondering if there's legal precident here.
- Google Lat Long Blog
by Adena Schutzberg on 04/08 at 04:36 AM |
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Google acquired reCAPTCHA in 2009. It's one of several services that help distinguish bots from real people when signing up for say e-mail accounts. It presents garbled, fuzzy or other hard to decipher text with the idea that humans are far better than machines at decoding it.
Google explained to TechCrunch it is now including house numbers, street signs and other graphics from Street View in reCAPTCHA as a to test if its a good way to get "double duty" from its purchase.
I recall this sort of work being done via Amazon's Mechanical Turk in years past.
- TechCrunch
by Adena Schutzberg on 03/30 at 04:59 AM |
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Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in partnership with Google, yesterday, commenced the mapping exercise where all tourism attractions in the country will feature on the web.
The two-day event dubbed, Rwanda Tourism MapUp, started with the team's road trip from Kigali where key touristic features were mapped and continued to Musanze and Rubavu districts whose attractions were also added to the Google map list.
About 40 people including GIS professionals helped with the mapping which will be redone annually to insure locations are correct.
- All Africa
The Initiative for Solidarity with Arrested Students released the "Map of Unnamed Students". With this project, the initiative wants to create awareness for judicial and administrative rights violations encountered by students and to make these violations visible. The map also aims at keeping track of the situations of the arrested students.
The idea is to add other incidents to the map and get more information on the known ones.The effort focuses on Turkey and uses CrowdMap.
- Bianet.org
UBC Okanagan and the Central Okanagan Food Policy Council have put together a set of food discussion maps for the Central Okanagan area of British Columbia, Canada. Discussions are "pinned" to their locations and live on four different maps.
Food Experiences: Participants are asked to "Describe your experiences with food on the UBCO campus and in Kelowna."
Food Access: Food stores, food services and other food locations used to explore the question, "Is there food everywhere?"
Agricultural Land: Understanding the agricultural land reserve (ALR).
Community Food: Mapping community gardens, food banks and soup kitchens to discuss the question, "Is there food for everyone?"
The maps are Google-based and at least one class at UBC, Geography 491, was involved.
- press release via @gletham
WWF is asking supporters to identify places that carry or sell paper products made from Sumatran rain forest timber, and then note the location and take pictures using MapHook. Supporters can post a “hook” with their photos on http://www.worldwildlife.org/sites/tigers/toiletpaper-map.html . This site also has information about the paper campaign along with details on how to get started.
The goal is protection of the Sumatran habitat for tigers and other animals.
- press release
by Adena Schutzberg on 03/28 at 04:42 AM |
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The patent is titled Advertising based on environmental conditions. It's quite simple, per the very short abstract:
Information about an environmental condition of a remote device is received, the environmental condition being determined based on a signal output from a sensor of the remote device or a sensor coupled to the remote device. An advertisement is identified based on the environmental condition, and the advertisement is provided to the remote device.
So, in theory, if it's raining, you might get ads for raincoats. This is already done to some extent on weather webites. High allergy day in your area? And ad for Claritin appears! It's also possible to sense background noise - say that of a concert - and based ads on that. The patent was applied for in 2008 and granted on March 20.
The privacy folks are concerned of course and there are the requisite comparisons to Minority Report. Google for its part notes it patents all kinds of ideas; some never are implemented in products.
- BBC
- Atlantic
by Adena Schutzberg on 03/27 at 04:00 AM |
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