LBS and mobile technology period is taking off BIG TIME. Combine all that with some cool Web2.0 apps and social networking services and you have yourself a killer app for sure. Like some of you, I like to Tweet (think Twitter). I started about 1.5 yrs ago when I first heard about the service at WHERE2.0. Now there’s a new voice enabled solution that provides voice recognition and tweeting from TwitterFone. The app is in special invite beta (please get me an invite crew) but should be a nice story if it works like it’s supposed to. Voice is a huge area of technology, particularly when some of the already great social networking or LBS mobile apps integrate the technology… hopefully we’ll see more of that real soon. See http://www.twitterfone.com
Archives for July 2008
Dopplr adds new functionality for users via Twitter, SMS
Dopplr has today announced an updated (Copenhagen) that provides additional functionality for users to share their trips. Now users can update trips via SMS, email and by Twitter using a special direct message functionality. User profiles also have more options that enable the user to limit what info is shared with others. Nice stuff… the mobile updates are a must so this is a treat and may get me actually using it more. See www.dopplr.com
See also the Dopplr blog for detailed info
The Radio Head House of Cards LIDAR music video!
Definitely under the topic of “cool”… Radiohead just released a new video for its song “House of Cards” from the album “In Rainbows” – see official announcement. No cameras or lights were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes. Directed by Hollywood-based Zoo Films director James Frost, “House of Cards” was shot over two days across Palm Beach County in Florida. Certain shots of the exterior scenes came from other parts of the US. Aerotec’s LIDAR system uses a single laser and scans in an elliptical pattern looking 20 degrees forward, 20 degrees side-to-side, and 14 degrees aft to completely scan three sides of each object over which it is flown. Approximately 200,000 LIDAR points per second are captured, thus producing a very detailed image of the scanned exterior scenes.
See http://code.google.com/radiohead
www.aerotecusa.com
http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/
Weather Underground Hurricane-Tracking service
This morning online weather provider Weather Underground announced the
availability of a new Hurricane-Tracking service – Wundermap. WunderMap displays the current position, strength and movement of every tropical storm across the world that threatens to become a hurricane, typhoon or cyclone.
WunderMap displays: the current position, Dolly’s historical path, the storm’s projected path and strength. Currently, Tropical Storm Dolly’s path can be seen online at
www.wunderground.com/wundermap/hurricane .
Attention Southwest Users attending the ESRI UC
Mark your calendar: Date/Time: Tuesday, Aug 5, 5:30PM – 7:00PM
Level: (upstairs in the conference center)
Location: Room 24 B
GIS users from Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico will be getting together at the ESRI User’s Conference to have a networking social; a chance to meet and greet others in our GIS community to discuss regional activities. See more
Locago, a free mobile map browser for N95 – locate and Go!
Locago, a free mobile map browser with an open interface to third party content and services. The simple and intuitive interface, much like a web browser, presents a clear picture of your surroundings, automatically activating the GPS and directions when needed. More… Locago is a mobile map browser where we combine many sources of information, Flickr, Wikipedia, Zvents, WCities, Weather forecast, UK housing ads etc. And we have an open XML interface if anyone wants to create their own mobile mashup. More info at www.locago.com – move around, find places, create routes and more.
Primer on Cloud Computing
Thanks to Tim O’reilly, always full of pointers to clever and innovative goodies.. this time I followed a tweet from him to a resource on Cloud Computing from joyent. I’m still fuzzy on this whole thing but perhaps this will serve to help somewhat… enjoy and thanks Tim
Your Chance to name a satellite
Here’s an interesting opportunity for you to donate to a charity and be the lucky winner to name a satellite being launched next month. The contest has very simple rules. Participants will be allowed to submit a name for one or more of the five RapidEye satellites. For each name submitted, RapidEye requests the participant to make a minimum donation of 10 Euro. More details on how to enter and win
Province of BC unlocks digital data and strikes a deal with Google
For some time we’ve know that the Province of BC and Google have been striking backroom deals on sharing data… Last week, Agriculture and Lands Minister Stan Hagen announced GeoBC, (http://www.geobc.gov.bc.ca/) will provide 24/7 access to the province’s geographic database in partnership with Google. This information will be available online at geobc.gov.bc.ca and from Google Earth. Apparently, this move makes B.C. the first government in Canada to supply Google with access to its information. Interesting to see that the Provicne has noted on the GeoBC/Google gateway page that data layers for use within ArcExplorer are coming soon.
According to Mark Zacharias, acting assistant deputy minister for GeoBC (nice position Mark… he was a master’s student at U Vic when I was doing my degree in geography/GIS there),
by making this available on Google Earth, “not only will you be able to zoom in on an area and get a high-resolution view, you’ll also be able to download about 600 different themes from the provincial geo data warehouse.” The Government hopes that this information will drive innovation and new business opportunities in B.C. I’d like to know, can you view and download BC TRIM data files using this method though? TRIM files are 1:20K topo files (digital) that are akin to a USGS topo DRG file – it’s been some time, however, in the past contractors had to pay big $$ to get digital TRIM data – a public GIS data product. Source: Vancouver Sun
For data see – GeoBC Web Map Services (KMZ) This package contains a variety of layers such as Agricultural Land Reserves, Contours, Lakes, Rivers, Roads, Railways, Imagery, Lot Lines, Map Grids, and Parks and Protected Areas. Selected BC Park Profiles (KMZ), This package contains links for selected BC Parks to the web page containing information about that park. Note, you can also copy/paste these links into Google Maps for preview.
ZipWho, the demographics mashup
Mashups mashups everywhere…. this new one is from ZipWho and gives you, well… information (basic) on any zipcode. Simple key in the ZIP and you’ll get back in return a snapshot of the area you searched for including such variables as: cost of living index, median rooms in home, avg household size, income, and divorce rate… interesting selection of variables really! A small icon identifies if the variable lies within the top/bottom 10% in the nation – handy. I could see realtors or house hunters taking advantage of this for a quick snapshot – there are still realtors needed right? See www.zipwho.com
