by Matt Ball on May 23, 2012
This content first appeared in Informed Infrastructure. Hexagon AB today announced the acquisition of myVR, provider of software for photorealistic 2D, 3D, and 360-degree visualization of interactive maps over low-bandwidth connections. The Norwegian company compresses large 3D models for viewing on many platforms, including mobile phones and tablets. The 3D city model viewing and 3D [...]
by Matt Ball on April 26, 2012
An Eye on Earth mobile-based application from the European Environment Agency (EEA) gives individuals an opportunity to sense the noise level around them, and aggregates all the citizens as sensors to derive broader noise maps of specific geographies. This addition of noise to existing Water Watch and Air Watch, gives citizens a suite of pollution [...]
by Matt Ball on April 23, 2012
MineRP has been working to enable underground tracking for use in mines with precise real-time position in three dimensions. The tracking solution uses wireless wi-fi and RFID tracking over wireless networks, with triangulation based on signal strength aiding the position fix. MineRP has been delivering new visual reporting functionality for mining through their SpatialDB database, [...]
by Matt Ball on April 19, 2012
UK-based Measurement Devices Ltd. (MDL) has developed a tiny eye-safe micro laser for the mobile phone market that could revolutionize field data collection. The Micro Laser Module can make hundreds of measurement a second for objects within a 120-meter radius. Now that the hardware has been developed it is being marketed to original equipment manufacturers [...]
by Matt Ball on April 18, 2012
There are a few new smartphone applications that allow Yellowstone National Park visitors to share the locations where they have spotted wildlife so that other visitors can also catch a glimpse. Sharing of locations promise to improve visitors chances to see wolves, elk, bison and bears, but the Park Service is concerned that these siting [...]
by Matt Ball on April 9, 2012
Technology Review carries a story today about Broadcom’s innovative chip for smart phones that fuses signal inputs (GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth) with sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer, altimeter) to provide precise indoor and outdoor location. A similar announcement came just last week with the self-learning SiRFusion platform from CSR that also fuses location information from multiple technologies. With [...]
by Matt Ball on April 4, 2012
Google’s Project Glass augmented reality glasses are now in testing, with geolocation and wayfinding a key component. The glasses hit the streets today, with a cadre of Google employees testing the specs on the street. This Google+ thread asks for feedback, and provides contact from key developers. Here’s a video with a demo of how [...]
by Matt Ball on April 4, 2012
Mexico City has made available an earthquake application that sends alerts direct to phones as soon as a tremor happens. Aplicación Alerta Sismica del DF is tied to remote monitoring stations that detect and send signals up to a minute before the tremors reach the capital. The capital is plagued by earthquakes, with one or [...]
by Matt Ball on March 26, 2012
Google is working with the University of Washington on an open source field data collection tool called the Open Data Kit that enables easy data collection. The system is based on Google’s Android system, with support in many languages. It supports GPS data collection, the integration of images from a phone camera sensor, the capture [...]
by Matt Ball on March 9, 2012
A coordinated effort is underway this weekend to walk and record as many transects of London from the outskirts to the city center. The project of urban story walks is an effort of Urban Earth, and many such walks have been completed around the globe from Mexico City to Mumbai. The effort hopes to draw [...]
