Each week, Spatial Source finds the best that the internet has to offer.
Archaeologist Sarah Parcak is allowing anyone in the world with an internet connection to participate in discovering new archaeological sites, and protect vulnerable archeological sites from looting. Using the $1 million she got from winning the TED Prize as well as support from the National Geographic Society and DigitalGlobe, she recently launched GlobalXplorer and is seeking to engage people from all backgrounds in finding and preserving archaeological sites through the use of satellite images. [Big Think]
Switzerland’s national mapping agency, swisstopo, has begun visualising the nation’s stunning mountains and buildings in 3D with open-source globe Cesium. This extensive national geodata collection is available via a BETA version of an online interactive portal, and serves as an inspiration for streaming massive amounts of 3D data on an open source platform. [Swisstopo]
Hooray for Google, their patent that went through this week for a ‘teleprescence drone’ has given sUAS News an excellent excuse to post one of the best drone videos of 2016 once again, Robot Drone Man Fly! [sUAS News]
15,976 people around the world died in terrorist attacks last year. If you watch the news in the ‘developed’ world you might be under the impression that most deaths from terrorism occur in the West. However Esri’s 2016 Terrorist Attacks map clearly shows that the Middle East and Northern & Central Africa are the areas worst affected by terrorism. [Maps Mania]
Drones can be loud and annoying, but they’re also a potential threat to public safety or privacy if they’re snooping into restricted airspace. ASX-listed Department 13 has built a system it says can monitor Wi-Fi and GPS tracking signals to detect nearby drone activity, then jump in on top of those broadcasts to take over the flying gadget and redirect it to Mesmer, the mysteriously named product from D13. [Gizmodo Australia]
