Gizmag has a story on autonomous mapping robots designed to enter hazardous areas, such as burning buildings, and map them out before real people have to enter.
ZDNet is calling into question the accuracy of the coverage maps that telcos provide, and talks of an initiative to crowd source actual coverage maps using smartphone apps.
The Hindustan Times has a report on a new GPS tracking system that will monitor the location of autistic children, to help find them if they wander off.
The Chron Blog warns us of yet another failing of GPS leading to disaster, when a New Jersey man used the LocateMe service to track down the location of his apparently stolen iPhone. The man then went to the location, saw someone talking on an iPhone, and confronted him, pulling him to the ground and then punching his head and body.
It turns out that the man had actually left his iPhone at the nearby snack shack during a recent baseball game, where it was being held until his return. He has since been arrested for simple assault and disorderly conduct.
Vector One has a post on how geographic information, mapping and GIS connect with news media today, with an emphasis on socially generated spatial data.
For the gamers in the audience, Google Maps Mania points us toward a fan-generated Google Map – complete with Street View – of the fictional Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto IV. The street view required some 80,000 screen shots to compile. You can access the map here. http://www.gta4.net/map/
If you’re not the type of gamer who ever got into the GTA series, perhaps Sony’s Shiphunt will be more to your liking. Google Earth Blog has a post outlining the game, which is based on Google Ocean. The idea is to traverse the oceans, trying to find shipwrecks. It is, of course, a thinly veiled advertisement, but also serves as a neat distraction.
LiDAR News points us to an automotive company having entered into high-volume production for a LiDAR chip that will detect nearby vehicles and automatically apply the brakes if needed. Is this the beginning of mainstream LiDAR usage?
