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WorldWeird: Digitizing Cities

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  1.  (614.21)
    As for medical emergencies, from what I understand the most common problems for EMT isn't finding the building, it's getting access or navigating inside. 100+ unit apartment blocks with only stairs and nil information on the mailboxes are more of a danger to coronary victims than faulty GPS


    Something I'm expert on! Finally...

    As a working EMT we *need* working maps, a lot of the time I'm using my local knowledge, but I'll also often get pulled out of my patch. The maps that we use don't have such things as width restrictions (important driving one of our ambulances)or the names of the blocks of flats in our sink estates.

    It's the lack of names on the blocks that drive me mental - try looking at silly-arsed block names from the road in the dark. Accurate mapping would help us greatly.

    Finding individual flats in a block is more a function of correctly labelling and marking directions and after a while you develop a 'sixth sense' for finding places.

    Our computing system went tits up the other night, so our automatic mapping went down. It was time to go back to the dead-tree map books and relying on VHF radios. My motor didn't have a mapbook so I used my iPhone's Google maps application.

    Anyway - concerning privacy, its not like 'the man' can't just source someone to have a look at the location physically and get an up-to-date view of the area, Google and the like just make it easier and of more use to the public. Hell, given the speed at which government become aware of things, they'll be using the current mapping things when the private sector has moved on to holographic realtime updates.
  2.  (614.22)
    I agree completely with everything Kadrey said here. Satellite shots a little out of date are good and already give you a good idea of your surroundings, while not showing people's faces, just dots in the street. That's good enough. But a fucking van driving up and down the street photographing the people and into open windows IS a violation of privacy. I don't want people watching me having lunch, sorry. "For technology and map-making purposes" is a bullshit excuse.

    And if you want to have a "good idea of the neighborhood", look down: see your legs? Use them.
  3.  (614.23)
    Reynolds:

    Sounds like you could use alot more meta data on the roadmaps than is usually provided by the most common mapping systems. Things like width and height restrictions for buses and such. Truckers in the states have various proprietary devices and software that provide information like that, as well as weight restrictions, traffic data and even local information. I can't find the article, but I was reading somewhere a trucker likened it to the hobo code. A hobo code for cities, urban metadata tags that give more specialized information.

    I'm parsing that you're in the UK, what kind of mapping software do you use on the job? The one that cocked out on you.
  4.  (614.24)
    David,

    >Kadrey- With that said there will be boundaries that are pushed, and sometimes pushed to far.
    >That is why it is always best to be speculative and weary of the Man, whoever he may be.
    It's obviously an ongoing argument, but one that needs to happen. My worry is less the all-powerful evil tentacles of government coming to strangle us in our sleep than how we will give up everything, inch by inch, for some bit of perceived convenience and/or false safety.

    It's funny that you mentioned "Less than a hundred years ago you could be shot just for stepping on another's piece of land." I used to live in Texas and when I originally read about Google photo vans, my first thought was "Wait until they try that in Houston!" Between dad's 30.06, mom's .22 pistol and the kid's squirrel rifle, those vans are going to be well-ventilated.
  5.  (614.25)
    It's funny that you mentioned "Less than a hundred years ago you could be shot just for stepping on another's piece of land." I used to live in Texas and when I originally read about Google photo vans, my first thought was "Wait until they try that in Houston!" Between dad's 30.06, mom's .22 pistol and the kid's squirrel rifle, those vans are going to be well-ventilated.


    Hehe, they can try violating any part of the bill of rights but not the second amendment.
  6.  (614.26)
    Between dad's 30.06, mom's .22 pistol and the kid's squirrel rifle, those vans are going to be well-ventilated.

    classic
  7.  (614.27)
    Sounds like you could use alot more meta data on the roadmaps than is usually provided by the most common mapping systems. Things like width and height restrictions for buses and such. Truckers in the states have various proprietary devices and software that provide information like that, as well as weight restrictions, traffic data and even local information. I can't find the article, but I was reading somewhere a trucker likened it to the hobo code. A hobo code for cities, urban metadata tags that give more specialized information.


    And it's the sort of thing that we could create ourselves from our accumulated local knowledge. And we are supposed to do this via 'sat-nav feedback forms', but I've never seen one in the flesh and to be honest we are too busy to fill them in. So we muddle along. Our 'hobo code' is passed along by word of mouth.

    I'm parsing that you're in the UK, what kind of mapping software do you use on the job? The one that cocked out on you.


    It runs on Windows and is otherwise proprietary as far as I know. Uses the London A to Z data.

    (It's a hugely networked system that still requires the IT people to visit every ambulance in service to 'upgrade' the system. That and when I asked them they couldn't tell me what was in the update - such is IT in the NHS).
  8.  (614.28)
    NHS eh? you still need a punchcard to tell you how to get places?
  9.  (614.29)
    >Hehe, they can try violating any part of the bill of rights but not the second amendment.
    "I 'well-regulated milita?' I AM a well-regulated miltia, snake fucker! Now get off my porch."
    •  
      CommentAuthorhyim
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2008
     (614.30)
    Even more impressive is "Automatic Architecture" which takes data from city models and automatically creates textured 3d models.

    VideoTrace: Rapid interactive scene modelling from video
    watch the vid and go all oh wow.
  11.  (614.31)
    It runs on Windows and is otherwise proprietary as far as I know. Uses the London A to Z data.

    Interesting. If only there was something open-source might give you just the kind of pluggable data sets you need. The further out we go with tech the more we come back. A mapping system that would let you make notes, tag buildings ("Elevator Out as of 26/01/08" or "Building manager actual number is...") would be like going back to the earliest maps that were drawings with simple notes. The systematized road maps are kind of the middle child.

    The notion of proprietary map information is just all backwards to me.

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