An interesting approach to mapping urban environments, while at the same time highlighting activities. It is a very experimental approach to documenting an urban landscape, the location is Shoreditch in London. How the visualization makes use of different layers, not literally but implicit is great. A lot of things are happening simultaneously in the city, did you know?
Friday, 10 July 2009
Thursday, 9 July 2009
The Cycles of the Moon - Aluna
The fascination with the moon had for a long time now had a bit of low. It is just there on the sky changing somehow a bit everyday and might get recognized in good weather conditions at full moon.
Historically the lunar calendar had a big influence, today the only real lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar or Hijri calendar (wiki). Most calendar in the past where in fact lunisolar. “All these calendars have a variable number of months in a year. The reason for this is that a year is not evenly divisible by an exact number of lunation, so without the addition of intercalary months the seasons would drift each year. This results in a thirteen-month year every two or three years.” (wiki)
The lunar cycles are not in sync with our currently used time units. The lunar day is not 24 hours, but 24 hours and 50 minutes. The most visual impact of this shift is the tide cycle and the fact that the tide is not everyday at the same time, but is roughly 25 minutes later every day.
Aluna now, is a large-scale permanent installation to visualize and communicate the lunar cycles. It is proposed to be built in London in the East India Dock Basin by 2012.
“Aluna is a unique proposal for the world’s first tidal powered Moon Clock. It will change the way we consider time and understand our planet.
Larger than Stonehenge, Aluna’s forty meter wide, five storey high structure is made up of three concentric translucent recycled glass rings. By looking at how each ring is illuminated, you can follow the Moon’s movements, its current phase and the ebb and flow of the tides. This animation of light is called Alunatime.” (alunatime.org)
Three rings of glass will display the wax and the wane of the moon in 29.5 calendar days (largest ring), the rise and sink of the moon in 24 hours and 50 minutes (middle ring) and the ebb and flow of the tide in 6 hours 25 minutes (smallest ring).
A brilliant animation of the sculpture is on the website. It is a 3D rendering, but in sync with the three rings are also displayed the tide of the river Thames and the moon on the sky, absolutely amazing.
For lunar geeks, there is also a Google Gadget for your iGoogle displaying the lunar calendar.
Image taken from aluna.org by Laura Williams
Historically the lunar calendar had a big influence, today the only real lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar or Hijri calendar (wiki). Most calendar in the past where in fact lunisolar. “All these calendars have a variable number of months in a year. The reason for this is that a year is not evenly divisible by an exact number of lunation, so without the addition of intercalary months the seasons would drift each year. This results in a thirteen-month year every two or three years.” (wiki)
The lunar cycles are not in sync with our currently used time units. The lunar day is not 24 hours, but 24 hours and 50 minutes. The most visual impact of this shift is the tide cycle and the fact that the tide is not everyday at the same time, but is roughly 25 minutes later every day.
Aluna now, is a large-scale permanent installation to visualize and communicate the lunar cycles. It is proposed to be built in London in the East India Dock Basin by 2012.
“Aluna is a unique proposal for the world’s first tidal powered Moon Clock. It will change the way we consider time and understand our planet.
Larger than Stonehenge, Aluna’s forty meter wide, five storey high structure is made up of three concentric translucent recycled glass rings. By looking at how each ring is illuminated, you can follow the Moon’s movements, its current phase and the ebb and flow of the tides. This animation of light is called Alunatime.” (alunatime.org)
Three rings of glass will display the wax and the wane of the moon in 29.5 calendar days (largest ring), the rise and sink of the moon in 24 hours and 50 minutes (middle ring) and the ebb and flow of the tide in 6 hours 25 minutes (smallest ring).
A brilliant animation of the sculpture is on the website. It is a 3D rendering, but in sync with the three rings are also displayed the tide of the river Thames and the moon on the sky, absolutely amazing.
For lunar geeks, there is also a Google Gadget for your iGoogle displaying the lunar calendar.
Image taken from aluna.org by Laura Williams
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Map 3D vs ArcGIS
Image by UrbanTick using Autodesk Map 3D
Following an earlier post about the UrbanDiary data in Autodesk Map 3D, I would like to talk about further development on this topic.
The plan was to generate the UrbanDiary maps using this software and with this move towards a more automated workflow from GPS data to map with maintaining the level of possible graphical intervention.
As described in the earlier post data from the database could be connected and be represented in the software including context data. Simple manipulations and representations of the data could be made easily in Map 3D and actually I grew a little bit fond of the software although I did not like AutoCAD when I last had to use it. So I was determent to stick to this and work it all through in this one application.
Unfortunately, too soon I seemed to exceed the capacity of the software.
Image by UrbanTick using Autodesk Map 3D
Following the processing of the UrbanDiary interviews the task is to develop a combination of interview/mental map data and the GPS/map data. The idea is to look at the work related spatial movement with a special focus on the mental map features.
It turned out that the number of recorded GPS points per participant combined with the building, street and land use information is too much for Map 3D to handle. It started to crash continuously; up to the state I was not possible to open a file.
The method I used was maybe not the most economic one but seem simple to me. From the GPS points I defined a buffer to establish a zone of “experience”, which I intersected with the base map to only be working with relevant information.
The issue in Map3D led to the move across to ArcGIS, which appeared to be comfortable with the data. It also turned out that the same steps of work are quite simple achievable, although a little less intuitive. This reaches down to the export for Illustrator. Map 3D translate much simpler into Illustrator with its native dxf format. In ArcGIS, I could not manage to produce a workable file that remained distinct in terms of features. So I had to rely on the map export using about 12000 dpi. Proper maps will follow as they are processed in Illustrator.
Image by UrbanTick using ArcGIS and exported to Illustrator
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
One Year in Ten Minutes - the Bartlett School of Architecture
The Bartlett summer show has only just closed. It was as usual a great show and very inspirational. It is a long tradition that the Bartlett School of Architecture shows of the work that has been done during the year, of course it is a selection! Each unit from undergrad to diploma are involved and in the last few weeks this is the main focus of the school.
As the show is now over and the work has retreated back in to the Wates House maze what remains is the catalogue and some clips that have been posted online.
Hehe, there we go there is one articular clip I am talking about, as you might have guessed. The Bartlett Year in ten minutes, another type of timeLaps one year summary - enjoy
As the show is now over and the work has retreated back in to the Wates House maze what remains is the catalogue and some clips that have been posted online.
Hehe, there we go there is one articular clip I am talking about, as you might have guessed. The Bartlett Year in ten minutes, another type of timeLaps one year summary - enjoy
Space-Time - Richard Long
Image taken from richardlong.org - One Hour, a six minute circle walk on Dartmoor 1984
Currently there is a large Richard Long exhibition on at the Tate Britain in London with the “Heaven and Earth“ exhibition until 06 of September 2009. It is the first large exhibition of the British artist in eighteen years. The exhibition features sculptures, large scale mud wall works and old and new photographic and text works. Also important to mention is the addition room with a large collection of his books, where some real jewels of publication can be seen.
Why featuring a landscape artist on the blog in the context of rhythms and movement? There are several reasons ranging from aspects of time, use of space and movement to aspects of mapping and visualization. On the Tate Britain website the work is introduced and traced back to Long’s love of nature and environmental experience.
A lot of his works are temporal, maybe most of them. While working with the landscape obviously the method of documenting the work becomes central. Especially in Long’s work as a lot of his landscape works derive from the interaction of body and landscape or the reaction of the artist to the landscape. The methods he uses to document this interaction range from taking a picture of his interventions to mapping his activities. His installations of large scale stone circles and mud wall drawings can also be seen in the context of documenting. Long brings elements of the nature into the exhibition spaces being totally aware of the transformation related to context.
The aspect of time plays a major role in all works but is particularly present in the photographs that document works he as produced/performed in remote places, like for example ”a line made by walking“.
Long appears in most of his works as the actor and a driven personality. It seems like he just can’t stop doing this. Particularly in his works of walks he is restless and eager to move. Also here the time plays a major role as a defining element, maybe even a tool to stop Long from simply keep on walking. Works such as “One Hour - a sixty minute walk on Darthmoor“ or “A five day walk”.
The mapping of his walks covers a number of additional topics including the aspect of space and space limitation. The geometry of the circle is Longs main element and features in his sculptures, installations, but also his walks as confining or excluding boundaries. In a sense some of his maps can be read as a different type of space-time diagrams.
Image taken from richardlong.org - A Line Made by Walking, England 1967
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Book - Emotional Cartography
Image taken from Emotional Cartography by Christian Nold
Christian Nold’s book Emotional Cartography has featured on this blog earlier, shortly after it ha been published online. This time `I would like to look back at the book and talk a bit more about the content beside Christians projects.
The book is a collection of essays that tie in with Christian Nold’s Biomapping Project. The six elements basically form the main body of the book and are hold together with some o the Biomapping project visualizations.
The range of contributions ranges from fictional stories (Marcel van der Drift) to theoretical and practical analysis of participative art (Sophy Hope). This really provides a good context for the project even if you haven’t been familiar with Christians work beforehand. In some contributions the text is reprinted, others are specifically written for this publication, but all try hard to relate to the idea of Emotional Cartography.
The striking image that these text point out about the concept paint, is how unique, new and innovative this approach is.
To begin the book the introduction titled “Emotional Cartography - Technology of the Self”, Christian Nold sets out the context, introduces his work and the essays. He is not short in examples and project anecdotes so it is a text that makes you want to know more.
The first essay “Machines Made to Measure: on the Technology of Identity and the Manufacture of Difference” has a strong focus on the body it possibilities and contradictions with the possibility to injure or imprisoning. The identity is explored along examples of body parts of uniqueness, such as fingerprints.
“A Future Love Story” by Marcel van der Drift a picture of futuristic usage of location based information and the extend to which the technology could be directly connected to the human body. It is a rather literal and direct story that draws strongly on present development.
Steven Boyd Davis writes about the interpretation and the subjective stand points in his text “Mapping the unseen: Making Sense of the Subjective Image”. The concept of engaging with these subjective views of location information is very interesting and funny at times. Surprisingly he manages largely to ship around the obvious example of mental maps.
Sophy Hope then brings up the context of the engaging public art in the UK. “Socially Engaged Art: The Conscience of Urban Development” draws out historic and recent examples of this mainly urban phenomenon of participative art projects and how it has come to take on new roles in local community planning.
The book concludes with Tom Stafford exploring the possibilities of the human brain in a following up text entitled “Hacking our Tool for Thought” to his book “Mind Hacks” written for O’Reilly together with Matt Webb. Tom explores the possibility and limitations of the human brain and how it potentially could be hacked. He is also interestingly very much focusing on the aspect of such possibilities for the group and not the individuals. He largely draws directly on the output of some of the Emotional Cartography projects, which provides a good integration and conclusion for the book.
Overall an interesting collection and a good read because it is diverse. Apart from the introduction there is very little about the technological aspects of the Emotional Cartography project. This is refreshing and allows for other focuses to be worked out more prominently. Especially the topic of the body enjoys a great focus although I suspect this was not planned to such an extend.
The book is freely available on the internet as a full quality colour version at emotionalcartography or as a 2mb version here. It is all published under a Creative Commons.
Natural Cycle - the Tide TimeLaps
In terms of cycles the tide is one of the most direct and powerful examples. While being away for a few days I enjoyed roughly fourteen tide cycles. The constance and continuity is very impressive together with the force. Assuming all of us have once tried to defend a sandcastle from the incoming wavs or keeping the little channel connected to the water as the tide goes out. The task is doomed, but only for the moment. There will be a next timeframe where it is possible again, this is the fascinating aspect of the rhythm. The problem with this is that our ability to deal with these time spans is limited. We very much life in the here and now and the speed and repetition of the tide is somehow just about out side our time perception. On one hand it move too slow in order to be properly perceived on a short term basis and it suddenly reaches your towel. On the other hand the cycle of two high tides is too long to be directly related in our experience.
Therefore the timeLaps is a good tool to get to grips with the rhythm, enjoy.
Music “fire whistle’ by Jorya at mp3unsigned
Therefore the timeLaps is a good tool to get to grips with the rhythm, enjoy.
tl_tideHD_090702 from urbanTick on Vimeo.
Music “fire whistle’ by Jorya at mp3unsigned
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
POPFest 2009 at LSE - The Spatial Extension of Everyday Life
I will be at the POPFest 2009 tomorrow, presenting elements of my research work under the title
UrbanDiary - The Spatial Extension of Everyday Life
I will be focusing on the method and the first trial with the GPS data collection, specifically on the individual level. This will mainly focus then on the mental maps and individual perception of routine and space.
The presentation can be seen here as a preview.
The POPFest 2009 is this year at LSE in London, from July 2nd to July 4th. It is a platform for mainly postgrad students to show and discuss their work.
“POPFEST is a population studies conference organised by postgraduates for postgraduates with the aim of providing a relaxed, supportive environment for students to come together to present work and discuss ideas. This is a great opportunity to meet other students studying in the same area, practice your presentation skills and get some useful feedback from your peers.
The conference provides a forum for postgraduate students studying any aspect of population in disciplines including Social Sciences, Demography, Human Geography, Social Anthropology, Social Statistics, Health, Development, Social Policy and other related fields. Presenters have an excellent opportunity to discuss their work in front of their peers and have a chance to get feedback and ideas from fellow researchers. Those not wishing to present can get an idea of the sort of research being conducted by their peers and make valuable contacts for the future.
POPFEST is an ideal spring-board for all postgraduates regardless of their stage of research providing an opportunity to practice ones presentation skills, whether as a paper or poster display, before facing more demanding academic conferences.
PopFest has survived over the past 14 years due to the support and good will of the postgraduate community and the BSPS. For PopFest to continue this support and enthusiasm is essential. The BSPS is very keen to ensure the development of postgraduate population research through PopFest and has confirmed its continuing support to the conference. ”
This years Timetable.
UrbanDiary - The Spatial Extension of Everyday Life
I will be focusing on the method and the first trial with the GPS data collection, specifically on the individual level. This will mainly focus then on the mental maps and individual perception of routine and space.
The presentation can be seen here as a preview.
The POPFest 2009 is this year at LSE in London, from July 2nd to July 4th. It is a platform for mainly postgrad students to show and discuss their work.
“POPFEST is a population studies conference organised by postgraduates for postgraduates with the aim of providing a relaxed, supportive environment for students to come together to present work and discuss ideas. This is a great opportunity to meet other students studying in the same area, practice your presentation skills and get some useful feedback from your peers.
The conference provides a forum for postgraduate students studying any aspect of population in disciplines including Social Sciences, Demography, Human Geography, Social Anthropology, Social Statistics, Health, Development, Social Policy and other related fields. Presenters have an excellent opportunity to discuss their work in front of their peers and have a chance to get feedback and ideas from fellow researchers. Those not wishing to present can get an idea of the sort of research being conducted by their peers and make valuable contacts for the future.
POPFEST is an ideal spring-board for all postgraduates regardless of their stage of research providing an opportunity to practice ones presentation skills, whether as a paper or poster display, before facing more demanding academic conferences.
PopFest has survived over the past 14 years due to the support and good will of the postgraduate community and the BSPS. For PopFest to continue this support and enthusiasm is essential. The BSPS is very keen to ensure the development of postgraduate population research through PopFest and has confirmed its continuing support to the conference. ”
This years Timetable.
Solar Charger - FreeloaderPro
I have been away for a few days, away from the desk and away from the city and away from my computer and away from some power sockets. Away really from quite a lot of the routines I normally repeat daily or even hourly.
Although I have been away from quite a lot I did not separate from my GPS and my iPhone. So some solutions regarding the power management had to be found. Great idea, solar chargers are available and not any longer really expensive. So I checked out the options and very soon was able to narrow it down to devices that could probably do the job of powering two iPhones, two GPS both Garmins but different plugs, and Camera. Al this over the period of a couple of days so no big deal one might think.
The two options were the powerMonkey and the Freeloader. I got some advice from Andy over at digitalUrban and he was testing the powerMonkey not very successfully a couple of month back, so I made the decision to go for the Freeloader, mainly because the new FreeloaderPro comes with a wide range of adapters for all sorts of devices from iPhone/iPod to mobile phone and PSPs on 5.5 V and can now also charge a wide range of Camera and Camcorder batteries on 9.5 V. Also the option to extend the solar panel with the FreeloaderSupercharger made a lot of sense.
So I went down the road into the nearest Maplin store and bought both, the FreeloaderPro and the FreeloaderSupercharger. Happy and feeling prepared I left all the routine and habits related to the stuff mentioned earlier behind me and head of.
To get straight to the point it was a bit of a disappointment really. I worked out very well in the beginning regarding the FreeloaderPro as a battery to recharge the devices. The FreeloaderPro works as a solar collector and charges its internal battery that on the other hand can then charge the device. Apparently not simultaneously both at the same time, meaning it has to charge itself first and can only then recharge. A bit annoying but there you go. Anyway it worked at first because I did, while following the instructions on the box charge the FreeloaderPro while still at home straight trough its USB port to fill its internal battery.
Why do I need to charge my iPhone so frequently, it would normally last for half a week easily you might ask. I just love the little app on my phone that enables timeLaps photography and it basically runs all the time and having photos taken back to back seems quite power intensive so the battery runs down quick.
Image by UrbanTick - left FreeloaderSupercharger charging the FreeloaderPro, right same on the move.
The charging of the GPS, a Garmin Forerunner 405 works all right, is quick and the device full. The iPhone is more o a problem though. It does charge up rather quick trough the USB port, but it would only go up to about three-fourth (having the FreeloaderPro full). This was expected, as the explanations on the website already warned about this issue, but on top of this, the battery run out much quicker. So the iPhone was showing a large green, almost full battery sign, but it would only last for an hour.
The even bigger problem occurred as the FreeloaderPro appeared not to charge up again properly. It would not trough out all the sunny days we had charge for more than half full. Not with the FreeloaderSupercharger connected via USB to it and not on its own either. I tried it for a number of days and the weather could not have been better!
Mid week I had to give in and get my iPhones charged at the normal power socket in the wall. This was probably the low point of it all, as I had really high expectations. Anyway one good thing I discovered afterwards was that the FreeloaderSupercharger works very well on its own for the Garmin Forerunner 405. The 405 come with a USB cable to charge so it can be directly connected and charges up rather quickly to a nearly full 98% with a good seven hour battery live afterwards, This trick does not work for the iPhone, somehow the amount of energy delivered seems not to be high enough for the device to recognize as being charged.
Some side notes on the FreeloaderPro are issues with the status light. It is nearly impossible to see it in the sunlight and where else would you use it? Not even shading it with my hands made a big difference, I usually had to take it under my t-shirt to be able to see if there where any light on and what colour they where at. The other issue is with plugholes and robustness. To me such a device should be built for the outdoor use and the FreeloaderPro certainly does not have that feeling to it. I did not test it towards this but it does not have a very robust feeling to it. And being at the beach with sand Covers for the plugholes would be nice. Also better fit for the cables, while having it attached to the backpack often the USB plugs would disconnect with the movement so after a while you find that it did not charge at all because it got disconnected.
To sum up it has been a bit disappointing as said before, but I still believe in the concept. It is small it is light and it is relatively cheap and it should work.
Image by UrbanTick - left FreeloaderSupercharger charging a Garmin Forerunner 405, right trying the same with an iPhone.
The timeLaps imagery will be ready to be put online soon so you can see what all this struggle was intended to do.
Although I have been away from quite a lot I did not separate from my GPS and my iPhone. So some solutions regarding the power management had to be found. Great idea, solar chargers are available and not any longer really expensive. So I checked out the options and very soon was able to narrow it down to devices that could probably do the job of powering two iPhones, two GPS both Garmins but different plugs, and Camera. Al this over the period of a couple of days so no big deal one might think.
The two options were the powerMonkey and the Freeloader. I got some advice from Andy over at digitalUrban and he was testing the powerMonkey not very successfully a couple of month back, so I made the decision to go for the Freeloader, mainly because the new FreeloaderPro comes with a wide range of adapters for all sorts of devices from iPhone/iPod to mobile phone and PSPs on 5.5 V and can now also charge a wide range of Camera and Camcorder batteries on 9.5 V. Also the option to extend the solar panel with the FreeloaderSupercharger made a lot of sense.
So I went down the road into the nearest Maplin store and bought both, the FreeloaderPro and the FreeloaderSupercharger. Happy and feeling prepared I left all the routine and habits related to the stuff mentioned earlier behind me and head of.
To get straight to the point it was a bit of a disappointment really. I worked out very well in the beginning regarding the FreeloaderPro as a battery to recharge the devices. The FreeloaderPro works as a solar collector and charges its internal battery that on the other hand can then charge the device. Apparently not simultaneously both at the same time, meaning it has to charge itself first and can only then recharge. A bit annoying but there you go. Anyway it worked at first because I did, while following the instructions on the box charge the FreeloaderPro while still at home straight trough its USB port to fill its internal battery.
Why do I need to charge my iPhone so frequently, it would normally last for half a week easily you might ask. I just love the little app on my phone that enables timeLaps photography and it basically runs all the time and having photos taken back to back seems quite power intensive so the battery runs down quick.
Image by UrbanTick - left FreeloaderSupercharger charging the FreeloaderPro, right same on the move.
The charging of the GPS, a Garmin Forerunner 405 works all right, is quick and the device full. The iPhone is more o a problem though. It does charge up rather quick trough the USB port, but it would only go up to about three-fourth (having the FreeloaderPro full). This was expected, as the explanations on the website already warned about this issue, but on top of this, the battery run out much quicker. So the iPhone was showing a large green, almost full battery sign, but it would only last for an hour.
The even bigger problem occurred as the FreeloaderPro appeared not to charge up again properly. It would not trough out all the sunny days we had charge for more than half full. Not with the FreeloaderSupercharger connected via USB to it and not on its own either. I tried it for a number of days and the weather could not have been better!
Mid week I had to give in and get my iPhones charged at the normal power socket in the wall. This was probably the low point of it all, as I had really high expectations. Anyway one good thing I discovered afterwards was that the FreeloaderSupercharger works very well on its own for the Garmin Forerunner 405. The 405 come with a USB cable to charge so it can be directly connected and charges up rather quickly to a nearly full 98% with a good seven hour battery live afterwards, This trick does not work for the iPhone, somehow the amount of energy delivered seems not to be high enough for the device to recognize as being charged.
Some side notes on the FreeloaderPro are issues with the status light. It is nearly impossible to see it in the sunlight and where else would you use it? Not even shading it with my hands made a big difference, I usually had to take it under my t-shirt to be able to see if there where any light on and what colour they where at. The other issue is with plugholes and robustness. To me such a device should be built for the outdoor use and the FreeloaderPro certainly does not have that feeling to it. I did not test it towards this but it does not have a very robust feeling to it. And being at the beach with sand Covers for the plugholes would be nice. Also better fit for the cables, while having it attached to the backpack often the USB plugs would disconnect with the movement so after a while you find that it did not charge at all because it got disconnected.
To sum up it has been a bit disappointing as said before, but I still believe in the concept. It is small it is light and it is relatively cheap and it should work.
Image by UrbanTick - left FreeloaderSupercharger charging a Garmin Forerunner 405, right trying the same with an iPhone.
The timeLaps imagery will be ready to be put online soon so you can see what all this struggle was intended to do.
Monday, 29 June 2009
iPhoneApp - oldMapApp
An upcoming very promising application for the iPhone is the oldMapApp. It is a simple application that let you flip trough some old maps. But not just that these are simple scans, they are all geo referenced and layered on top of new online maps. The layers transparency can be adjusted and let your compare now and then. For map freaks and location enthusiasts this will be brilliant. Google does offer a similar thing with the 5.0 version of Google Earth by using the timeline. The oldMapApp does, as the name suggests, offer old historic maps, whereas Google offers only access to old satellite imagery, back from when they started Google Earth.
To browse trough the history of a place and follow development patterns is very much a detective game and can reveal a lot about the identity of a place. Also elements of collective memory can be found, so keep our eyes open. The application does use the location information from your phone so it now’s where you are and can display the information in connection to the historic maps. Using the newly build in compass in the iPhone 3GS it even know which direction your are looking.
Old Map App uses a modified version of the excellent open-source route-me mapping framework. Modern maps are courtesy of Open Street Map, which is creating an open-source map of the world.
At the moment, this means in the preview, the app offers only scans from the New York region, dated from the 17th to the 19th centuries. We are of course hoping this will be extended before the release, but for now enjoy the preview:
Found trough MapRoom.
To browse trough the history of a place and follow development patterns is very much a detective game and can reveal a lot about the identity of a place. Also elements of collective memory can be found, so keep our eyes open. The application does use the location information from your phone so it now’s where you are and can display the information in connection to the historic maps. Using the newly build in compass in the iPhone 3GS it even know which direction your are looking.
Old Map App uses a modified version of the excellent open-source route-me mapping framework. Modern maps are courtesy of Open Street Map, which is creating an open-source map of the world.
At the moment, this means in the preview, the app offers only scans from the New York region, dated from the 17th to the 19th centuries. We are of course hoping this will be extended before the release, but for now enjoy the preview:
Found trough MapRoom.
Sunday, 21 June 2009
GPS Data Visualization - Variations
There are lots of different possibilities of GPS data viualizations. For your joy I have put together a not comprehensive list of examples. The variety is striking and so is the range of software, although oft I have not been able to find out how it is done. Different examples of GPS data visualizations is a list of animations but also a list of approaches. Some animations have featured earlier on this blog, other are new, as the intention is to show variety and not completeness. If you have some good examples yourself or know of some, please post in the comment and this showcase of examples will grow lager, contact can be found here.
Software unklnown
software vvvv
software unknown
software Google Earth
by derxon2003 on youtube - software GPLIGC/openGLIGCexplorer was used for visualisation of GPS track data. The avi was encoded with mencoder/mplayer.
software unknown
software unknown
software mathematica
by ARS on Google Video - software unknown
by ericrodenbeck on youtube - software unknown, using cabspotting data
software unknown, using cabspotting data
by OSM for ecourier, better version on ecourier.co.uk - software OpenStreetMap
software OpenStreetMap
GPS drawing Week_13 Top Vormstudie from Rnul Interactive on Vimeo.
Software unklnown
GPS Path Demo v0.4 from Finn Rudolph on Vimeo.
software vvvv
Park Drawing from Jeremy Wood on Vimeo.
software unknown
UDtwoMonth_London from urbanTick on Vimeo.
software Google Earth
by derxon2003 on youtube - software GPLIGC/openGLIGCexplorer was used for visualisation of GPS track data. The avi was encoded with mencoder/mplayer.
software unknown
GPS Movies [Saint-Denis 2005] from Dz on Vimeo.
software unknown
gps_indymarathon from urbanTick on Vimeo.
software mathematica
by ARS on Google Video - software unknown
by ericrodenbeck on youtube - software unknown, using cabspotting data
Cabspotting vs SRTM from kns von Rhein on Vimeo.
software unknown, using cabspotting data
by OSM for ecourier, better version on ecourier.co.uk - software OpenStreetMap
OSM 2008: A Year of Edits from ItoWorld on Vimeo.
software OpenStreetMap
Friday, 19 June 2009
New Garmin Foretrex 301/401
Garmin® Announces Rugged, Waterproof Foretrex® 401 and 301, Wearable Navigation that’s Easy to Use in Tough Conditions
Garmin has announced this week a new model for its Foretrex family. It has been a really long time since the Foretrex 101 and 201 where first introduced. They where really good devices and probably some o the first handheld GPS that where actually useable. And they still are.
The Foretrex is the GPS device I am using so far in the UrbanDiary project and the set of them is still performing quite well. Although I have recently compared it to the new Forerunner 405 that I have two test devices for, is a lot better in terms of GPS signal reception the 201’s still work well.
So there are high expectations for the new models and whether the big step forward that the first Foretrex did can be repeated will reminds to be seen. But lets have a look at what Garmin writes about these models.
Image by Garmin
Finally Garmin builds in a USB connection, so far the 201 still works with a serial connection. It seems to spot all the features that the previous model had, including sunset and sunrise, fishing and hunting times. There are some new features though. These are an electronic compass and a barometric altimeter and of course a new high sensitive GPS receiver. Also the 401 model will allow transferring data wirelessly to other devices. It will hopefully be based on the ant technology so that the device can also communicate with a computer.
In terms of storage and capacity the device surprisingly has not improved. It is still the 10’000 points per track and 10 tracks, plus 500 waypoints. It is a lot but since every little gadget is increasing its storage capacity it seems odd that this one doesn’t. This is of course not an argument, but a hint. Telling from the images, the screen will be still black and white without the function of adding a contextual map. Which is all right, as the screen quality is good and if you want a coloured feature map you probably buy another device.
Also telling form the description there will be no longer a model with an internal battery. Both models 301 and 401 will work on two AA batteries, with is a shame. I know there are issues with charging an internal battery whilst you are out and about but having only AA option really has the danger to it to produce a lot of battery waste. There are solutions to the charging problem out there ranging from solar chargers to tiny wind turbines and pull strings that work for a series of other devices with internal batteries and since this new model now has an USB connection his will make things in this respect much more simple.
In term of size and weight the new ones are around 20% smaller while still fitted with the same screen size. This is an improvement, as many of my participants using the 201 have mentioned in the feedback, that the device was “a bit chunky”. In terms of weight the new 401 is slightly heavier with 87.3g compared to 78g of the old 201. This is surprising, as the overall size has been reduced.
The direct comparison on the Garmin website between the 201 and the 401 can be found here.
So all in all exciting news but it is a little bit disappointing to see how little the device has improved over at least six years. But as said earlier it remains to be seen how the device actually performs. Prices are on the Garmin page at $200.00 for the 301 and $260.00 for the 401. There are not yet any prices for the UK.
It is advertised on the Garmin blog as “Versatile new Foretrex units perfect for military use or some family fun”. This is a big leap between the two and although we know this is where the technology is coming from the two don’t go well together.
Image by Garmin
Garmin has announced this week a new model for its Foretrex family. It has been a really long time since the Foretrex 101 and 201 where first introduced. They where really good devices and probably some o the first handheld GPS that where actually useable. And they still are.
The Foretrex is the GPS device I am using so far in the UrbanDiary project and the set of them is still performing quite well. Although I have recently compared it to the new Forerunner 405 that I have two test devices for, is a lot better in terms of GPS signal reception the 201’s still work well.
So there are high expectations for the new models and whether the big step forward that the first Foretrex did can be repeated will reminds to be seen. But lets have a look at what Garmin writes about these models.
Image by Garmin
Finally Garmin builds in a USB connection, so far the 201 still works with a serial connection. It seems to spot all the features that the previous model had, including sunset and sunrise, fishing and hunting times. There are some new features though. These are an electronic compass and a barometric altimeter and of course a new high sensitive GPS receiver. Also the 401 model will allow transferring data wirelessly to other devices. It will hopefully be based on the ant technology so that the device can also communicate with a computer.
In terms of storage and capacity the device surprisingly has not improved. It is still the 10’000 points per track and 10 tracks, plus 500 waypoints. It is a lot but since every little gadget is increasing its storage capacity it seems odd that this one doesn’t. This is of course not an argument, but a hint. Telling from the images, the screen will be still black and white without the function of adding a contextual map. Which is all right, as the screen quality is good and if you want a coloured feature map you probably buy another device.
Also telling form the description there will be no longer a model with an internal battery. Both models 301 and 401 will work on two AA batteries, with is a shame. I know there are issues with charging an internal battery whilst you are out and about but having only AA option really has the danger to it to produce a lot of battery waste. There are solutions to the charging problem out there ranging from solar chargers to tiny wind turbines and pull strings that work for a series of other devices with internal batteries and since this new model now has an USB connection his will make things in this respect much more simple.
In term of size and weight the new ones are around 20% smaller while still fitted with the same screen size. This is an improvement, as many of my participants using the 201 have mentioned in the feedback, that the device was “a bit chunky”. In terms of weight the new 401 is slightly heavier with 87.3g compared to 78g of the old 201. This is surprising, as the overall size has been reduced.
The direct comparison on the Garmin website between the 201 and the 401 can be found here.
So all in all exciting news but it is a little bit disappointing to see how little the device has improved over at least six years. But as said earlier it remains to be seen how the device actually performs. Prices are on the Garmin page at $200.00 for the 301 and $260.00 for the 401. There are not yet any prices for the UK.
It is advertised on the Garmin blog as “Versatile new Foretrex units perfect for military use or some family fun”. This is a big leap between the two and although we know this is where the technology is coming from the two don’t go well together.
Image by Garmin
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