MetaFilter posts tagged with gps

City of Women

ATXile — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:21:47 -0800

Women are finally putting Rio's favelas on the map. They're competing for a journalism scholarship by loading the most data from their GPS-enabled phones to Wikimapa (a name easily confused with Wikimapia). The data, including addresses, photos, and business details are not likely to be collected by Navteq's and Google's high-tech vans anytime soon due to the notorious danger. FYI, the quality of the GPS data they're getting with the phones may not be usable for much, but it's still a great idea and could be the start of something useful.

Augmented Reality Comes to iPhone

spitefulcrow — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:55:57 -0800

Subways were the first application. Using the iPhone 3GS' camera, GPS, and compass, several new apps overlay information on a live view of the world around you. This week, Yelp joins them. William Gibson, eat your heart out. (A brief introduction to augmented reality for those who need one.)

The latest in women's safety devices or modern chastity belts?

If You Ain't Dutch, You Ain't Much — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:18:58 -0800

Brazilian lingerie leaps into the world of technology with the"Find Me If You Can". Geocachers everywhere rejoiced. The design targets "techno-savvy" women but might sell better to women frequently misplacing their undergarments.

How To Find Yourself In One Easy Step

scrump — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:33:44 -0800

Approximately two years ago, James Kim died after he and his family were stranded, snowbound, in their car on the Oregon coast (Previously, previously, and (selflink) previously). But what if he'd had a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB)? PLBs are a subset of emergency locator transmitters, which have been in mandatory use on aircraft since 1973. Somewhat more recently, Mo Nickels posted in 2001 on the COSPAS-SARSAT program. Founded in 1982, it's still going strong twenty-six years later, as you can read in their reports on rescues. In 2003, PLBs became available for nationwide civilian use: prior to that time, only Alaskans could use them. According to ACR, a major PLB manufacturer, PLB use has exploded since the Kim tragedy in 2006. As of October, 2008, NOAA credits emergency beacons with helping to save almost six thousand people in the US and over twenty-four thousand people worldwide, including 236 people so far this year. You can rent them, you can buy them, and, most importantly, you can find out how well they work from the gearheads at Equipped.org. Finally, if you already own a PLB, you can register yours with NOAA.

So you ditched your car - here's help with public transit

desjardins — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:58:07 -0800

NextBus uses GPS to tell you the predicted time of the next bus. Google maps show buses in real time, and you can get updates on your phone/PDA. The coverage is limited to certain agencies within the US, so these other sites might be useful: Hopstop covers subways and buses in NYC, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, DC, and more. (mobile version) Google Transit has many US metro areas in addition to Canada, Europe, and Japan. (previously) Many more locations inside. Other trip planners (mostly mobile):

MTA (New York City)
MTA (Los Angeles)
Amtrak
New Jersey Transit
MBTA (Boston)
Washington DC Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Chicago Regional Transit Authority (CTA, Metra)
A Train (Atlanta)
Valley Metro (Phoenix)
San Francisco Bay Area 511 (BART, Muni Metro, VTA Light Rail, Cable cars, Commuter Rail, buses, ferries)
Portland (interactive map; roll your own app)
King County Metro Online (Seattle)
Toronto (TTC Buses and subways)
Vancouver (BC) Translink
Paris (RER, TGV, Metro, bus, more - in French)
London Underground and DLR
Norikae-Annei (Tokyo)

Geowanking

finite — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:17:04 -0800

"We can have all the applications and Internet connectivity [...] but that still won't get at issues of lack of electricity and cartographic literacy and suppression of geospatial information by the state and their complicit corporations" reads a recent post on Geowanking, a mailing list for GIS nerds. [SLMLP] As there isn't a description on the list's website, the article "Geowankers Anonymous" from 2006 is probably the best place to go to get an idea of what it's all about. Or, just peruse their archives. The quote is from this message by Dr R E Sieber.

The Cake is a Detour

assoctw — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:34:10 -0800

Ask and it shall be given. Also, here's what Knight Industries has been working on for the past 20 years. Seems like they went backwards a bit.

The Biggest Drawing In The World

Armitage Shanks — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:47:08 -0800

The Biggest Drawing In The World.

GPS platform shoes for street hos

Burhanistan — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 21:41:53 -0800

The Aphrodite Project : both an homage to Aphrodite and her prostitute-priestesses as well as a practical tool for the contemporary sex worker. Or, GPS platform shoes for street hos. Check the demo.

"real-world white sharks with GPS units attached to their fins"

signal — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 18:59:00 -0800

In the Sharkrunners game , players control their ships, but the sharks are controlled by real-world white sharks with GPS units attached to their fins (...) every shark that players encounter corresponds to a real shark in the real world. via information aesthetics

TomTom Talks

goodnewsfortheinsane — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 20:03:16 -0800

You have reached your destination.

Bikes + GPS + Geeks = MTBGuru

fenriq — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 23:13:24 -0800

MTBGuru is a new site that enables bikers, hikers and runners to upload GPS info, along with photos and comments, from their routes that get mashed up with Google Maps to create an ever-expanding trail resource. Mostly Bay Area now but that is changing.

Balloon In Space (Nearly)

jack_mo — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 17:50:27 -0800

Project Nova: on the 9th of September three Cambridge engineering students launched a balloon equipped with a camera and tracking devices. It reached a height of 32km and took 857 photographs during its three hour flight, some showing the curvature of the earth. You can also download a KML file to follow the balloon's flight path in Google Earth.

A bicycle can't stand alone when it is two-tired

Blazecock Pileon — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 21:59:38 -0800

Bikely makes use of the Google Maps API to make it easy to learn new bicycle paths. Select any path (example) and export its GPX path into your GPS tracker (e.g., cell phone or Palm) — or share your own favorite bike rides.

Hivedriving

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:14:31 -0800

Collective global wireless network mapping via high-traffic automobile networks

David Pogue is the rudest man alive!

JPowers — Wed, 31 May 2006 20:26:44 -0800

David Pogue is the rudest man alive! "My wife and I were excited to receive, as [a] very generous Christmas present from a relative, a Magellan RoadMate 300." He then goes on to absolutely obliterate the gift, *on the New York Times website*, for 20 paragraphs, after which he demands, "For the gift-giver: Do your research. Read the customer reviews. Beware outdated products on store shelves." It's a gift! Learn some tact dude.

Cabs and GPS

vacapinta — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 16:39:44 -0800

"CabSpotting traces San Francisco's taxi cabs as they travel throughout the Bay Area. The patterns traced by each cab create a living and always-changing map of city life. This map hints at economic, social, and cultural trends that are otherwise invisible."

I see you

caddis — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 06:29:14 -0800

Surreptitious cell phone ~~stalking~~ tracking. Stalkers are no longer limited to just your call history. For a small fee and with a few minutes access to her cell phone the author was able to track his girlfriend's cell phone location within a hundred yards or so and the cell phone provides no trace that it was happening. Traceamobile.com appears to be one site offering such a service. Mologogo was discussed here previously but does not appear to be surreptitious. (Appears to be limited to UK for right now.)

Celestron SkyScout

dbiedny — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 12:44:55 -0800

The Celestron SkyScout (Flash page) is an amazingly cool portable device combining an celestial object database with GPS abilities. It's not quite the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, but it's definitely one of the most compelling applications I've yet to see of GPS - it takes note of your viewing location, and uses text and audio to guide you around the night sky. Announced at the CES show, there's no pricing info yet, but dang, I want this badly.

A cop in your trucnk: mandatory GPS tracking for your car.

orthogonality — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 21:04:38 -0800

Merry Christmas! Santa knows if you've been bad or good. The U.S. Department of Transportation wants to know where you're driving. Where you're driving, right this very minute, tracking you in real-time using GPS. If the GPS signal is obstructed, your car's engine will turn off, Citizen!

Open Street Map

vacapinta — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 20:49:57 -0800

OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the whole world, using uploaded GPS traces. So far: London and several other cities have been mapped. (via dataisnature)

It's 11pm, do you know where your child is?

phrontist — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 12:15:11 -0800

Mologogo Track any Java/GPS enabled phone through a convienent Google Maps based interface with mologogo.

Lost and Found

luriete — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 10:42:29 -0800

Not Lost After All Given recent posts proving and disproving various meanings of the ongoing numbers references on the television program Lost, I figured that some of you would be interested that a person over on Flickr seems to have a much better explanation: they're simply geographic coordinates.

Bicycle trails

atchafalaya — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 13:09:53 -0800

Put your mettle to the pedal: A website with maps of bike routes around the country, along with GPS points. via Linkfilter.

GPS travel

atchafalaya — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 10:42:52 -0800

GPS waypoints for hiking, biking and paddling.