{"id":4177,"date":"2012-07-27T00:59:01","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T23:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4177"},"modified":"2012-07-27T01:04:52","modified_gmt":"2012-07-27T00:04:52","slug":"the-annotated-world-the-future-of-geospatial-technology-edparsons-at-digitalsurrey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/07\/the-annotated-world-the-future-of-geospatial-technology-edparsons-at-digitalsurrey.htm","title":{"rendered":"The annotated world – the future of geospatial technology? (@EdParsons at #DigitalSurrey)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tonight’s Digital Surrey was, as usual, a huge success with a great speaker (Google’s @EdParsons<\/a>) in a fantastic venue (Farnham Castle<\/a>). \u00a0Ed spoke about the future of geospatial data – about annotating our world to enhance the value that we can bring from mapping tools today but, before he spoke of the future, he took a look at how we got to where we are.<\/p>\n

What is geospatial information? And how did we get to where we are today?<\/h3>\n

Geospatial information is\u00a0very visual, which makes it powerful for telling stories and one of the most famous and powerful images is that of the Earth viewed from space – the “blue marble”.\u00a0This emotive image has been used many times but has only been personally witnessed by around 20 people, starting with the Apollo 8 crew, 250000 miles from home, looking at their own planet. We see this image with\u00a0tools like Google Earth<\/a>, which allows us to explore the planet and look at humankind’s activities. Indeed about 1 billion people use Google Maps\/Google Earth every week – that’s about a third of the Internet population, roughly equivalent to Facebook and Twitter combined [just imagine how successful Google would be if they were all Google+ users…]. Using that metric, we can say that geospatial data is now pervasive – a huge shift over the last 10 years as it has become more accessible (although much of the technology has been around longer).<\/p>\n

The annotated world is about going beyond the image and pulling out info otherwise invisible information, so, in a digital sense, it’s now possible to have map of 1:1 scale or even beyond.\u00a0For example, in Google Maps we can look at StreetView<\/a>\u00a0and even see\u00a0annotations of buildings. This can be augmented with further information (e.g restrictions in the directions in which we can drive, details about local businesses) to provide actionable insight. Google also harvests information from the web to create place pages (something that could be considered ethically dubious, as it draws people away from the websites of the businesses involved) but it can also provide additional information from image recognition – for example identifying the locations of public wastebins or adding details of parking restrictions (literally from text recognition on road signs). The key to the annotated web is collating and presenting information in a way that’s straightforward and easy to use.<\/p>\n

Using other tools in the ecosystem, mobile applications can be used to\u00a0easily review a business and post it via Google+ (so that it appears on the place page); or Google MapMaker<\/a> may be used by local experts to add content to the map (subject to moderation – and the service is not currently available in the UK…).<\/p>\n

So, that’s where we are today… we’re getting more and more content online, but\u00a0what about the next 10 years?<\/p>\n

A virtual (annotated) world<\/h3>\n

Google and others are building a virtual world in three dimensions. In the past, Google Earth pulled data from many sets (e.g. building models, terrain data, etc.) but future 3D images will be based on photographs (just as, apparently,\u00a0Nokia have done for a while). We’ll also see 3D data being using to\u00a0navigate inside buildings as well as outside. In one example, Google is working with\u00a0John Lewis, who have recently installed Wi-Fi in their stores – to use this to determine a user’s location determination and combine this with maps to navigate the store. The system is accurate to about 2-3 metres [and sounds similar to Tesco’s “in store sat-nav” trial] and apparently it’s also available in London railway stations, the British Museum, etc.<\/p>\n

[blackbirdpie url=”https:\/\/twitter.com\/markwilsonit\/status\/228568510723411968″]<\/p>\n

Ed made the point that the future is not driven by paper-based\u00a0cartography, although there were plenty of issues taken with this in the Q&A later, highlighting that we still use ancient maps today, and that our digital archives are not likely to last that long.<\/p>\n

Moving on, Ed highlighted that Google\u00a0now generates map tiles on the fly (it used to take 6 weeks to rebuild the map) and new presentation technologies allow for\u00a0client-side rendering of buildings – for example St Pauls Cathedral, in London<\/a>. With services such as Google Now<\/a>\u00a0(on Android), contextual info may be provided, driven by location and personality<\/p>\n

With Google’s Project Glass<\/a>, that becomes even more immersive with augmented reality driven by the annotated world:<\/p>\n