Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve seen amateur and professional developers alike do some really cool things with Microsoft’s Kinect since the motion control peripheral launched in 2010. Interestingly enough, many of these cool things have nothing to do with video games, but that’s another story for another time. The latest in a long line of cool gadgets that put Kinect in the spotlight is a new wearable device that has the ability to make maps in real time.

Specifically, this gadget is geared toward mapping the inside of buildings. Developed by MIT, the device combines a laser range finder with the depth-perceiving abilities of Kinect to generate maps of an area in real time. The unit also houses a CPU to process and construct the map (in the prototype, the user has a laptop in his backpack constructing the map as he walks around), and the map can be sent back to a remote station so those outside of the building can get an idea of its layout.

Also included in this package is an inertial sensor to compensate for the fact that it’s hard to keep the laser perfectly level while walking, and a barometer to measure changes in air pressure, allowing the gadget’s user to map out multiple floors. This technology was developed for use in emergency situations, with applying it to search and rescue operations specifically mentioned. The prototype seems to be a bit bulky at this early stage, but the developers imagine a finished product that is handheld. Check it out in action in the video posted below.

The US Air Force and the Office of Naval Research helped MIT with the project, which suggests that this device could have some military applications in the future. For now, its simply in its prototype stage, but that doesn’t change the fact that its still a really interesting device. What do you think of this latest MIT creation?

[via MITnews]

Kinect takes center stage in new map making gadget is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Researchers at MIT have found yet another use for Microsoft’s Kinect sensor. They’ve stripped it down, tacked on a sophisticated laser rangefinder, added wireless functionality, and turned it into a wearable sensor that will automatically map the inside of a building as the wearer moves through it. More »

ZDNET managed to chat to Steve Wozniak while he was speaking at an event in Sydney, Australia, and unsurprisingly they chatted to him about Apple’s Maps. His verdict? Up-front, mixed—but not as negative as some. More »

The idea of a map being covered in “fog of war” has been toyed around enough in video games, and I clearly remember how maps in Doom came in handy whenever one got stuck. RTS titles too, had maps that cleared up as you explored new areas, and in the movie Prometheus, tiny, ball-like robots were sent out to explore the cavernous alien hangar, sending back real-time feedback to the ship so that it can reconstruct a 3D map of the surroundings. Perhaps that is not too far fetched in the future with this new wearable sensor system which is said to be able to automatically create a digital map of the environment, literally opening up new (digital) ground wherever the wearer moves.

Computer scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claim that such a system would come in handy in assisting help emergency responders coordinate disaster response, although I am quite sure that the military, too, has a keen eye on how to use this particular wearable sensor system. A handheld pushbutton device will inform the central system to annotate the map, and future iterations might throw in voice or text tags for added meta data.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google exec says no new Maps app has been submitted to Apple, Apple acknowledges that Maps app is a “work in progress”,

Every Apple launch has a sting in the tail, and for iPhone 5 and iOS 6 it’s Maps. Ditching Google Maps and instead turning to a self-made alternative makes sense in terms of longevity, but it meant hitting reset on what had come to be relied upon as a solid and predictable user experience. Apple was going to have to take a PR hit at some point, there was no escaping it. The step back in detail from Google Maps, which has had years of refinement, to the first-gen Maps app of iOS 6, is unavoidably obvious, particularly to those outside of US cities.

Sites such as “The Amazing iOS 6 Maps” highlight the more extreme examples; for everyday users, it’s more likely to be a case of a few confusing directions or mis-labeled locations that introduce a hiccup into their navigation. Turn-by-turn navigation assuages some of the pain, but it only takes one or two bad experiences with moldy data to leave users unconvinced that an app can do the job.

Obviously Apple has to address its patchy data and poor merging of map, satellite, and points-of-interest. What will be interesting is how it chooses to do that. Google has been relatively self-sufficient in its map development, sending out a fleet of Street View cars for instance, but Apple could easily augment its own data gathering with its army of iPhone owners.

Don’t underestimate the loyalty of iOS users and the potential for crowd-sourced data to flood Apple’s servers – if, that is, the company can make it easy enough. There’s already the ability to report errors in Maps’ data from within the app, flagging up wrong street labeling or missing locations, but Apple could build on that with more proactive location-gathering tools. Meanwhile, Apple’s new Panorama feature in the camera app – pumping out high-resolution, seamlessly-joined scenes – could, if suitably geotagged, be repurposed to create Google Street View-rivaling sidewalk level imagery. It would take a huge quantity of data to actually fill in all the gaps, but there are a whole lot of iOS users out there.

“Apple could rely on platform zealots and mercenary interest”

OpenStreetMap is an example of how crowd-sourcing data can come to rival “traditional” business plans. Apple, meanwhile, is in a position to rely not only on enthusiastic platform zealots but somewhat more mercenary interest too: free iTunes credit, perhaps, for those who submit the most new Maps data, or who make the most accurate edits, or who generally contribute the greatest value to the product each week or month.

There’s a lot you can do by passively watching how people move about with their smartphones. Figuring out the most popular routes, for instance, or identifying points where the physical road doesn’t quite match up with where your map data thinks the road is. Conversely, you can spot where that map data might have confused a road with, say, a train track – something iOS 6 Maps has been accused of – based on infrequency of use. Bake in some location ID – checking-in with FourSquare, for instance, or similar services – and you’ve got point-of-interest refinement too.

Apple is playing catch-up. That’s not a position the company is unused to, however, and it has a track record of learning from rivals and delivering a solid and appealing alternative in its own right. What could make the difference from existing mapping services is how much Apple leverages the dedication and ubiquity of its own users, harnessing them into a cellularly-obsessed workforce both contributing to, and benefiting from, a crowd-sourced location system that Apple alone controls.

The iPhone 5 crowd could help Apple Maps find its way is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.