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geocorder

GPS-keyed voice recorder/transmitter.
  (+28)(+28)(+28)
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Build small devices with embedded GPS, voice headset, and wireless I/O. (Cell phones are most of the way there, especially after the 911 locator service is in operation.)

Allow people to record messages which are keyed to their GPS location. Other people who wander by the same location hear the message.

(Eventually you'll need filtering and categorization services...)

Leave yourself location-keyed reminders. Describe amusing anecdotes about what happenned at some streetcorner for other people who pass by. Leave the auditory equivalent of graffiti (but you can filter it!). Post recommendations and anti-recommendations outside the door of restaurants and shops. People who know a city can author ``tours'' that people could follow. Have audio ``message boards'' keyed to particular subject areas in bookshops (e.g. the sci-fi section).

Maybe you'd eventually allow people to ``throw'' messages to other locations. Warn other motorists of cops lying in wait by throwing a message back up the road a ways...

People often decry technology as destructive to a sense of location, community, and neighborhood. This could work in the opposite direction.

CB radio for the digital age?

egnor, Apr 28 2000

gps alarm watch http://www.halfbake...gps_20alarm_20watch
Related GPS-based halfbakery idea. [egnor, Apr 28 2000, last modified Oct 05 2004]

GroundSpeak http://www.groundspeak.com/
I dunno what they're up to, but it seems related. [egnor, Apr 28 2000, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Information in Places http://www.research...sj/384/spohrer.html
From IBM Systems Journal. Link by nreilly. [egnor, Apr 28 2000, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Upoc http://www.upoc.com/
"Wireless communities" using text messaging. Not GPS-enabled yet. Link by nreilly. [egnor, Apr 28 2000, last modified Oct 05 2004]

WorldBoard http://worldboard.org/
"Enhancing the Web with Information in Place". Link by nreilly. [egnor, Apr 28 2000, last modified Oct 05 2004]

(?) Say No to Third Voice http://www.saynotothirdvoice.com/
Backlash against ThirdVoice, a Web annotation service. [egnor, Apr 28 2000, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Here it comes! http://www.cnn.com/...cking.ap/index.html
gps+cellphones=bakedVerySoon [PotatoStew, Apr 28 2000, last modified Oct 05 2004]

GeoNotes: Social Enhancement of Physical Space [PDF] http://www.sics.se/...chi_design_expo.pdf
[egnor, Apr 28 2000, last modified Oct 05 2004]

HaikuHaiku: Location -> Haiku database http://haikuhaiku.com/
Geared towards wireless devices. [jutta, Apr 28 2000]

CoolTown by HP http://cooltown.hp.com/
A research project that implements this, among other things. [krelnik, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

(?) Public Domain Map Crossed With Accurate GPS Information. http://www.shouldex...002/11/30/223149/29
More of a proposal than a baked good, but the openist souls needs to network! [LoriZ, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Geotag Everything! http://www.mapbureau.com/geotagnow.html
Perhaps this could be incorporated into Ogg Vorbis type tags [Acme, Jul 15 2005]

GPS and GNSS http://www.redsword...pps/general/how.htm
GNSS will be a replcement for GPS [Minimal, Jul 15 2005]

[link]






       There was a project at UCSB that used GPS and sonification to help vision-impaired people navigate. A database held the location of buildings and artifacts. As you approach something, audio was synthesized to sound as if it were emanating from the object, for example "bench here, bench here,..." Making this interactive is way cool.
rmutt, Apr 28 2000
  

       There are tons of possibilities here. For instance allow groups to set up accounts for geo-post-it notes that they only see. Think of what road rallies would be like. We already have mapping software that links to databases and all the other components for this exist. All we need to do is link them together. Palmtop+internet link+GPS receiver, would be the logical unit. I have not checked. Do we have palmtops with the mapping software yet? In any case, I think this is an INEVITABLE development. Question is, when, and who will do it.
yogibear, Apr 28 2000
  

       Attach a GPS and a device which records it's orientation (compass direction and deviation from level) to a videocamera, and you'd really have something. You could take video images, and then feed the whole data+metadata stream into some software which could build a 3-D model of the scenes.
jimfl, May 06 2000
  

       egnor,   

       you might find a kindred spirit in a jim spohrer at IBM. http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/384/spohrer.html   

       There are some guys at Indiana University trying to implement what you are talking about -- sort of an augmented reality deal. They are a spin off of worldboard.org.   

       upoc.com is another, although not yet GPS focused.   

       I'm with you. It's fascinating to me what you talk about. GM has long term plans to do a History Channel (with the History Channel) with its Onstar cars. I had this picture of driving in my car hearing gps voicemails from 40 years ago (50 years hence!) Phone is definitely the device for taking gps over the top. But what does this do to search?   

       I like to fish, but am not so good. A tip from an expert, with advice on how to fish an exact location would be cool.   

       GPS cameras would be cool too, to create a "digital earth" from eye level.   

       My fascination was to create a portal for kids called "New World". It would start with a blank map. Kids would be like pioneers as they populated this map with GPS points of field trips they had been on etc... They could bring to life historical trails, etc. It'd be a good way for kids to connect the real world with their studies and with the digital world. Education's a mess though, and cost... still no easy devices.
nreilly, Oct 15 2000
  

       Kids (not poor kids) have cell phones these days, and texting is huge (less so in the US I guess). Soon, with E911, we'll have approximate location information... and then, well, gee.   

       Too bad cell phones are such closed platforms, in general.
egnor, Oct 15 2000
  

       We could kick off the revolution by installing digital memo recorders in out of the way places like bus stands, port-a-jons, and phone booths. Giving people something to listen to would prevent much impatient grinding of shoe leather. Would it make sense to put these on digital phones?
reensure, Oct 17 2000
  

       Bus stops: Nobody talks to each other there anyway, and it's exposed, and you just want your stupid bus to show up.   

       Phone booths: You're already using them for sound; there's no time to dawdle with an audio recorder (unless you're waiting on hold for a long time or something).   

       Bathrooms: Now here you might have a winner. People are sitting there, in secluded "comfort", with nothing better to do. You do need to allow mute/erase of embarrassing noises, though.
egnor, Oct 17 2000
  

       Yes, but graffiti is illegal, destructive, and heavily frowned upon. With a geocorder, nobody has to hear it unless they want to, filtering is possible, and you're not limited by the visible solid angle of available surfaces.
egnor, Oct 18 2000
  

       Of course, once everyone walks around with goggles, we could have virtual graffiti that hovers in the air amidst the reality, kind of like that web overlay thing...
jutta, Oct 18 2000
  

       Virtual graffiti is perfectly in the spirit of this idea; I suggest using audio only because the technology for mobile audio is available today.   

       And, Peter, exactly where is graffiti wanted? I want the ability to annotate *anything*, not merely the carefully sanctioned Graffiti Zones (of which I have yet to see any). I want my annotations to be visible (audible) to *anyone* who wants to hear them and *nobody* who doesn't, and I shouldn't have to seek permission from the "owner" of a space.   

       That's why I suggest using augmented-reality technology instead of an ordinary marker pen.   

       Otherwise, we end up with only the annotations which *everyone* wants (basic street signs and such) or which someone can pay for the rights to (public advertising). And that's boring.
egnor, Oct 18 2000
  

       I would strenuously disagree with that case. Consider a geocorder annotation to be like a comment someone published saying "Joe's restaurant sucks" (or whatever). Sure, the restaurant owner would like to think they "own" the semantic term "Joe's restaurant", but they don't, and I'm allowed to comment all I want. Similarly, why should they be able to control how my friends and I configure our devices to behave?   

       I'd like to see the creation of different "geocorder spaces" with different rules (free for all, moderated discussion by various means, "owned" by the actual property owner, etc).   

       That said, you're absolutely right that property owners will attempt to control it. Check out some of the backlash against the (unfortunately never very popular) Web annotation services. (Link added.)   

       We can only hope they wouldn't succeed.
egnor, Oct 18 2000
  

       5 words: Ears are free when walking.   

       40 words: It's not practical to walk around while using a Palm (at least, not without bumping into things), but it's quite practical (and, indeed, so common that nobody bats an eye) to walk around talking into a headset.   

       Too long for you: Not only is an audio interface much more conducive to an "immersive" or "wearable" device, but the GPS angle is also important, or else you'd have to be constantly "polling" your Palm for anything having to do with the landmarks you pass. (And what about areas with no obvious landmarks, but which might nevertheless have interesting features worth annotating?) A true geocorder would be silently unobtrusive most of the time, coming to life only (and exactly) when there was a relevant annotation nearby.   

       These issues may seem subtle, but I think using a Palm would move the idea from being perfectly halfbaked (almost but not quite workable) to being quite preposterous.
egnor, Oct 19 2000
  

       Will Bluetooth leapfrog most of the above?
rayfo, Nov 13 2000
  

       Most of the above which?   

       Bluetooth is a standard for very short range, low power, high speed digital RF communications. I'm not sure why it's more than tangentially relevant here...?
egnor, Nov 13 2000
  

       i just cant wait. how can i help?
gnormal, Apr 04 2001
  

       oo mee too.   

       How can I help?
LoriZ, Dec 10 2002
  

       Wonderful idea. Resturant reviews as you stroll down the street looking for a nice place to eat would be invaluable.
Worldgineer, Oct 20 2003
  

       +   

       need better name.
DesertFox, May 11 2004
  

       Congrats. ++
sartep, Jun 23 2004
  

       This would completely reformulate journalism, as well as the guided tour scene.   

       What also will be terribly interesting would be to create virtual timecapsules this way; imagine hearing / reading graffiti left by someone ten generations ago. 'Genghis was here!' or somesuch.
RayfordSteele, Jun 14 2005
  

       I wish someone had left such am anti recommendation message outside the curry house that I brought my parents to last weekend!
brained, Jul 15 2005
  

       With the new Galileo satellites GPS will be far more precise, and may provide many of the facilities required for this nice idea...
Minimal, Jul 15 2005
  

       //With the new Galileo satellites GPS will be far more precise// Have they picked a sensible frequency that isn't blocked by the water in leaves?
coprocephalous, Jul 15 2005
  

       Dunno.

Update: The Galileo satelite will be the first part of GNSS. (See Link)
Minimal, Jul 15 2005
  

       This is one of the coolest ideas I've ever seen. I would love this.
nomocrow, Jan 28 2009
  

       Iphone app called GPS recorder does exactly this. There also is a version called GPS-R which gives you reminders based on your GPS location. Only shortcoming is that it only works while having the app running in your iphone - but that is apples fault.
pucho2000, Apr 09 2009
  
      
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