Pros have long had access to Google Maps Engine if they need to highlight anything from local stores to natural resources. Today, Google is catering to the rest of us would-be cartographers with a beta for Google Maps Engine Lite. The web service lets everyday users draw objects and import locations for their own reference, whether it’s plotting favorite hiking trails or pinpointing worthwhile places on an upcoming vacation. Map makers can stylize the maps and share them with others, if they like — the Lite label mostly limits users to “small” spreadsheet imports and a maximum of three data sets for comparisons. As long as you can live within those prescribed boundaries, you can try the slimmed down engine right now.
Via: Google Lat Long Blog
Source: Google Maps Engine Lite
Related Posts:
This is a video of Youtuber SmarterEveryDay explaining Prince Rupert’s Drops. Prince Rupert’s Drops are made by drizzling molten glass into water so it forms a little spermy — a sperm with an ultra-tough head, but with a delicate tail that will cause the whole thing to explode if nicked. I was going to try to draw a correlation between these sperm and mine, but mine only chase their tails so it was a no-go.
All the weirdness is thanks to they way the droplet cools from the outside in, building up stress that makes it super prone to explosion, in places, but SmarterEveryDay explains it best.
Listen: I love science as much as the next guy who’s always dreamed of strapping himself to a rocket and suffocating in space, but sometimes I feel like it gets in the way of just appreciating real-life magic, you know? Thank God for magnets.
Hit the jump for the video.
In the latest Meet Your Match challenge, Ben puts 0 on the line that his Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone is faster at finding the stuff you really care abou…
Related Posts: 
Sometimes, it’s the behind-the-scenes deals that matter the most. See Aptina’s newly signed patent cross-licensing agreement with Sony as an example: the pact lets the two imaging veterans use each other’s know-how in camera sensors for everything from dedicated cameras through to smartphones and TVs. We know customers of both companies will be glad to see technology spreading beyond corporate borders, but we have a feeling that Nikon will be the happiest. When Nikon is using Aptina sensors in its 1 series mirrorless cameras and Sony sensors in its DSLRs, it’s likely to reap the benefits, regardless of which sensor maker got the better deal.
Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Nikon
Source: DPReview
Related Posts:
According to a recent paleontology report, birdlike dinosaurs of the genus Oviraptor may have shook their ass feathers like some modern-day birds do to attract mates. *comes running* Thanks for the show guys, but really — the feather shaking wasn’t necessary.
Studying oviraptor fossils, as well as present-day birds and reptiles, and digitally recreating an oviraptor tail helped the team conclude that, like peacocks and turkeys, oviraptors shook their tail feathers to attract mates.
“You have, I think, a tail that is specifically adapted to flaunt its feathers,” said Scott Persons, study author and doctoral student at the University of Alberta. “Swish it from side to side, show off the tail, strike a sinuous pose and hold it.”
Anybody else feel like reading that was like reading erotic fan nonfiction? No? Just me huh? Well I’m not here to judge, but you all must be into some seriously freaky-deaky shit if that didn’t give you a boner.
Thanks to Will, Robert, Nickw22, Tom the Mighty and Michael, who all have pretty normal names for once. No PECKER #9 or anything.
This is Scotch Tape, a series of people with their faces all wonked up with scotch tape by photographer Wes Namen. I don’t know what these people looked like before, but they are lookin’ fine as hell now. Take this first girl — she may have only been a four before, but now? A solid eight. “Tell me you’re joking.” Jesus, of course I’m joking. An eleven…ON THE RICHTER SCALE. Apocalyptic hotness. One time I got my face all taped up but it turns out I was being kidnapped.
Hit the jump for a bunch more but be sure to check out the photographer’s site for even more more.
- People|Tech Meets Blog
The PhoneScope 3D from Spatial Vision and Design offers high-resolution magnified 3D scanning that can have applications for users ranging from forensics specialists to CGI animators. But its developers mostly just want people to have fun with the iPhone add-ons. After years in development, PhoneScope 3D is now raising funds on Kickstarter.
The PhoneScope 3D differentiates itself from other iPhone 3D scanning apps and attachments with a macro lens that magnifies the iPhone’s camera view by up to five times. A light lens attachment clips onto the lens and uses ultra-bright LEDs diffused through glass developed by Spatial Vision and Design to distribute light evenly and reduce coning.
The lens clip, designed to have a low profile and fit over an iPhone bumper, is made from plasma-polished stainless steel, while the light lens attachment is built from aircraft-grade anodized aluminum. The light lens is placed directly over the object being scanned, which means that although there are size limitations, the subject can be rendered in greater detail. The PhoneScope 3D is meant to be used with specially designed desktop software and scans can be turned into 3D prints.
Developer B.J. Rao says his aim with the PhoneScope 3D is to build awareness of 3D scanning. Potential users include “a dermatologist or forensics specialist who now has greater means to examine, review and store visual information,” said Rao. With its affordability and ease of use, the set is also a fun introduction to high-resolution 3D scanning.
Spatial Vision & Design, a startup with locations in St. Louis, Amsterdam, and Seoul, develops mobile software and hardware focusing on vision technologies. B.J. Rao said that he and partners Vijay Rao and Lazlo Kleczewski have wanted to create an app and hardware combination for the iPhone since it was first released by Apple, but the project was put on hold several times over the years because of lack of funding. The trio’s prior hardware experience includes developing and calibrating photolithography machines. B.J. Rao has worked with institutions such as the Museum Gouda in Amsterdam, where he helped develop a 3D scanning technology for an exhibit that allowed visitors to interact with fragile artifacts without handling them.
PhoneScope 3D software is currently available for Windows only, but Rao says their target for OSX support is April or May 2013.
Pre-orders begin at $ 39 for the early bird special, which comes with a lens clip. The team’s goal is to raise $ 50,000 on Kickstarter before January 8, with a target delivery date of March 2013 for the lens clips and April 2013 for the sets with the lens clip and light lens attachment.
Extending watches with apps is one thing if you’re building for a smartphone companion with a traditional, developer-centric app model. It’s quite another when it’s a GPS watch, and athletes are building their own apps — yet that’s what Suunto has managed with a 2.0 firmware update to its Ambit outdoor watch. The revamp uses a simple web interface to let us build free sports apps based on criteria as simple as distance and speed through to more specific measurements like heart rate and pressure. Adding predictive routines and arbitrary values allows for situation-specific code we might not get elsewhere, whether it’s estimating the finish time of a marathon or guessing just how much post-run beer is possible before the guilt sets in. On top of the new software platform, the 2.0 update brings a handful of major extensions from Suunto itself, including support for ANT+ and Foot POD sensors as well as an interval timer. The apps and upgrades help justify a relatively steep $ 500 price for the Ambit by turning it into a Swiss Army Knife for the wrist; when features are dictated more by imagination than a developer’s whims, they might just save the cost of an early hardware replacement.
Continue reading Suunto Ambit update lets athletes build their own GPS watch apps
Source: Suunto (PDF), Movescount
Related Posts: 
It’s entirely possible for robots to juggle or play catch. They’ve usually been relegated to playing with their own kind, however, which is as good an excuse as any for Disney Research to experiment with a ball-tossing robot tailored to games with humans. The animatronic creation uses a depth-aware motion camera — there’s conflicting mentions of using both the Microsoft Kinect and ASUS’ Xtion Pro Live that we’re hoping to sort out — to track any mid-air balls as well as throw them back to a human participant. Disney’s robot does more than just move the robot’s arm to account for imperfect tosses, too, as it knows to feign a dejected look after a botched reception. The company suggests that its invention would ideally bring two-way interaction to theme parks, so it’s more likely to show up at Disneyland before it stands in for a parent in the backyard. It’s just as well; when the Robopocalypse comes, the last thing we’ll want at home is a machine that can toss grenades.
Filed under: Robots, Microsoft, ASUS
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Popular Science
Related Posts:
I’ve used a few wireless, always-on webcams in my day and I’ve found Dropcam to be the best. Suddenly, however, Dropcam just got better.
Dropcam cameras connect wirelessly to the Internet, allowing you to connect to them remotely and watch live audio and video from anywhere. They had a few basic apps available, including an iPhone-only app that offered very little in the way of usability on the iPad.
The new app, however, allows you to place up to four of your Dropcams on the same page. If you have more, you can simply swipe to move to another set of four. It also allows you to play back events on the camera with a simple draggable interface. The video is crisp and clean and looks great. It essentially turns the iPad into a fairly capable security camera system.
“It wasn’t easy to build,” said Greg Duffy, Dropcam CEO. “In fact, we even had to write our own video decoding framework for iPad.”
The quality is quite nice – the $ 149 Dropcam HD supports 720p streaming – and the app even includes a number of public Dropcams that display pet stores and beaches around the world. “We think it’s pretty game-changing, because we’re now the only ones in the space with realtime 720p video, multicam, and seamless DVR browsing all figured out on iPad,” said Duffy.
I rarely like to talk about app updates – usually they’re blips in the app store – but this one was pretty interesting. Now I can turn my Dropcams on myself and watch myself from all angles. Maybe I’ll make the feeds public.
