A new era in trip planning

Ok, so far when planning a trip you do your research on the internet and dig for sites with tourist info and reviews from people who has been there. The next step is just selecting a location and then create your trip based on the pictures and travel paths of other. Since most digital cameras will be GPS enables in the near future (there are some already) and people use the ability of using tags more and more you just creat a trip based upon tags. So for example going to a city then look at the map and filter a trip for party or shopping or dining and you see where most people go including pictures of that area (and reviews)

Imaging doing this on your multitouch dining table:)

Anyway, planning your trip has come closer after some cleaver stuff at MIT

(un)photographed Spain
When posting photos online, users of the photo sharing platform Flickr transmit to the world their perspective of a place or event through the lens of a digital camera. Each digital photo file codes both the time when that photo was taken and the location it captures. Analyzing this information allows us to follow the trail that each Flickr photographer travels through Spain. (Un)photographed Spain maps thousands of these public, digital footprints over one year. As photos overlap in certain locations, they expose the places that attract the photographer's gaze . In contrast, the absence of images in other locations reveal the unphotographed spaces of a more introverted Spain.

Density and flows of photographers
In 2007, the Iberian Penninsula clearly splits between Portugal and Spain with Barcelona constantly acting as main hub connecting people to Madrid, the Balearic Islands, Andalucia and the Cantabrian Sea in the North. hi-res images > low-res video


(un)photographed Spain from senseablecity on Vimeo.

spaces of diversity
About 60% of Flickr users disclose information on their home country. Analysis of the time and location data embedded in their digital photo files allows us to examine the Flickr photographers' geographic presence and trails over time, and to differentiate locals from visitors. Based on this information, spaces of diversity maps the contrast between where locals capture images and where visitor communities such as Britons experience of Spain. The yellow lines reveal the most common paths photographers follow as they capture images in different places.

Britons weaving their path in Barcelona
Britons who visited Barcelona in Fall 2007 stayed on the beaten paths delimited by the city's main elements such as Parc Guel and Sagrada Familiar with Passeig de Gracia and Rambla acting as artery. The photos also confirms their pleasure for football (Camp Nou) parties (Forum) and the mediteranean sea (Barceloneta). > hi-res images > video


Spaces of diversity (where are the britons) from senseable on Vimeo.

spaces of activity
Photographers often attach descriptions and tags when posting their photos on Flickr. The data mining of these tags allows us to infer the kinds of activities that these photos capture. Spaces of activity reveals the regions and cities that host memorable parties in Spain over the course of a year. It also shows the places that attract more quiet experiences through art. The size of the glow on the map corresponds to the density of each type of activity. A greater glow implies a greater density of photographic activity.

Partying in Barcelona
This animation of the photos with tags related to "partying" in Summer 2007 shows that Barcelona confines its fun to the old town (Ciutat Vella) known for its high density of tourists, the bohemian distric of Gracia and the Forum area and its music festivals.> hi-res images > video


Spaces of activity (where are the parties?) from senseable on Vimeo.

location based services part 2

Last weekend I was in Berlin for the in-line marathon (1:37:44) and everybody (except for the elite since they only have a gross time and not a net time) was wearing these RFID based yellow pods as runners do. This made time tracking much easier but has a big disadvantage. You need to cross a physical line for measuring. The systems measures your starttime, halftime and finish time. I basically works great to tell you your ranking and time but it misses some great info like your speed at any point, where you accelerated etc.

When these devices were developed it made perfect sense since a GPS device was still bulky. Also the accuracy compared to GPS is much better. However when looking at the current state of technology it would be great to combine the RFID based solution as we have right now with a gps sensor and a sim card (any local prepaid simcard would do). Then you have the power of an accurate time keeping with the advantage of on line track/race info.

This would be a great help in analyzing your race start to finish since this dataset is a great overlay on eg google maps to compare road conditions with speed. Also info on altitude variances would be made visible

At the same time you give the people at home a nice way to interactively follow your race, get online stats etc and the race director and press a great tool for visualizing the race in a different way for those who watch the race

When looking at GPS module currently available ( eg. http://edageek.com/2008/09/16/ublox-amy-gps/) it should be possible to integrate this with some electronic circuits and a sim card in the same yellow RFID chip already used in races. Power can be taken from a small rechargeable battery combined maybe even with solar cells

The system would be the same as now with the RFID based devices. You either buy one and can use the same in any race or you rent one (with a deposit for the same amount of money to buy one). If you buy one the RFID part might only be useful in a race but the gps part would be be well usable in a training (you still can upload your data to a computer and analyse it) when using your private sim card. The databases can vary with the sim you use. So a private sim for training and a race sim (prepaid and local provided by the race organization) during the race

The same then can be done with tracking any large amount of people in an open space like an open air festival. The only challenge would be buildings (depending on the construction material and power of the GPS unit)