Having acquired my new phone (Nokia 6630) and a cheap Bluetooth GPS from EBay. I’ve finally been able to test 3dtracking.net
It all works just as advertised on the web site. Simply install a small application on your mobile, turn on a Bluetooth GPS and walk around. Your location is transmitted by the mobile to the 3dtracking server which draws your track live on a Google Map or in Google Earth.
A practical fieldwork application still eludes me, but I’m working on it!
Since moving away from London, I’d forgottten about the Yellow Arrow project. Although the concept was born in 2004, it is still very much part of the zeitgeist, and a recent investigation into Semipedia see post, together with my impending smart phone purchase (this week!) prompted a quick post.
Yellow Arrow describes itself as a “Massively Authored Artistic Production” or MAAP, according to the website. It’s a spatial anotation project, the aim being to tag features of interest with a yellow arrow sticker bearing a unique code. When someone finds the arrow, they text the code and receive back a message, about that location. In some cities, the yellow arrows form an unconventional tour through parts of the landscape that would be hidden from non-locals - creating a geographical adventure by text.
photo by Stillben
Potentially, Yellow Arrow would make a unique local study. Where would students place the arrows? What would the messages be?
A subversive, graffitti-based local place study, linking the virtual and human environment? It really sounds like my next fieldwork project! No seriously…
I’m rapidly talking myself into getting a smartphone. Not just for the live GPS tracking (see previous post), but because of concepts like Semapedia. In essence, Semapedia is about tagging real world locations with internet-based information, via a mobile phone. This could be a great (and highly subversive) fieldwork activity. Ogle Earth has posted an interesting article about Semapedia, together with a link to a Google Earth file for viewing some of the recently tagged locations.
I’ve printed out my first Semapedia tags - can you guess where they are going?
update 29/1/06 - I’ve just addded my first Semipedia tagged image to Flickr. The image is also tagged with the Flickr Fly script - see this page for more details
click to enlarge
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