Moving at the Speed of Creativity - Tracking relatives via cell phone GPS

Tracking relatives via cell phone GPS

Published by Wesley Fryer in geography, podcasting on April 2nd, 2006

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This evening I found an outstanding, short screencast (m4a podcast) from KoKae Screencasts about how GPS technologies have become wedded to geographic information system visualization tools like Google Earth.

Yes, we’ll soon be able (if desired) to track the live location on the planet of our loved ones (or others) with periodic GPS location packets sent from their cell phone to an Internet server, and downloaded to your desktop version of Google Earth via a kml or kmz file which streams the live data right to your computing device (which can be mobile, handheld, laptop, desktop, car-installed or other.)

Amazing? Yes. Scary? Probably.

Use Google Earth now to download and view live locations, with altitude and airspeed, all the inbound aircraft flying (at this very moment) to Miami International, LAX, JFK, and other airports. Data is delayed just 5 minutes.

Unlike the web version of Google Maps, Google Earth also displays terrain and elevation so for many locales you can actually tilt the image for a 3D view. Spectacular. And did I mention that Google Earth is both free and cross-platform for Windows as well as Macintosh users? You don’t need a credit card to join this voyage of discovery, just a relatively fast internet connection and a fairly up-to-date computer.

My favorite kml file so far that I can quickly see many educational uses for is the avian bird flu maps from Declan Butler, a reporter for Nature. His blog includes good info about using Google Earth and other GIS tools. This stuff is really pretty mindblowing. Here is a quote from his post from March 22nd titled, “The future of computing; science in 2020″

Imagine opening up 3D virtual globes, such as Google Earth, but being able to zoom in on a digital representation of the real world in real-time, with data on almost every variable imaginable. This will not only soon be possible, but is inevitable. Among the many technologies, I’ve looked at recently, this is one that gets me really excited about its world changing possibilities, right across the board from building and energy. to medicine and the environment.

Googlehacks has tons of downloads to check out as well, for everything from Area 51 to overlays of volcanoes and mountains, to other types of data mapping and live data tracking. The possibilities for using these tools are endless, and what we are witnessing is literally innovation moving at the speed of creativity.

I’ve created a new social bookmarks tag for Google Earth related sites and resources, that I’ll be updating further in the weeks and months to come. I’ll be showing some of these Google Earth powers to administrators here in Fort Worth, Texas, tomorrow for point #2 of my presentation I am titling, “Conversations, Complexity and Messy Assessment.” I’ll be posting the audio of the session as a podcast (as long as all the technology works as it should) later this week, maybe as early as tomorrow night.