Originally published July 29 2005
Cambridge scientists develop advanced real-time map hardware
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A paper map's usefulness is often determined by its age, but New Scientist reports that Cambridge University researchers have developed a real-time map system that projects an updateable map onto any flat surface, or can transfer relevant web links to a laptop or hand held-computer.
Paper maps can be brought to life using hardware that adds up-to-the-minute information, photography and even video footage.
Researchers Tom Drummond, Gerhard Reitmayr and Ethan Eade, at Cambridge University, UK, developed the system, which augments an ordinary tabletop map with additional information by projecting it onto the map's surface.
They believe it could be used to help emergency workers and have developed a simulation that projects live information about flooding in Cambridge onto a local map.
The system makes use of an overhead camera and image recognition software on a connected computer to identify the region from the map's topographical features.
An overhead projector then overlays relevant information - like the location of a traffic accident or even the position of a moving helicopter - onto the map.
The system can also project photographs or video footage onto a blank surface placed next to a particular geographical feature.
And other information - such as useful web links - can even be sent to a handheld computer, through a wireless network, as demonstrated in this short video (25.9MB, avi format), produced by the researchers.
In the simulation devised by the team, areas of flooding are superimposed onto a map of Cambridge along with live images captured by a camera in the city's centre.
"An operator can see the image and assess the local situation immediately," writes Gerhard Reitmayr on the project's homepage.
"An emergency unit represented as a helicopter is visible on the map as well."
Details of the project will be presented at the Fourth IEEE and ACM International Symposium on Augmented Reality, 5-8 October 2005.
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