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GPS Drawings

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the way-to-waste-some-time dept.

With all the less then happy things happening, I thought I'd share a link sent in by mustafap. The site is GPS Drawing, and the idea is to record your path driving around with a GPS signal, and then graph the results to draw pictures. It's fun seeing the routes superimposed on maps. Simple and fun. I hope you enjoy it too.

4 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. You know... by dwdyer · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Maybe I've read too many marginal novels, but I imagine using this as a way to communicate covertly. Granted, it'd be a royal pain in the ass.

    Drive or walk your message, while transmitting your location. Glyphs could stand for entire blocks of meaning. Encrypt the message into glyphs, then walk them while transmitting encrypted GPS data. The data would then be smoothed (in space and time domains? What about traffic jams?) in order to recover the glyphs. Encrypted sign language in the large.

    But most of all, it reminds me of the alphabet-walking man in Paul Auster's City of Glass.

    --
    -dwd-
  2. And don't forget crop circles by ShaunC · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Attention, mysterious crop-circle makers: next time you liquor up and head out to Billy Bob's farm for a fun night of, uh, cornstalking, don't forget your GPS! Would be interesting to see the GPS track left behind from a crop-circle creation.

    One thing that kind of irked me about the site, "data alteration" is used in part to make most of the images. I think I'd rather see the raw unaltered images. What's the point of doing the whole GPS position tracking thing if you're just going to alter the data to make it look "right?" Seems equivalent to sketching a landscape, only to take a photo afterwards and toss the sketch into the trash.

    Shaun

    --
    Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
  3. Re:how cool by astrophysics · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The velocity limitation imposed on comercial gps's is that they max out at 999mph. Since that's nearly mach 2, not a problem for comercial flights. I download waypoints for several cities in the regions where I'm flying so I can see right on my GPS's screen, without having to bring a laptop.

    E

  4. Re:Pointless? by toral · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'll bite:

    More pointless than covering a hotel room with melted cheese, or submersing a Jesus figurine in a jar of urine? I see this as art; a creative form of expression. In that respect it isn't any less pointless than your favorite architect, painter, or sculptor.

    Sure, this fits into a niche. Many people can't or don't understand gps, tracking software, or data interpreters. Nevertheless, the end result is the same: people translating an idea onto a medium. Painters use canvas, musicians use tape, these people are using pure space. If you think about it for a second, it doesn't seem pointless at all (to me at least), but rather nifty.

    This may not be your thing. I don't care much for landscape painting. But that doesn't mean it is lacking a point. If nothing more, it sounds like the people doing this are enjoying it. Judging from the comments, it looks like they aren't alone. In fact, getting a reaction from someone who doesn't like it even validates it's point...

    -toral