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Writing Messages In Empty Space With GPS

Posted by timothy on from the idea-whose-time-has-come dept.

meiocyte writes: "This New Scientist story about leaving messages in empty space seems very cool. You upload a message (or perhaps a picture, audio clip, etc.), it gets tagged with your GPS coordinates, and then anyone else who goes there gets to see/hear it. Every GPS-resolvable parcel of empty space will have its own web site!" Combine this with user-forums, and restaurant ratings could take on a whole new dimension. Update: 01/20 23:28 GMT by T : Oops -- looks like I duped Michael. Sorry.

4 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. Didn't we see this by redcliffe · · Score: 1, Informative

    about a month ago?

  2. Some Research @ Cornell by Tony.Tang · · Score: 5, Informative
    Interesting. The HCI group at Cornell has done some work in this area. Their project involved GPS as well, and allowed students to "tag" objects with information. The project, called "CampusAware" was conceived as a system for tours; that is, a person on a tour could bring around a device, and it would beep when one came around a "tagged" area. A button press would reveal the information that was tagged there.

    The idea was that students could tag places as they saw fit.

    You can read more about the projects here, and here.

  3. Re:Not particularly cool by markov_chain · · Score: 2, Informative

    Wait a second. There is no transmission involved in obtaining geographic coordinates from GPS-- it's based strictly on observation. Your statement that merely using GPS for this purpose can reveal your location to an eavesdropper is incorrect.

    It would be possible if the eavesdropper could capture the message you send out, which would presumably contain the observed GPS coordinates. However, you explicitly ruled this case out.

    --
    Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
  4. A version of this already exists by tunari · · Score: 3, Informative

    Check out confluence.org, where people can post photos and descriptions of every long. lat. combination on the globe.