Super Maps for the 21st Century

Roland Piquepaille writes "After five years of trials, Craig Knoblock and his team at the Information Sciences Institute of the University (ISI) of Southern California, have developed Heracles Maps, an easy-to-use laptop package to optimize routes in the whole world for both military and business travelers. This news release, "A SuperMap for Soldiers -- Or Business Travelers," says that the application integrates various sources of geospatial information, such as satellite imagery of mapping data. From this data, soldiers can easily find a safe route between two locations without being seen or shot from an enemy in another location. this package can easily be adapted to civilian applications, such as a powerful travel planner. You'll find more details and references in this overview."

Comments

Uhh, what if both sides have the product?

[jdawg]

I mean, will the software generate the same suggested route given the same input conditions?

"Ok. We know they're here. And we know that they think we're here. So...their software is going to tell them to take this route..."

Automatic enemy avoidance?

[MrRTFM]

I dont think so.
If I were a soldier I wouldn't trust a route from a laptop. Not unless I knew exactly when it was told where enemy 'C' was located so I could allow for movements.

And of course, there is the whole beta testing problem - imagine a squad of troops walking through an 'empty forest' which just happens to contain a platoon of troops (Enemy 'D') doing an exercise not picked up by the spy satellites.

I'm not saying this is bad- I think its great, but no soldier will ever blindly follow the route it plots.

Topographical improvements...

[dotslashconfig]

From what I gather, there are governmental organizations in most countries that are responsible for maintaining roads and highways. If you were able to get various countries to release information about actual speed limits/lengths of these roads, you could calculate efficient ways to circumvent troublesome regions.

In addition, with the implementation of GPS/laser terrain detection, you could implement the commercial air travel aspect of such a 'Super Map'. After all, we have laser and GPS guided tomahawk cruise missiles. Wouldn't the terrain detection be almost the same. And in that vein, wouldn't it be an easy leap to apply that functionality to a wide range of vehicles?

I think it's true, more now than ever, that a lot of technologies we're seeing become available to commercial applications were developed with military uses in mind.

If nothing else, it's good to see defense spending can have a nice turn around, and that developing bonds between same-purpose organizations accross the world is finally taking a step in the right direction.

But is it worth it?

[theLOUDroom]

"A computer with a bullet in it is just a paperweight. A map with a bullet in it is still a map."
-Maj. Keith Hauk

Re:Um...great?

[HangingChad]

There's a flip side to this. If one side uses software to determine a transit route, the other side can use the same software to guess where enemy combatants might try to transit. Position dusters, quad 50's and claymores as appropriate and remember that the side marked FRONT TOWARD ENEMY points away from you.

I would avoid any path a computer marked out for me the same reason it's a good idea to avoid trails.