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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."
Travel planner? I was thinking more applications like a big MMORPG. (Wasn't the Pentagon working on one, reported on Slashdot a while ago?)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
The software is only a small part of such a system. You also need good methods for acquiring and distributing data. If you know that a bridge is destroyed or that a lake is no longer safe for vehicles, the software may give you a different route than the other sides software.
So picture the scenario: Squad of blokes inside enemy territory, one carrying this laptop to find a safe route back. Stumble across enemy patrol, firefight in which laptop is hit and is now useless. Result: Still need to take hard copy (paper) maps, so laptop would be very inconvenient in this respect. Satellite recon could tell you where the enemy was in real time, and transmit it to the squad by radio, and squad would not need to carry laptop around, thus saving on pack weight!
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These do not have a very good history. I don't know if you have tried using say, Mapquest's. If you have, you might have been in the mood to say "Mapquest is on crack". The directions are a good attempt, but aren't anywhere near effective.
The path computation is based upon a limited set of superhighways. The rest is just an attempt to move you to/from an exit, and not very effectively. I understand cpu limitations and limitations on the very information offered by satellite (or aerial photography) generated maps play a role here. For instance, many roads listed on maps as being 'four lane' tend to vary in size based upon bridge limitations, turn lanes, uneven buildup or the whims of the line painters, who put a huge shoulder in instead of another lane. Road maps also do not depict traffic lights or stop signs which impede progress. Lastly, traffic conditions are not taken into consideration. This one is huge, particularly on the US East Coast.
The net effect is that if you follow automated directions the trip time will mostly be far longer than if a person familiar with local conditions selects the route.
Beside which, topography is modeled but the ground cover isn't. This can be a huge consideration in military route selection. If I send a column through a forest, it can conceal both sound and visual data from the enemy. This mapping system doesn't have that data - which can change rapidly anyway because clearcutting trees is sadly simple for military units. They carry with them the equipment to do such things. How about guard towers that raise the viewer above the surrounding terrain? How about cameras? Houses?
Well, I can say with some surety that this system would never be permitted for use in the US military for these reasons, as well as a few others. Nothing will obviate good reconnaissance.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Talk about living under big brother's nose!
This is only the beginning, a laptop of > 1Kg is still going to be too bulky and heavy for the frontline soldier.
I predict later re-incarnations will be on flexible computer screens that weigh nothing and roll up to fit in a pocket easily. They will also be automatically updated from external data sources, such as information on latest weather, troop movements and terrain conditions; from unmanned drones, low orbit satellites and intel.
Later it will be part of a small computer integrated into a soldiers helmet and fed directly onto the back of the soldiers retina, as part of an advanced HUD.
Todays products are already old news
The "shortest path between two nodes" is definately in P, computable by Dijkstra's Shortest Path algorithm, for example.
Or isorox's Straight Line algorithm
Rachel Corrie, that is.
You know, the American girl you Jew bastards ran over with a goddamned bulldozer.
Well ?