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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."
s/soldiers/invaders/g
Trolling is a art,
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..."
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.
You can't expect to wield supreme executive power, just because some watery tart threw a sword at you
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.
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.
"Damn you super maps! Now I am super lost!"
http://jayceecorder.blogspot.com
I've always enjoyed using JDM Cox's 'USAPhotoMaps' for free: USAPhotomaps -- it downloads terraserver images, allows zooming, panning, path overlay, and spot marking, among other features. Good stuff.
Do you turn them on by saying, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." -- ?
--
I Hit the Karma Cap, and All I Got Was This Lousy
Given the current state of things, isn't that redundant?
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!
The travelling salesmen problem is "Find the shortest path which visits every node in the network" (I.E: Find the shortest possible route to visit every city in a given set).
The "shortest path between two nodes" is definately in P, computable by Dijkstra's Shortest Path algorithm, for example.
"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
Life is too short to proofread.
I would avoid any path a computer marked out for me the same reason it's a good idea to avoid trails.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
So, knowing the enemy would know the recommended path, and that is where the enemy will be sending troops to set the traps, send troops or munitions to hit the trappers.
Of course, troops sent to trap the trappers have to be wary that the trappers would know they would be hunted and would have set traps for the trapper trappers.