Virtual Tourists in the Swiss Alps

Roland Piquepaille writes "Farmers in Switzerland receive money from their government for letting their cows eat young trees in the Alps. But why? Because this is improving the mountain views for tourists who might return year after year and spend their cash in the country. As the Swiss government wants to wisely spend its money, it is using a computer model of the mountains populated by virtual tourists -- or software agents -- which tirelessly take the same roads again and again and give their appreciation about the best spots. The Economist reports about these virtual tourists in this very cleverly-titled article, "Computer browsers." What will be the next logical step? Pay more the farmers with the strongest potential to improve the views for real tourists? Wrong. Instead, real hikers will be invited to explore the virtual Alps to give their feedback. Their observations will be then integrated into the software managing the virtual travelers. Read more for pictures and references."

Comments

Slashdot And Roland Piquepaille Conspiracies

[buddhaseviltwin]

Would someone at Slashdot like to address the relationship between Roland and this site?

He consistantly submits interesting articles about interesting technology, and the slashdot editors think his submissions are more front-page worthy than most other submissions.

This is just spam to get to his little site.

So what? His articles are interesting.

Maybe the editors are just incompetent and getting trolled, or this is some synergy (paid referrals) going on. So whats the deal?

Maybe Roland isn't your cup of tea, but is it really that inconceivable that a good many of us enjoy reading and discussing his submissions?

I agree.

[Ayanami Rei]

Please, moderate this up.

But I, a subscriber, will NOT be posting anonymously as I say this loudly and often...

I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE IF THE EDITORS NEVER POST ANOTHER ROLAND PIQUEPAILLE ARITCLE AGAIN

Also, I hope Roland gets SARS and dies.