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Mars Rover Technology Used to Make Better Maps

Posted by Zonk on from the friends-in-high-places dept.

Cal writes "An article on the O'Reilly Radar site discusses a new street mapping technology by a company in Berkeley called earthmine. They are using technology developed by the Jet Propulsion Lab for the Mars Exploration Rover missions for reconstructing three-dimensional data of the street-scape. 'The licensed software and algorithms are used to create a 3D representation of the local terrain, allowing autonomous routing of the MERs through the Martian environment. earthmine has combined this JPL technology with its unique, capture hardware and web delivery technology to deliver 3D data with unprecedented density and accuracy.'"

5 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Navigation works really well. by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 3, Funny

    My car has so far lasted 6 times longer than its original mission lifespan and I am halfway to the local shop.
    I should reach it by June (providing my solar panels don't get dusty).

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  2. Exclusive license for federally-funded research? by bn0p · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the press release referenced in the article "The agreement with JPL and Caltech includes an exclusive and perpetual license for photogrammetric technology that allows for the creation of very dense and accurate 3D data from stereo panoramic imagery. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Caltech has taken an equity position in earthmine." [emphasis added]

    OK, CalTech owns part of earthmine and JPL is at CalTech. That's fine, but didn't tax dollars pay for the technology developed at JPL? IANAL, but it *used* to be that federally-funded research needed to be made available to everyone - not licensed in perpetuity to a private company. When did this change?


    Never let reality temper imagination

    --
    Never let reality temper imagination
  3. Only reads news titles by moondo · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Mars Rover Technology Used to Make Better Maps".... Does this mean it doesn't make better maps any more? //Didn't RTFA.

  4. Re:Exclusive license for federally-funded research by Jherek+Carnelian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    IANAL, but it *used* to be that federally-funded research needed to be made available to everyone - not licensed in perpetuity to a private company. When did this change? It didn't change, at least not in my lifetime. I still remember there being a bit of brouhaha over the GNU licensing of linux ethernet drivers (by Donald Becker I think) and parts of beowulf clustering written under contract to NASA over a decade ago. Lots of corporate entitlement types were PO'ed about the GNU licensing of that stuff because it went against long-standing tradition and they couldn't easily privatize that work and charge us over and over again for what had been paid for with tax dollars to begin with.
  5. Googleearth by PenGun · · Score: 4, Informative

    These people even look at googleearth?

      Googleearth 4.2 does very accurate 3D mapping if the res is high enough. I have found nearly invisible old trails and use it's 3D powers daily. Very cool to fly down the valleys on Vancouver Island at an apparent height of say 300 meters looking for ways through to the next logging road network. I've found nearly invisible crossings through ravines and it is killer for my purposes.

      I dunno how they can do much more than bring up the resolution.