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Blog: Chris Harlow on ITSearch The Harlow Report Archives
Founder promoters Rashmi (L) and Rakesh Verma own a controlling stake Other investors include Qualcomm, Flipkart and Zenrin of Japan.
( Economic Times)
It was a late January morning. Bitter winter had just taken leave of Delhi. Rakesh Verma, founder and CEO of MapmyIndia, settled down in his Jaguar, tapped on the built-in navigator and entered the destination: Kailash Colony Metro Station, barely four kilometres from his home in Block S, Greater Kailash II. Rashmi Verma, his wife and cofounder of MapmyIndia, took her seat and launched the MapmyIndia app on her iPhone. She entered the same destination. As the car moved, they compared notes on the two versions of the mapping and navigation software.
That day, the Vermas were racing against time. They were about to launch the new MapmyIndia app at the AutoExpo 2018 and their challenge was to put together the best of both apps — the one installed in the car, which has the entire map of India downloaded on it and works without internet connectivity, and the app that works on a connected device and gives real-time traffic updates. MapmyIndia, promoted by the Vermas, has around `200 crore in revenues, remains profitable and dominates the map space in automobiles in India, including Jaguars. However, there are new challenges. Offline maps, though always working, cannot estimate the time to reach the destination and the best route.
CE Info Systems, the company that owns MapmyIndia, was founded by the Vermas back in 1992. It launched its retail online map product in India in 2004 much before Google Maps took the market seriously. All the cars sold in India with installed navigators use MapmyIndia’s products. However, on the consumer front — where one uses maps on one’s phones to find the best route from work to home — Google Maps has left it far behind. The best example of the divide is seen in taxi aggregators Ola and Uber: while the companies use MapmyIndia to track the cars, their drivers use Google Maps.
The Vermas launched their revamped consumer mobile app, with all the bells and whistles of an always-on product, on February 5 and showcased it at the Auto Expo. They are re-entering a space they had vacated five years back. Although a free version of the MapmyIndia app was available on different platforms, it never had the full features. Google Maps had a free run while MapmyIndia was focused only on businessto-business applications.
IT and digital sector analyst Sanchit Vir Gogia of Greyhound Research says MapmyIndia’s new app is already “too late” and should have come into play a few years ago.
Read full story at Economic Times…
first published week of: 02/26/2018
AT&T and the First Responder Network Authority have launched a network core designed to support first responders’ communication needs.
The company said Tuesday the FirstNet network core infrastructure will serve as an exclusive national broadband network for first responders and will help facilitate data transmission in support of public safety personnel.
The packet core will provide first responders access to the First Priority service, Incident Management Portal, location-based services, push-to-talk communications and other mission-critical services.
Read full story at ExecutiveBiz…
first published week of: 04/02/2018
Aerial mapping company has completed a research project backed by the UK government’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, to develop the use of mobile phones for capturing accurate 3D spatial information.
The nine month investigation focussed on the use of standard smart phone technology to capture and calibrate video footage, and then convert to 3D information. Accurate measurements of essential infrastructure, such as overhead power lines and other utility facilities, could then be extracted using specially developed algorithms and workflows. Designed to provide an accurate record of the feature’s location and its environment, the Bluesky project is expected to appeal to electricity Distribution Network Operators (DNO) and other organisations with a dispersed asset base, as a low-cost measurement and auditing tool.
During the project, Bluesky tested a number of hardware, software and deployment options. These included the use of aerial photography to add control points to the video footage. As the project progressed, it was established that in remote areas there were insufficient features, for example road markings, lamp posts or buildings, to establish the required control. Bluesky therefore developed alternative innovative methodologies including the use of a calibration object or the measurement of a feature within the imagery.
Working alongside project partner ADAS, Bluesky also undertook rigorous testing of the solution establishing and documenting the field data capture process, identifying minimum hardware requirements, such as camera pixel capacity, and additional developments to the data delivery mechanism. Following minor enhancements and additional trials Bluesky hopes to launch the mobile phone mapping tool, complete with data processing and hosting services, in Q2 2018.
Innovate UK praised Bluesky awarding the project a score of 4 out of 5. “Congratulations to the project team for scoring an impressive 4 out 5 – apparently no one scores 5 out of 5!” commented Rachel Tidmarsh, Managing Director of Bluesky. “Now we have the task of translating the proof of concept design into a market ready solution, something we have considerable experience in.
“We know from previous work with ADAS, electricity companies and other utility service operators that by providing a more cost-effective data capture, analysis, auditing, and dissemination solution we will significantly decrease maintenance costs releasing essential funds for network upgrades and service improvements. We will also explore other applications of the solution in sectors such as forensics, insurance and emergency response.”
first published week of: 02/12/2018
Aerial mapping company Bluesky has launched a new online Mapshop to serve the rapidly expanding mapping and geographic information industry in Ireland. With tens of thousands of square kilometres of new data available to view and download, this is the largest and most up to date collection of geographic information focused on a market with an estimated total economy-wide impact value of €126.4 million. Offering aerial photography, colour infrared data and digital height models, the new Bluesky Ireland Mapshop www.irelandmaps.ie allows visitors to define their areas of interest with polygon drawing and editing tools, allowing users to purchase only the exact data they require.
“The amount of data and the functionality on offer makes the new Bluesky Mapshop a first for Ireland,” commented Rachel Tidmarsh, Managing Director of Bluesky. “Other resources simply do not offer the same range of products, resolution, quality, currency and value for money that we are able to provide.”
Since 2014, Bluesky has been dedicated to capturing the most up to date, high resolution aerial photography for the whole of the Republic of Ireland. At the close of the 2016 flying season, Bluesky had captured nearly 25,000 square kilometres of 25cm resolution aerial photography, including coverage of Carlow, Cavan, Cork, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Roscommon, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow. Higher resolution – 12.5 cm – data is also available for urban areas, including Sligo, Limerick, New Ross, Enniscorthy, Gorey and Wexford town.
In addition to the aerial photography, Bluesky is offering colour infrared (CIR) data, which provides a valuable tool for studies in vegetation extent and health, and other effects of human activity on the earth and its environment. Detailed height models, Digital Terrain Models (DTM) and Digital Surface Models (DSM), are also available at 2 metre and 1 metre resolutions respectively.
The new Bluesky Mapshop for Ireland www.irelandmaps.ie is easy to use, with visitors able to search for their areas of interest by coordinate or by place name, in both Irish and English spelling. Professional users can also upload GIS files, such as ESRI .shp and KMZ files, to identify their areas of interest.
first published week of: 03/26/2018
Crowdsourced GPS data traffic management Solution integrates Waze data; City of Madrid first to adopt
CARTO, a leader in location intelligence, today announced the availability of CARTO Traffico, a traffic management solution powered by crowdsourced GPS data. The packaged solution helps cities better understand traffic mobility patterns and inform better decisions about infrastructure and traffic management by combining real-time and historical traffic data from city sources and the Waze API.
The International Organization for Migration estimated in 2015 that approximately 3 million people are moving to cities every week worldwide, and the United Nations estimates that 65 percent of the world’s population will reside in cities by 2050. The aging infrastructure and narrow roads in these urban environments were not designed to handle the volume of vehicles, and as a result cities battle gridlocked streets that present very real challenges for their communities. To address these very challenges, the City of Madrid will be the first city in Europe to leverage Traffico for decision making.
Read full story at CARTO…
first published week of: 04/23/2018
Location intelligence platform CARTO helps companies use location data to drive business decisions. CARTO software lets cities see the impact of a subway shutdown, sales teams build optimized territories, and insurers estimate damages from tropical storms. Now CARTO users have a new, cutting-edge mapping stack.
CARTO is switching to Mapbox to power a new class of location data analysis tools for their customers. CARTO customers can now visualize massive datasets at 60 frames per second within CARTO software. They’re leveraging our geocoding for location search and our routing for analytics like isochrones so customers can understand the impact of location on their businesses.
Adding the Mapbox makes CARTO even more competitive to legacy GIS solutions. CARTO’s CEO, Javier de la Torre, explains:
CARTO and Mapbox are the new GIS tech stack. We’re both betting on open data, open source code, and a race to the top for flexibility and functionality. With our move to Mapbox, we don’t have to worry about scale. We’re building a powerful location intelligence stack to enable new data streams, new methods, and new applications that will broaden support for users previously unable to incorporate location data directly into their workflows. CARTO users will also benefit from Mapbox’s high-resolution satellite imagery and powerful performance, rendering map data at video-game speeds.
More about Mapbox…
first published week of: 01/22/2018