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Blog: Chris Harlow on ITSearch The Harlow Report Archives
Insurance carriers have new tools at their disposal to help them identify and underwrite risks for exposed customers.
Underwriting and risk assessment are two of the most important components of insurance operations. The cost of poor risk assessment practices can be catastrophic, both for the insurance carrier and the customer. However, despite the high stakes, the way insurers calculate risk has been slow to keep up with the digital transformation of the insurance industry. Yes, many insurers utilize artificial intelligence and big data for processes like claims and billing, but some areas could still use help.
As of late, some insurers have started to see the potential in using geospatial property intelligence to inform risk assessment and underwriting. Using this widely available data and technology, insurers can now quote, assess, and protect their customers in a whole new way.
Read full story at NUPropertyCasualty360 …
first published week of: 08/23/2021
The City of Celina, Texas, has enhanced and streamlined their workflows and infrastructure management through the implementation of ArcGIS and Cityworks.
The city has also improved their community engagement through the creation of their “Life Connected app,” which utilizes image recognition technology and enables residents to report public asset issues and submit service requests by snapping a picture with their smartphones.
Before the adoption of a computerized maintenance management system and GIS, the City of Celina had clunky workflows and a prolonged plan review process. At times addressing was inaccurate, and they often struggled to locate existing infrastructure. ArcGIS helped solve these issues by organizing asset data, ensuring that infrastructure information was accurate and up to date. Celina, with the help of GISinc, also implemented Cityworks over a six month period. They currently use Cityworks to complete everything from performing inspections and executing work orders to documenting services requests and maintaining public assets
Read full story at Citiworks…
first published week of: 12/06/2021
Researchers used the City of Pittsburgh to create a model built upon the design, materials and purpose of commercial buildings to estimate their energy usage and emissions.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering and the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation used the City of Pittsburgh to create a model built upon the design, materials and purpose of commercial buildings to estimate their energy usage and emissions. While other models may be hindered by a scarcity of data in public records, the researchers' Urban Building Energy Model (UBEM) uses street-level images to categorize and estimate commercial buildings' energy use. Their findings were recently published in the journal Energy & Buildings.
"We found that in the existing literature, the scale of commercial buildings was always one of the challenges. It's cumbersome or even impossible to find and process detailed information about hundreds or thousands of buildings in an urban environment," said Rezvan Mohammadiziazi, lead author and graduate student in the Swanson School's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "Researchers need to rely on assumptions based on when buildings were built or what the mechanical and electrical systems look like. Our hope is that by using image processing, we can build a framework that reduces some assumptions."
The researchers used publicly available Geographic Information System (GIS) data and street-level images to develop their UBEM, then created 20 archetypes of buildings that comprised eight commercial use types.The buildings were sorted into the groups based on categories including use type and construction period.
Read full story at ScienceDaily…
first published week of: 07/26/2021
Nothing is spared by the ongoing AI fraud.
You may have heard about ‘deepfakes’ before. These are essentially elaborate hoaxes generated by artificial intelligence-driven technology, most typically in a video format. During these highly realistic video forgeries, an actor’s facial expressions and lip movements are superimposed over the impersonated individual’s face. This isn’t some comical Photoshop. The voice is also impersonated, leading to lifelike apparitions that are both impressive and terrifying at the same time.
Obvious targets include celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg, Barack Obama, or Vladimir Putin who were turned into realistic puppets. Many others are pornographic, mapping faces from female celebrities onto porn stars — a staggering 96% of deepfakes posted online up to September 2019 were fake porn, showcasing the technology’s ability to be weaponized against women.
Read full story at ZME Science…
first published week of: 06/14/2021
This month, Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 1239, or "The Florida Broadband Deployment Act of 2021," into law. The law creates important rules for Florida's newly established Office of Broadband (OOB), and funds a major step in addressing Florida's broadband issues.
"The bill provides $1.5M to fund geographic information system mapping to increase the use of broadband internet service in Florida," says Andrew G. Nixon, press secretary for the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
Using data from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the GIS map will provide a detailed overview of broadband internet service availability throughout Florida. The maps will identify where broadband capable networks exist, where service is available to users and gaps in rural areas, along with download and upload transmission speeds across Florida.
Read full story at Herald- Tribune…
first published week of: 06/07/2021
Recognising the game-changing role that startups may play, the Govt has released draft National Geospatial Policy inviting comments latest by May 22
The geospatial market of India is expected to hit INR 1 Lakh Cr by 2029-2030 from the existing level of INR 15,000 Cr. However, private investments in the sector have been limited due to uncertainties in government policies.
Recognising that the regulatory paradigm in the government through various acts, rules, policies and guidelines has not been in sync with the geospatial developments in the country, the Indian government, in February this year, deregulated the geospatial sector. The Department of Science & Technology (DST), has now come up with a draft National Geospatial Policy (NGP) inviting comments from stakeholders from across the country, latest by May 22.
The guidelines issued by the DST seek to liberalise the mapping industry to spur domestic innovation and enable Indian companies to compete in the global mapping ecosystem. What Is Geospatial Data?\u00a0 Geospatial data primarily stands for location-related data. It includes data about the natural or man-made, physical or imaginary features whether above the ground or below, boundaries, points of interest, natural phenomena, mobility data, weather patterns, statistical information, etc. Geographic information is thus just one part of geospatial data.
Numerous geospatial technologies such as ground-based survey techniques, photogrammetry using manned\/unmanned aerial vehicles, terrestrial vehicle-mounted mobile mapping system, LIDAR, RADAR Interferometry, satellite-based remote sensing, mobile phone sensors and other techniques are deployed to collect geospatial data.
Read full story at Inc42…
first published week of: 05/10/2021