The Harlow Report

The Harlow Report-GIS

2024 Edition

ISSN 0742-468X
Since 1978
On-line Since 2000


GIS News Snippets

For the week of
September 16, 2024


  Remember When?
A “Harlow Report” From Sep 18, 2023

How Geospatial Technologies Are Revolutionizing Infrastructure Planning


by  Staff

Like an artist's palette, brimming with a spectrum of colours ready to transform a blank canvas into a masterpiece, geospatial technologies are revolutionising the once monotonous field of infrastructure planning.

These cutting-edge geospatial technologies, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, and satellite imagery, inject unprecedented efficiency and accuracy into infrastructure planning.

With their ability to capture, store, manipulate, analyse and manage all types of geographical data, they offer invaluable insights that enable professionals to make strategic decisions in urban planning, construction, transportation, and environmental management. This rise in spatial data analysis creates a transformative era in infrastructure development worldwide.

 Read full story at Innovation News Network

 Now back to 2024


A New Way to Discover Places With Generative AI in Maps

by  Miriam Daniel, VP & GM, Google Maps

Here's a look at how we're bringing generative AI to Maps — rolling out this week to select Local Guides in the U.S.

You've finally found a day the whole crew can hang out. The problem? Everyone has different preferences: one friend's vegan, another won't venture uptown, and one has a dog that never leaves their side. With so much to consider, you're going to need help figuring out the perfect place to go.

Today, we're introducing a new way to discover places with generative AI to help you do just that — no matter how specific, niche or broad your needs might be. Simply say what you're looking for and our large-language models (LLMs) will analyze Maps' detailed information about more than 250 million places and trusted insights from our community of over 300 million contributors to quickly make suggestions for where to go. Starting in the U.S., this early access experiment launches this week to select Local Guides, who are some of the most active and passionate members of the Maps community. Their insights and valuable feedback will help us shape this feature so we can bring it to everyone over time.

 Read full story at Google Blog


Bentley Systems Acquires 3D Geospatial Company Cesium

by  Bentley Press Release

Combination of Cesium Plus iTwin Offers Developers the Most Comprehensive Digital Platform for the Built and Natural Environment

Bentley Systems, … announced it has acquired 3D geospatial company Cesium. Cesium is recognized as the foundational open platform for creating powerful 3D geospatial applications, and its 3D Tiles open standard has been widely adopted by leading enterprises, governments, and tens of thousands of application developers globally. Cesium ion, the company's SaaS platform, brings 3D geospatial experiences to more than 1 million active devices every month, while Cesium's open-source offerings have more than 10 million downloads.

Bentley's iTwin Platform powers digital twin solutions that are used by engineering and construction firms and owner-operators to design, build, and operate the world's infrastructure. The combination of Cesium plus iTwin enables developers to seamlessly align 3D geospatial data with engineering, subsurface, IoT, reality, and enterprise data to create digital twins with astonishing user experiences that scale from vast infrastructure networks to the millimeter-accurate details of individual assets—viewed from land, sky, and sea, from outer space to deep below the Earth's surface.

 Read full story at Bentley


Bluetooth 6.0 Is Here, And It's About to Change Everything You Know About Wireless and Location Tracking!

by  Logan

The world of wireless technology is about to undergo a major transformation with the arrival of Bluetooth 6.0.

This latest version of Bluetooth technology promises to revolutionize how our devices connect and communicate, bringing with it a host of new features and enhancements that will impact everything from smart home devices to portable gadgets. If you thought you knew what Bluetooth could do, think again—Bluetooth 6.0 is set to change the game.

What's New in Bluetooth 6.0?

Bluetooth 6.0 is more than just an incremental update; it's a significant leap forward in wireless technology. Here are some of the standout features that make Bluetooth 6.0 a game-changer :

1. Channel Sounding for Precise Location Tracking

One of the most exciting features of Bluetooth 6.0 is “Channel Sounding,” a technology that allows devices to measure the distance between each other with unprecedented precision. This could have a massive impact on location-based services, such as finding lost devices or improving indoor navigation. Imagine being able to locate your misplaced headphones or keys within a few centimeters of accuracy—Bluetooth 6.0 makes this a reality.

 Read full story at Chipley Observer


Creating Responsive Maps with Vector Tiles

by  Miriam Daniel, VP & GM, Google Maps

Here's a look at how we're bringing generative AI to Maps —rolling out this week to select Local Guides in the U.S.

You've finally found a day the whole crew can hang out. The problem? Everyone has different preferences: one friend's vegan, another won't venture uptown, and one has a dog that never leaves their side. With so much to consider, you're going to need help figuring out the perfect place to go.

Today, we're introducing a new way to discover places with generative AI to help you do just that — no matter how specific, niche or broad your needs might be. Simply say what you're looking for and our large-language models (LLMs) will analyze Maps' detailed information about more than 250 million places and trusted insights from our community of over 300 million contributors to quickly make suggestions for where to go. Starting in the U.S., this early access experiment launches this week to select Local Guides, who are some of the most active and passionate members of the Maps community. Their insights and valuable feedback will help us shape this feature so we can bring it to everyone over time.

 Read full story at Google Blog


Drone Operators vs. Land Surveyors

by  Juan B. Plaza

Are we headed for a confrontation?

When the first photogrammetry drones appeared in the market around 2013, almost every surveyor who heard about them and did some research was tempted to add photogrammetry to their list of services. Eventually the reality of costs and the entire issue of becoming an aviation company and having to add expensive, specialized software deterred some. Others, however, took the plunge and became full-blown photogrammetry companies.

Originally, the business of generating maps from photographs acquired from an aircraft was a minefield of permits, huge expenses, and barriers of entry that made it an exclusive club of a few companies worldwide. Nowadays everyone can buy a drone with an acceptable camera and a copy of Pix4D or another photogrammetry software and become a cartographer.

But is every map a legal document? I personally had to endure five years of spherical mathematics to become a geodetic engineer and then had to register my signature in the engineering association to become a legal land surveyor, capable of officializing property boundaries. But is that necessary in the case of every single cartographic product?

 Read full story at xyHt


Industry News


In Government

Governments Often Struggle With Massive New IT Projects

by  Paige Gross

Culture, bureaucracy and serving a broad patchwork of agencies can make a comprehensive technology update a challenge, experts say.

Idaho's state government was facing a problem.

In 2018, its 86 state agencies were operating with a mix of outdated, mismatched business systems that ran internal processes like payroll and human resources. Some of the programs dated back to the 1980s, and many were written in programming languages they don#39;t teach in engineering schools anymore.

The state made a clear choice–one many other state and city governments have made in recent years — they overhauled their entire IT suite with one cloud-based software.

But since the $121 million project, called Luma, rolled out in July 2023, things have not gone as planned.

 Read full story at Washington Standard/States Newsroom


US Joins Council of Europe's AI and Human Rights Framework

by  Alexandra Kelley

By signing the Framework Convention of artificial intelligence this week, the U.S. pledges to mitigate AI-based discrimination.

Europe's human rights-centric body opened its Framework Convention on artificial intelligence and human rights, democracy and the rule of law on Thursday, offering nations the option to sign an international treaty to advance the development of standards on how artificial intelligence systems can be used.

Crafted with stakeholder input from the EU, 46 members of the Council of Europe, and 11 non-member states including the U.S., the Framework Convention offers a legal structure focused on combating instances of discrimination resulting from AI system use. Some of the areas the council and participating nations looked to safeguard include gender, race, ethnicity and other potential bases for inequity within a given AI system lifecycle.

 Read full story at NextGov/FCW


USACE Data Scientists Enabling AI, Analytics Across Army

by  Daisy Thornton

In order to do advance analytics or adopt AI capabilities, agencies first need their data in order. USACE is helping various Army programs do that.

Federal agencies are all trying to figure out the best ways to incorporate generative artificial intelligence into their operations, because large language models (LLMs) are enabling federal employees to conduct back-of-house business processes faster and better. The Army is no different, which is why computer and data scientists at the Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) are working to enable those AI capabilities across the Army.

“Large language models are really hot right now. And everyone wants them for a variety of purposes. So we have a group of people who are collecting regulations or guidelines, best practices within certain communities in our organization and putting them within an LLM, optimizing that LLM using those regulations, and then being able to ask that LLM questions to help teach or inform bodies of people,” Cody Salter, a research mechanical engineer at ERDC, said on Federal Monthly Insights — Unleashing Data Insights to Drive Government Innovation. “That's really an incredibly common task that we see ourselves doing right now for a variety of different collaborators and customers, because that technology in and of itself, that LLM, is just really hot and widely publicized right now. So people are really able to latch on to that. They understand what it is and what it does and how it might be leveraged within their space, so we do a lot of that.”

 Read full story at Federal News Network





In Technology

Appeals Judge Baffled by X's Loss Over Calif. Moderation Law, Orders Injunction

by  Ashley Belanger

California's social media moderation law remains on hold.

Elon Musk's X has won its appeal on free speech grounds to block AB 587, a California law requiring social media companies to submit annual reports publicly explaining their controversial content moderation decisions.

In his opinion, Ninth Circuit court of appeals judge Milan Smith reversed a district court#39;s ruling that he said improperly rejected Musk's First Amendment argument. Smith was seemingly baffled to find that the “district court performed, essentially, no analysis on this question.”

According to Smith, the district court “offered no reason” for finding that AB 587 only compelled commercial speech “except for wanting” to follow “he lead of the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits,” which never dealt with “speech similar” to AB 587's required content moderation reports. Instead, Smith said, the district court seemed to take up California#39;s invitation to invent a new category of commercial speech that did not clash with the First Amendment.

“State legislatures do not have 'freewheeling authority to declare new categories of speech outside the scope of the First Amendment,'” Smith wrote, citing precedent.

 Read full story at arsTechnica


Intel Is Fighting a Perception Battle

by  Evan Schuman

Although being removed from Dow would be entirely symbolic, it is the last thing Intel needs now as it is fighting a perception game to remain relevant in the enterprise.

Intel's plunging stock price, which as of noon New York time on Tuesday was the lowest it has been since 2010, could cost the chip giant its coveted spot on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).

It comes at a very difficult time for Intel, as it is trying to maintain its enterprise relevance in the face of more effective generative artificial intelligence (genAI) campaigns from the likes of Nvidia.

Reuters reported that Intel, which was the second technology company to join the DJIA in the late 1990s, was “likely to be removed from the Dow” because of a “near 60% decline in the company's shares this year that has made it the worst performer on the index and left it with the lowest stock price on the price-weighted Dow.”

 Read full story at Computerworld


Meta to Allow Messages From 3rd-Party Apps on WhatsApp, Messenger

by Prakruti Mishra

Meta is working on new notifications in Messenger and WhatsApp that will inform the user when they have the option to connect chats from supported third-party apps

Listen (02:24)

Meta has announced plans for integrating third-party chats into WhatsApp and Messenger. As a digital gatekeeper under the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), Meta must ensure that WhatsApp and Messenger are interoperable with third-party apps such as iMessage, Telegram, Google Messages, Signal, and others. The DMA was implemented earlier this year. Meta' efforts to introduce third-party chats in WhatsApp have been ongoing for some time.

 Read full story at Business Standard





In Utilities

Another Utility Adopts AI Cameras for Wildfire Detection. This Time, Its Not as Far West

by  Sean Wolfe

Austin Energy announced it is deploying an AI-driven wildfire detection system from Pano AI across its entire 437-square-mile service territory.

AI-enabled cameras for wildfire detection are becoming a popular choice in the West and Pacific Northwest, giving utilities a new tool in their wildfire mitigation toolbox meant to provide early detection of wildfires that humans might miss.

Now, the AI-enabled devices are finding their way further east, if only slightly, to Texas. Austin Energy announced it is deploying an AI-driven wildfire detection system from Pano AI across its entire 437-square-mile service territory.

The Pano AI system integrates 13 360-degree cameras, AI and real-time data monitoring to detect and verify potential wildfires. The AI-driven system continuously scans for smoke, triangulates the fire's location, and delivers intelligence. Once a fire is identified, the system will automatically alert Austin Energy and local fire departments, providing precise location data and real-time imagery to help first responders in their efforts.

However, no matter how high they're installed, cameras can't see everything. When a camera's view is obstructed, Pano AI can use infrared satellite feeds to provide additional data, seeing where the camera can't.

 Read full story at Power Grid International


OGC Approves Model for Underground Data Definition

by  OGC

MUDDI serves as a framework to make different datasets for underground objects interoperable, exchangeable, and more easily manageable.

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) announced that the OGC Membership has approved version 1.0 of the OGC Model for Underground Data Definition and Integration (MUDDI) Part 1: Conceptual Model for adoption as an official OGC Standard. MUDDI serves as a framework to make datasets that utilize different information for underground objects interoperable, exchangeable, and more easily manageable.

MUDDI represents real-world objects found underground. It was designed as a common basis to create implementations that make different types of subsurface data — such as those relating to utilities, transport infrastructure, soils, ground water, or environmental parameters — interoperable in support of a variety of use cases and in different jurisdictions and user communities. The case for better subsurface data and an explanation of the usefulness of the MUDDI data model is made in this MUDDI For Everyone Guide.

 Read full story at OGC


Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Wind Power

by  Wind Energy Technologies Office

Brush up on your knowledge of wind! This article is part of the Energy.gov series highlighting the “Top Things You Didn't Know About Energy“ series.

10. Human civilizations have harnessed wind power for thousands of years. Early forms of windmills used wind to crush grain or pump water.

9. Today's wind turbines are much more complicated machines than the traditional prairie windmill.

8. Wind turbines are big. Wind turbine blades average 210 feet long, and turbine towers average over 320 feet tall — taller than the Statue of Liberty.

For the complete list and details: …

 Read full story at US Dep't of Energy




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