07.03.2009 09:54
iPhone 3GS - first images
Last night, I picked up an iPhone
3GS! Pretty exciting. I gave the camera a try this morning and it
did okay with the gray weather that we are having in NH. The image
sync with iPhoto is super fast - my old digital camera takes a
minute or two as apposed to about 2 seconds for the iPhone. Here is
a small piece of the image:
I shrank the image down so you can see the whole thing:
It's worth a second to take a look at the EXIF headers:
I shrank the image down so you can see the whole thing:
It's worth a second to take a look at the EXIF headers:
% fink install jhead
% jhead IMG_0006.JPG
File name : /Users/schwehr/Desktop/IMG_0006.JPG
File size : 1265684 bytes
File date : 2009:07:03 09:36:45
Camera make : Apple
Camera model : iPhone
Date/Time : 2009:07:03 07:10:49
Resolution : 2048 x 1536
Focal length : 3.8mm
Exposure time: 0.017 s (1/60)
Aperture : f/2.8
ISO equiv. : 78
GPS Latitude : N 43d [snip]
GPS Longitude: W 70d [snip]
Comment : {
Comment : AEAverage = 193;
Comment : AELimitsReached = 0;
Comment : AEStable = 1;
Comment : AFStable = 1;
Comment : AFStatus = 4;
Comment : AGC = 287;
Comment : AWBBGain = 194;
Comment : AWBGGain = 64;
Comment : AWBRGain = 137;
Comment : AWBStable = 1;
Comment :
If you say yes, the camera geocodes the images quite nicely. The
camera model isn't very specific.07.03.2009 09:30
Firefox geolocation confusion - now working
The "Give it a try!" link on the firefox
geolocation page works, but following their code is
difficult.
This demo (http://people.mozilla.com/~dolske/tmp/geoloc.html) has easy to follow code, but doesn't work.
Where can I find a simple example that works? Introducing Geode says that I can do:
geolocation-alert.html
This demo (http://people.mozilla.com/~dolske/tmp/geoloc.html) has easy to follow code, but doesn't work.
Where can I find a simple example that works? Introducing Geode says that I can do:
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(pos) {
alert( pos.latitude + ", " + pos.longitude );
})
But that doesn't seem to do it. I get the share location request
beneath the navigation bar, but then I get null back for the
position... a little digging, and I found that the return structure
has changed since the initial design. Here is a super simple
working example. Instead of pos.longitude, it uses
pos.coords.longitude.geolocation-alert.html
<html dir="ltr" xml:lang="en-US" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en-US"><head>
<script type="text/javascript">
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(pos) {
alert( pos.coords.latitude + ", " + pos.coords.longitude );
})
</script>
Firefox could use an update to their page to point to this working
demo: geoloc-new.html07.03.2009 08:22
FireFox 3.5 location aware
Note: If you have Firefox 3.5, this
is built in to the browser by default: Firefox
Geolocation. Try this URL, which doesn't work for me: Local food -
http://azarask.in/local/. Now the real question is: How do I
tell these services where wifi access points are located if it
doesn't already know? I'd like to add access points that I am
frequently around that aren't in the Google Location
Services.
Google and Mozilla Team Up to Tell Firefox Where You Are [webmonkey]
Google and Mozilla Team Up to Tell Firefox Where You Are [webmonkey]
Google and Mozilla have partnered to geo-enable the next wave of web applications in Firefox, the companies announced Thursday. The latest version of Firefox - 3.5 ... will use Google's Location Service as its default location provider. ... Once the user provides a web app with permission to do so (the geolocation abilities are opt-in, as they should be) the application can use the browser to determine the user's location. This means developers can provide more accurate local search results and other geo-aware functionality ... ...Mozilla launched the Geode project, a location awareness add-on for Firefox, Yahoo brought us Fire Eagle and the Geocoder API, Google gave us Latitude and Microsoft is developing Vine. ...And Inferring context from the environment [Magic Ink]
Geographical location. Similarly, the most interesting spatial landmark is usually "here." Unfortunately, this currently can be harder to determine automatically, but the payoff is enormous.* Obviously, a software roadmap needs to know the user's location, but so does the bus schedule, as well as business listings, transportation planners, travel guides, and much other information software. * I believe that location is such vital context, Powerbooks should come with GPS receivers pre-installed, with an easy software API. Developers would then write software to take advantage of it, and other computer makers would follow suit. Someday, a computer without GPS might seem as silly as a computer without a clock.Just a reminder, GPS is first and formost a clock. No time, no GPS position. One day soon, I hope to install the latest version of linux or Mac OSX and discover that it is preconfigured to be a stratum 1 NTP timeserver (and PTP) using the built in GPS chip with a fallback to the a mobile phone service (e.g. CDMA) time source. As a reminder, this is how you check how ntp is doing:
% ntpq -p -n
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset jitter
==============================================================================
-132.177.137.2 209.123.234.24 3 u 414 1024 377 4.680 4.171 0.221
-72.18.205.156 128.138.140.44 2 u 348 1024 377 79.530 -6.882 0.450
+69.10.36.5 64.90.182.55 2 u 479 1024 377 36.526 -3.959 0.540
-38.117.195.101 209.51.161.238 2 u 471 1024 377 12.920 7.163 0.164
*207.171.30.106 .PPS. 1 u 514 1024 377 79.463 3.569 2.720
+72.18.205.157 128.138.140.44 2 u 1611 68m 377 79.433 -6.352 1.356
66.70.29.130 66.250.45.2 3 u 46h 68m 0 18.614 -3.436 0.000
-65.255.217.202 69.36.241.112 3 u 1654 68m 377 79.327 10.225 3.076
127.127.1.0 .LOCL. 13 l 62 64 377 0.000 0.000 0.001
07.03.2009 08:17
Reson multibeam movies
Reson has put some of movies from
their systems up on YouTube:
07.03.2009 08:09
MATE ROV Competition
NOAA DYI ROV (aka mini-submarine in a bucket) [sea-fever].
Thanks to Art, I have the guide book for this sitting on my
shelf.
06.28.2009 09:16
Louisville Locks
The USCG and ACOE have a project in
Louisville at the McAlpine
Locks. I believe there is an Acoustic Doppler Currant
Profiler - ADCP at the split coming into the locks.
Here is a vessel approaching the area coming through the several leading bridges:
A vessel that has made the approach and is entering the channel to the lock:
The ACOE has a airphoto of the lock in their McAlphone Locks and Dam fact sheet
Here is a vessel approaching the area coming through the several leading bridges:
A vessel that has made the approach and is entering the channel to the lock:
The ACOE has a airphoto of the lock in their McAlphone Locks and Dam fact sheet
06.27.2009 09:09
How and why do you configure your AIS?
The initial comments that I got an
LiveJournal are great. To step up the conversation some more, I
started a thread over on gCaptain. If you want more, on this, take
a look at the paper by Brian Calder and myself:
Traffic Analysis for the Calibration of Risk Assessment Methods, US
Hydro 2009
cCaptain thread: How do you configure your AIS and why?:
I'm a researcher at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/NOAA Joint Hydrographic Center in New Hampshire (research blog: http://schwehr.org/blog). I've been working with AIS for a couple of years now... ways to get information to mariners and ways to understand how mariners move about. After looking at the settings people put into their devices and configuring a bunch of units myself, I've seen that there are a lot of different styles for what is done. It would be a huge help to know what your strategy is for setting the vessel type, draught, length, width, name, call sign, ship and cargo type, ETA, and destination fields. Many vessels set it once and leave it, while others change one or more of these all the time. I've looked at a few books that are used for teaching and haven't seen any guidance on best practices and the AIS standards documents don't say much. Are you or someone above you setting some quidelines for what you do?
I got some great initial discussion:
http://goatbar.livejournal.com/2139.html
A few of the things I see:
Here is an example of an interesting draught history for a vessel, while others are static (frequently with a draught of 0):
[picture of vessel draught that I posted a few days ago]
It would be great if we could start working towards best practices for the community!
cCaptain thread: How do you configure your AIS and why?:
I'm a researcher at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/NOAA Joint Hydrographic Center in New Hampshire (research blog: http://schwehr.org/blog). I've been working with AIS for a couple of years now... ways to get information to mariners and ways to understand how mariners move about. After looking at the settings people put into their devices and configuring a bunch of units myself, I've seen that there are a lot of different styles for what is done. It would be a huge help to know what your strategy is for setting the vessel type, draught, length, width, name, call sign, ship and cargo type, ETA, and destination fields. Many vessels set it once and leave it, while others change one or more of these all the time. I've looked at a few books that are used for teaching and haven't seen any guidance on best practices and the AIS standards documents don't say much. Are you or someone above you setting some quidelines for what you do?
I got some great initial discussion:
http://goatbar.livejournal.com/2139.html
A few of the things I see:
- Parameters set at AIS install time
- Parameters (sometimes partialy) changed when the vessel is sold
- There are ships that change when the pilot gets on board and then go right back after the pilot leaves
- Ships that look like they change with the watch stander changes
- Changes when a vessel enters of leaves port
- When there are power glitches (e.g. Nauticast devices that reset to factory defaults)
- Tugs that become Tows and some that change their length to match what they are towing.
- Tows that never change length or status even when not towing
- Vessels where the length randomly changes (turned out to be a lighting strike on the ship)
- etc...
Here is an example of an interesting draught history for a vessel, while others are static (frequently with a draught of 0):
[picture of vessel draught that I posted a few days ago]
It would be great if we could start working towards best practices for the community!
06.26.2009 14:17
New antenna location at nhjel
Andy M. just got a chance to move the
AIS J-Pole antenna at Jackson Estuarine Lab (JEL) from inside to
top floor room to outside. The improvement in reception is
impressive. The old site was too close to computers, cables, and
other radio gear. Hopefully I'll get a chance soon to plot the
difference in reception. The tough part about AIS is that most of
the things that you are hearing (at least in NH) are moving.
06.26.2009 14:06
Phil Zimbardo TED talk
Seeing this guy speak in person is
quite the experience!
and 2008:
and 2008:
06.26.2009 12:32
Sansa Clip music player
I am now the prowd owner of a Sansa
Clip mp3 player. This is the first digital music device that I've
owned that isn't an iPod. We looked at the new shuffle and couldn't
figure out what Apple was thinking. The Sansa Clip just works. It
shows up on my mac as a drive, I add files to the music, podcast,
and audiobook folders. Then I eject the drive, it takes about 10
seconds to scan the changes. Then I just use it. It's small, light,
and I don't notice it on my while working out. It's so unlike the
iPod, which Apple has decided to lock down. I haven't yet tried the
FM receiver or the recording capability. here is what I see when
loading music:
In case you are interested, the SYS files are binary, but version.sdk is just a text file:
In case you are interested, the SYS files are binary, but version.sdk is just a text file:
#DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS FILE Product: Clip FW: V02.01.32A Region: Americas
06.26.2009 05:52
UNH iTunesU
I just recently found out that
UNH has an iTunesU. There
isn't a huge amount of Marine content, but I found a clip about a
local commerical Open Ocean Aquaculture (OOA) project.
06.26.2009 00:24
udcshel youtube channel
youtube udcshel:
And...
UBC-Gavia: The (Un)Common Loon in the Lake [pavilionlake.com]
Videos related to the efforts of faculty, staff, students, and associates of the Coastal Sediments, Hydrodynamics, and Engineering Lab (CSHEL). For more info check out our website geology.udel.edu/cshel/
And...
UBC-Gavia: The (Un)Common Loon in the Lake [pavilionlake.com]
... This year we are particularly excited to have Dr. Art Trembanis joining the project who will be bringing some very high-tech toys with him from the University of Delaware. Dr. Trembanis may have an uncommon name (apparently he is one of only 6 Trembanis' in the world - the other 5 being his immediate family) but he's certainly no loon. Art is the happy owner of another Gavia AUV that is equipped with an inertial navigation system (INS), the navigation instrument found on commercial airliners. ...
06.25.2009 09:16
Geologic Symbols for Google Earth
Peter Selkin has been posting some
great stuff on his blog - Oblate
Spheroid. Check these out:
Check out the Geologic Map Symbol KML Generator [SDSU]
And this video of Fred Vine explaining magnetic reversals recorded in the sea floor:
Check out the Geologic Map Symbol KML Generator [SDSU]
And this video of Fred Vine explaining magnetic reversals recorded in the sea floor:
06.25.2009 09:02
Detecting landmarks in images
A new landmark in computer vision [Google Blog]
...At Google, we think computer vision has tremendous potential benefits for consumers, which is why we're dedicated to research in this area. And today, a Google team is presenting a paper on landmark recognition (think: Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower) at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) conference in Miami, Florida. In the paper, we present a new technology that enables computers to quickly and efficiently identify images of more than 50,000 landmarks from all over the world with 80% accuracy. ...A link to the paper is at the bottom of the blog post.
06.24.2009 21:12
geojson python __geo_interface__
I've been looking at JSON and GeoJSON
today trying to fit it into my project in a way that makes sense.
I'd like to provide something that isn't confusing and doesn't
require the user of the interface to know or do anything special.
How do I do this with the python 2.6 json (that looks a lot like
simplejson)? I tried GeoJSON and it's got something exactly like
that: the "Python Geo Interface". I add one method to my class and
it's set. My original code:
Trackback: Thanks to Sean for answering in his blog! Geo interface and Python 2.6
% ipython2.6 import imo_001_22_area_notice as a import geojson pt = a.AreaNoticeCirclePt(-69, 42, radius=9260) geojson.dumps(pt)This is not happy when I run it.
ERROR: An unexpected error occurred while tokenizing input
The following traceback may be corrupted or invalid
The error message is: ('EOF in multi-line statement', (9, 0))
ValueError Traceback (most recent call last)
/Users/schwehr/projects/src/ais-areanotice-py/<ipython console> in <module>()
/sw/lib/python2.6/site-packages/geojson/codec.pyc in dumps(obj, cls, **kwargs)
36
37 def dumps(obj, cls=GeoJSONEncoder, **kwargs):
===> 38 return simplejson.dumps(to_mapping(obj), cls=cls, **kwargs)
39
40
/sw/lib/python2.6/site-packages/geojson/mapping.pyc in to_mapping(ob)
16 msg = "Expecting something that has %r or a mapping, got %r"
17 msg %= (GEO_INTERFACE_MARKER, ob)
===> 18 raise ValueError(msg)
19 return Mapping(candidate)
20
I just had to add the Geo Interface to my class:
@property
def __geo_interface__(self):
return {'area_shape':0,
'type':'Point', 'coordinates': (self.lon, self.lat),
'radius':self.radius, 'scale_factor':self.scale_factor}
Now with it working:
Out[50]: '{"scale_factor": 10, "type": "Point", "radius": 9260, "coordinates": [-69, 42], "area_shape": 0}'
Now how can I do that something like that with Python 2.6's json
module?Trackback: Thanks to Sean for answering in his blog! Geo interface and Python 2.6
06.24.2009 20:21
iPhone for field geologists (or other field scientists)
Back when I was in field camp in 1993
and everytime I've been in the field since, I have pondered the
posibilities of what could be done with portable computing power to
make the field scientist more effective. Panasonic ToughBooks are
heavy and so are laser ranfinding glasses. I remember seeing the
combination back in 1994 or 95 and thinking that these technologies
were almost there. It's now 15 years later and we are "almost
there" with the iPhone accept that it's not rugged. There are great
cameras with built in GPS cameras, compasses and soon the new laser
range finders won't have to sit on a mount with the camera. It's
great to see the rest of the community thinking about this too. I
think my professors in the early 90's assumed I was crazy trying to
mix so much computer science into my geology, but it has done well
for me. This post was triggered by seeing Chris Rowan's post:
Could an iPhone be a useful field tool? [Highly Allochthonous],
which links to
The iPhone: A Field Tool for Geologists? [Bob Jamieson]. I
think we need to start writing a bunch of very custom applications
focused on our specific tasks to really make a big impact beyond
basic note taking, pictures, and GPS/maps. High on my list is to
create a little core collection worksheet with proper metadata
export for when we collect cores at sea... next we need a
waterproof iPhone that floats when you drop it over the side of the
ship!
The list goes on and on... I have thoughts of realtime stereonet plots that build on the fly and help you to make sure you have enough data before you head back from the field. etc... etc...
Now back to trying to make my latest project do a proper JSON serialization of the Python classes that fits with ESR's proposal for AIS JSON.
Trackback: iPhone as a tool for hydrographers [The Moni Blog]
The list goes on and on... I have thoughts of realtime stereonet plots that build on the fly and help you to make sure you have enough data before you head back from the field. etc... etc...
Now back to trying to make my latest project do a proper JSON serialization of the Python classes that fits with ESR's proposal for AIS JSON.
Trackback: iPhone as a tool for hydrographers [The Moni Blog]
06.24.2009 12:40
Python inheritance
I'm building some python code where
the parent needs some information from the child classes to
serialize an AIS Binary Message. I gave it a try and somehow
thought that python couldn't do this. I resorted to setting an
attribute in the child, which is ugly. I posted to the python
mailing list and quickly got an answer!
Thanks to Jean-Michel for setting me straight on this. I must have done something dumb in my trying to do this. He wrote a great example.
As yes, it does work as I originally thought it should!
Thanks to Jean-Michel for setting me straight on this. I must have done something dumb in my trying to do this. He wrote a great example.
#!/usr/bin/env python
class Parent:
def foo(self):
raise NotImplementedError() # virtual method, it has to be overriden by childs
def bar(self):
self.foo()
class Son(Parent):
def foo(self):
print "I'm your son"
class Daughter(Parent):
def foo(self):
print "I'm your daughter"
Son().bar()
"I'm your son"
d = Daughter()
d.bar()
Running it:
% ./foo.py I'm your son I'm your daughterI definitely like the concept of adding the NotImplmentedError to give the same concept as a pure virtual in C++.
As yes, it does work as I originally thought it should!
06.24.2009 12:13
WKT Raster
Check out a Google Summer of Code
(GSoC) project to add WKT Raster support to gdal:
GSoC 09 Weekly Report #4: 12/06 - 19/06 [GIS4Free]
To go with this, check out: PostGIS WKT Raster
To go with this, check out: PostGIS WKT Raster
06.23.2009 16:31
Whales and ship noise
What It
Sounds Like to Be a Whale
... In the last decade, scientists have realized that noise generated by ships often drowns the natural sounds of the sea. Some types of sonar, especially those used by military vessels, can be heard for hundreds of miles. Together with engine noise, these produce an aquatic roar heard across Earth's oceans, often at levels that humans associate with airports and rock concerts. ...Just remember that dB levels in water do not have the same reference level than that used in air and are not directly comparable.