I've Always Thought That That Yellow Line on the Football Field Was Some Sort of Geospatial Thing

Ever since the TV broadcasts of American Football started including that funny yellow "first down line" effect back in the late 1990s, I've thought that that had to be some sort of geospatial application.

When I ran across the recent How the First-Down Line Works on HowStuffWorks, I thought it might answer that question.

It did. Sort of. It detailed, at least conceptually, how the company that does that line, SportVision, uses a 3-D model of the football field, spatial data on camera locations, and sensors that track the tilt, pan, zoom, and focus of each camera, along with some big beefy computers, to project that line onto the field on our TV screens when we watch a game.

SportVision uses geospatial data to enhance a few other sports as well. For example, a little Googling turned up a press release from HJW GeoSpatial, on the occasion of a contract to collect some high-resolution data for of a road-racing course.

HJW will compile 1”= 20’ scale mapping and 1’ contours from aerial photography taken at a photo scale of 1”= 200’. HJW’s client, Sportvision, will use the mapping data for the purpose of enhancing video broadcast of the races.

Now, that's what I call hi-res.

The Price of Raised Expectations?

The BBC reports that some municipal leaders in the United Kingdom are miffed that Google Earth doesn't show the latest improvements to their cities. They are particularly annoyed when they note that images of London are more up to date.

In the story -- Online map 'misses' regeneration -- a Google spokesperson tries to explain that Google doesn't actually collect, or control the collection of, the imagery they show.

Looks like a combination of raised expectations (Google Earth is, after all, wicked cool) and a lack of understanding of the way framework geospatial data are collected and maintained.

It was ever thus.

Some Wisdom About E-Mail

This is not about GIS or geospatial data, but there's a very nice overview of how best to use e-mail at ITSecurity.

The article, 99 Email Security and Productivity Tips includes some things that should be obvious, such as not to forward jokes and chain letters, and some less obvious, but useful tips, such as how to effectively take part in, and contribute to, group e-mail discussions.

More on Imagery and Google

Adena, at All Points Blog, points to a county that is Trading Imagery to Google for Software. An interesting development.

I note that the recent discussion of Google going after state agencies for licensing costs for the use of Google Earth by staff crops up in the comments.