Spatially Adjusted

Tag: here

  • Unreal and Unity are the new Browsers

    Someone asked me why I hadn’t commented on Cesium and Unreal getting together. Honestly , no reason. This is big news honestly. HERE, where I work, is teaming up with Unity to bring the Unity SDK and the HERE SDK to automotive applications. I talk about how we used Mapbox Unity SDK at Cityzenith (though I have no clue if they still are). Google and Esri have them too. In fact both Unreal and Unity marketplaces are littered with data sources you can plug in.

    HERE Maps with Unity

    This is getting at the core of what these two platforms could be. Back in the day we had two browsers, Firefox and Internet Explorer 6. Inside each we had many choices of mapping platforms to use. From Google and Bing to Mapquest and Esri. In the end that competition to make the best API/SDK for a mapping environment drove a ton of innovation. What Google Maps looks like and does in 2021 vs 2005 is amazing.

    This brings up the key as to what I see happening here. We’ll see the mapping companies (or companies that have mapping APIs) deliver key updates to these SDK (which today are pretty limited in scope) because they have to stay relevant. Not that web mapping is going away at any point, but true 3D world and true Digital Twins require power that browsers cannot provide even in 2021. So this rush to become the Google Maps of 3D engines is real and will be fun to watch.

    Interesting in that Google is an also-ran in the 3D engine space, so there is so much opportunity for the players who have invested and continue to invest in these markets without Google throwing unlimited R&D dollars against it. Of course it only takes on press release to change all that so don’t bet against Google.

  • I’m Here at HERE

    Last Tuesday I started at HERE Technologies with the Professional Services group in the Americas. I’ve probably used HERE and their legacy companies data and services for most of my career so this is a really cool opportunity to work with a mobile data company.

    I’m really excited about working with some of their latest data products including Premier 3D Cities (I can’t escape Digital Twins).

    Digital Twins at HERE

  • Microsoft Geo

    I still see projects now and them that are spatial. I think of the US Building Footprints project and how they had to give away the data and couldn’t monetize such a project. Bing Maps went through so many name changes that we can’t even recall them all. Heck Microsoft bought Nokia but only the phones. They didn’t buy HERE (Navteq) which could have been a great coup for them.

    Visual Studio Code… Someone needs to check some files into Git.

    I have to admit, I’ve been a user of BBEdit since about 1994, but I’ve found myself using Visual Studio Code much more. If I search my blog posts over the years, there are posts littered with Visual Studio hate. But now I find VS Code to be my go to code editor and not only for programming but also editing GeoJSON files.

    But this really has me thinking. Microsoft and Geo really has died. I’m not saying that SQL Server isn’t used for spatial queries. Or that occasionally I see Bing Maps used in apps. But really they have become such an also ran that I really couldn’t even recall the last time I used Bing Maps API, let along SQL Server (I actually do recall and it was SQL Azure back in 2016). For a company that really has reinvented itself, they have fumbled what little they had in spatial away.

    I’m sure I have a screenshot of Bing Maps, but I didn’t search for very long.

    While at Cityzenith, we dealt with CityNext, which had much sway in the Smart City space, but so like depth. I think it was just an excuse to get their name on Smart City conferences.

    I have to tip my hat to Microsoft for many things, but in our space, they really have become at best a follower, at worst an also ran.

    At least old Gil is trying…

  • Nokia’s Here Auto Tries to Innovate

    Interesting article on Engadget:

    The latest version of Here Auto, launched at the Paris Auto Show, has very few rough edges. It’s designed to think ahead of you, learn your habits, work with other devices and present information and options in the least distracting way possible. That’s Nokia’s goal, anyway – to see if it succeeded, I took a tour around Paris in the company’s Range Rover demonstrator.

    Self aware in car mapping. Sounds interesting but a demonstrator doesn’t mean care companies are going to jump on board. My 2014 Toyota 4Running has a completely out of date navigation system that I’m stuck with. Toyota seems to have signed deals with Yelp, Bing and Facebook to get POIs which I can’t decide is better or worse than just having a whole Nokia system. Apple and Google are getting car integration but they don’t seem to be doing any better than Nokia.

    I suspect most of us will continue to use Google or Apple Maps in the car on our smartphone or tablets for naviagation. At least Siri talks through my bluetooth…