is ProximityCasting something like GeoCaching?

Geocaching has long been popular since affordable GPS has made it possible.

"Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices." You can read more about it at the official Geocaching Website.

Geocaching has gained tremendous traction and has spread across the world.

But not ProximityCasting...(a lonely tear slowly drips down the cheek)

ProximityCasting is a growing treasure hunting game of a different type. Like geocaching you can search for treasure and like geocaching you can provide treasure for others. Search for treasure??? Where is the closest Oyster Bar? What does it look like? Are their any reviews? Can I find it's website?


Copy and paste this Lat/Long into Google Maps: N 30°6'24.6" W 90°25'22.2"
All right! I see where it is at, but street view didn't make it to the end of Peavine Road, so what does it look like?

Ask and receive:
Wow man! Glad some fellow ProximityCaster took the time to upload that image. That place looks like it's worth a side trip.

Let me check the reviews before I make the jaunt: Reviews are found at the bottom of the ProximityCast Establishment Details Page
Cool! Sounds like a place worth stopping at.

But what about the businesses website? Found on the Details Page Establishment 1501 Website
Just what I needed. Their site has a posted menu too. That closed the deal for me. I'm on my way. I sure appreciate that ProximityCaster that posted this treasure.

So ProximityCasting is both searching for treasure and posting treasure for others.

Now if ProximityCast.com can only gain a little traction so more treasures can be found. Is there an Oyster Bar in your Town?

What do you think? Any resemblance to Geocaching?

Get yourself a ProximityCast button

Help spread the word about ProximityCast! Display a button on your website or blog.

1. Select the button you want
2. Copy the Red Code
3. Paste the code where you want it on your blog or website

Website
original button!

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Blog button

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Website button

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Blog button

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ProximityCast needs BETA testers!!! Please help spread the word with a button, explore the site, and even attempt to upload your own Points of Interest pictures.

Use the ProximityCast Contact Form to provide feedback.

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Latitude and Longitude FORMATS

Note: You should see this image tiled as a background for this blog. If you don't, please let me know in a comment. Thanks...


Typical Latitude and Longitude Formats are DMS, DM, or D

1. DMS: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds
N45°13'3" W123°58'34.2"
2. DM: Degrees, Minutes
N45°13.0500' W123°58.5700'
3. D: Degrees also called DecimalDegrees
45.21750 -123.97617

Some people choose to follow the coordinate number with the hemisphere designator like this:

1. DMS: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds
45°13'3"N 123°58'34.2"W
2. DM: Degrees, Minutes
45°13.0500'N 123°58.5700'W

My personal preference is to precede the coordinate number with the hemisphere designator.

Note that the decimal degree example did not use alphabetical hemisphere designators:

D: Degrees also called DecimalDegrees
45.21750 -123.97617

Latitudes North of the equator are positive +
Latitudes South of the equator are negative -
The above latitude would be north of the equator.

Longitudes East of the Prime Meridian are positive +
Longitudes West of the Prime Meridian are negative -

Note: in the absence of a symbol implies positive +.


The Degree Symbol ° is not found on the keyboard. Most programs that let you enter coordinates usually allow you to skip entering the degree symbol e.g. N45 13'3" will be interpreted as N45°13'3"

The minute symbol is a single quote: ' Since it is found on the keyboard you should always use it to indicate minutes when minutes are used in your coordinate format.
The second symbol is a double quote: " Since it is found on the keyboard you should always use it to indicate seconds when seconds are used in your coordinate format.

If you absolutely want to or need to include the degree symbol you have several options.
1. You can simply copy it from a another place that uses it and paste it where you want it. This ° degree symbol was copied and pasted. Problem here is you have to know a place where you can copy it from.
2. On a PC: Open your Character Map, find the symbol, select it, and copy it then paste it like this: °
This is what your Character Map looks like:


The Character Map can be found in: All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Character map

3. If the document you are editing allows html markup you can use the special entity for the degree symbol:
Name Code: &deg;
Number Code: &#176;
Either the name code or the number code will work. The name code is usually easier to remember.

To understand more about how the earth is divided by hemispheres see the Earth's Hemisphere Dividers educational pages and click "next" to go from one to the other.

Hope you find this post helpful.

Getting Coordinates from Google Maps Revisited

Google Maps continually evolves. I've covered getting Latitude and Longitude coordinates before, but here is the latest info as of this date: 6 March 2010

As you read this blog post open Google Maps in another tab or window and follow along as you duplicate the steps that follow.

Scenario: You are on vacation in Mountain View, AR and have lunch at the local Pizza Hut. You notice this Pizza Hut is not in the ProximityCast database and decide to add it, so you snap a picture. You forgot your GPS at the hotel so you decide to get the coordinates off of Google Maps later for your picture.

1. Okay your are back at your hotel ready to process your picture for uploading. To find the coordinates you go to http://maps.google.com/

2. You enter Mountain View, AR into the Search Maps text box and click the "Search Maps" button to get you in the neighborhood.

3. You see the "A" marker over Mountain View and click it use the "Search nearby" feature on the pop up to narrow your search.

4. You enter "Pizza Hut" into the Search nearby text box and click "Search" hoping that will drop you in closer to the Pizza Hut.

5. Numerous Pizza Hut markers show up for surrounding towns as well as the new "A" marker over Mountain View. The map is zoomed way too far out, so you proceed to step number 6.

6. You click the "A" marker on the map and cause the pop up info box to appear. Then you click the zoom scale found on the left side of the map close to the "+" sign to zoom way in hoping to see the Pizza Hut red roof on Satellite view.

7. Shucks, the "A" marker is in some farmer's field and looks like it is in the middle of no where. This is why you like ProximityCast so much. Google Maps are great, but so often you don't find things in their correct spot.

Well, the pop up info box did say, "Placement on map is approximate" Another reason you like ProximityCast because the picture is taken by a real person who places the coordinates on the picture as their certification that the location is correct. No more navigating to a location that is not correct.

8. You click the "-" minus button on the bottom of the zoom scale several times to zoomout hoping to see something recognizable.

9. Alright, were in luck, there is the intersections of 5 9 & 14 just north of the "Days Inn Mountain View" that the popup info box told you about.

10. Right click on the intersection and click "What's here?" on the pop up menu to place a green marker closer to hopefully the correct location. Now click the "+" plus button on the scale adjuster several time to zoom in.

11. GREAT! Now you see the red roof for what you think is the Pizza Hut where you ate. Right click on the map once again where you took your picture. In this case right click just to the left of the Hwy 5 symbol in the parking lot outside the Pizza Hut and once again click "What's here?" on the popup menu. A new green marker will be placed where you supposedly took your picture.

12. Click the green marker to see another popup info box. This box has latitude and longitude coordinates in both Decimal Degrees and Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds format. Drag across to highlight the format you prefer for your pictures, then right click and copy for pasting on your picture in your photo editor.

I got 35.865380, -92.108185 for Decimal Degrees and +35° 51' 55.37", -92° 6' 29.47" for Degrees, Minutes, Seconds. I would edit +35° 51' 55.37", -92° 6' 29.47" like this: N35° 51' 55.37" W092° 6' 29.47" and place them on my picture as I like.

Finally, click "Street view" on the popup info box to confirm you are at the right place before saving your edits on your picture and uploading to ProximityCast. As ProximityCast grows users who submit pictures will get an accuracy rating to give fellow users the proper amount of deserved confidence in their submissions.

Wow! This street view picture of the Pizza Hut looks really good, but not as good as the picture you took which is another reason you like ProximityCast so much. And there you have it. Leave your comments with how you thought this tutorial worked out for you.

Thanks,

Dave

ProximityCast on iTouch

I recently purchased an iTouch so I could view and improve ProximityCast.com for viewing and using on small devices.
The Safari browser on the iTouch is pretty amazing in its ability to allow the user to browse full size web pages. Without making any changes I am able to navigate and use ProximityCast. Com which is pretty cool to me.

Familiarity with a site makes it easier to navigate on a small device. Anyone that uses a blackberry or other small device besides an iPhone or iTouch let me know by leaving a comment or using the contact page how well ProximityCast worked along with any improvements you would like to see.

Also, as well as Safari does on small devices, why would a site also create an iPhone app?

Post created on my iTouch

Google's Street View Updated

Since my last post Google has corrected the address for Colton's Steakhouse restaurant in Mountain Home, AR and has sent their street view vehicle back around so that now you can see the restaurant with street view. Good job Google!

Google Maps and Street View verses ProximityCast

The ProximityCast Advantage

Google's street view is an amazing and useful program, however ProximityCast has advantages over street view that will be exposed in this post.
Google's street view has recently gotten to Mountain Home, Arkansas. Colton's Steakhouse Restaurant has also recently opened in Mountain Home, Arkansas.

At the time of the creation of this post, if you type into Google Maps search maps: "Colton's Steakhouse Mountain Home, AR" you will be taken to an obviously wrong address. Using Street View will reveal no Colton's Steakhouse. Google Maps took me to these coordinates: 36.29030141495939, -92.32628524303436 and said it was this address: 2390 Highway 62 E, Mountain Home, AR‎
Pasting the street address into Google Maps took me to the same wrong coordinate location. A check of Colton's website shows the Mountain Home address as: 22370 Highway 62 E

Pasting in the correct street address (2370 instead of 2390) still produced the same wrong location.

ProximityCast.com requires the Latitude and Longitude coordinates of where the picture was taken to be placed on all establishment pictures submitted. The Mountain Home, Arkansas Colton's Steakhouse coordinates are: N 36°21.45'W 92°20.75' If these coordinates are pasted into Google Maps search maps box you will be taken to the correct location for Colton's Steakhouse Restaurant in Mountain Home, Arkansas.

Wrong coordinates can be placed on a photo or erroneously entered into the database, but ProximityCast.com allows users to flag inaccurate coordinates and photo submitters will be given an accuracy rating that alerts you to locations with inaccurate coordinates. Google Maps also has a means to correct inaccurate locations, so the bogus location for Colton's may be corrected by the time you are reading this. It is not hard to find wrong locations in Google Maps.

The placement of a location's coordinates on ProximityCast Establishment Images may seem unnecessary and a lot of trouble, BUT it is a photographer's means of certifying that the location is correct at the time the photo was taken. (Businesses do go out of business or move).

Now back to Street View comparisons... If you paste the coordinates from the ProximityCast Colton's Steakhouse image, N 36°21.45'W 92°20.75' into Google Maps search maps box you will arrive at the correct location. BUT, when you explore street view you will only find an empty lot with a Colton's construction sign indicating the restaurant will be built on this site.

Street view is a remarkable means of adding and showing a lot of visual data quickly. Its weakness three fold: 1) as in Colton's Steakhouse for the Mountain Home, AR location the restaurant actually exists now but did not exist at the time the street view camera rolled through the area. By contrast anyone can contribute a current picture of any place to ProximityCast.com at any time. You the user have control. For street view we have to wait for the Google car to cruise an area again. 2). Businesses go out of business or move. When will street view indicate that condition? ProximityCast once again provides the user with the control necessary to flag either condition. 3). The quality of the street view picture is sometimes found wanting. ProximityCast.com provides a photographer with the means to control the quality of an image. ProximityCast also allows multiple images of the same location showing different perspectives or night and day shots.

Okay, so I did a lot of trashing of Google Maps and Street View with this post. Actually I love their technology and think they are both a great product. I could point out some weaknesses with ProximityCast also. When the two are combined the total capabilities are simply amazing. You can get to Google Maps and Street View (when it exists) quite easily from ProximityCast.com. Google Maps difinitely complements and enhances ProximityCast.com. Likewise ProximityCast.com complements and enhances Google Maps and Street View giving all end users control over location data.

Now all we need is a little bit of traction and users to start utilizing and submitting ProximityCast Establishment photos so all of us will have a better location technology experience.