Author Topic: Technical notes  (Read 158375 times)

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Offline theschnauzers

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #75 on: January 24, 2011, 09:38:42 PM »
One last point about benchmarks that hasn't been mentioned and which makes them relevant to fixing a location. They are used as starting points by land surveyors in mapping out an area of land for various purposes (such as subdividing land for sale and development, thus creating a legal description of a plot of land.) Before the benchmarks are placed, one would have to start a land survey that might be hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in some instances in order to make sure the survey and subsequent detail maps are accurate.
Even GPS as remarkable as they are can be less than completely accurate.

We actually came about this in reverse order as we knew the land description from the filming permit, and had to translate that onto an online map from BLM (Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior). This is where Google Earth also came in, as it was then possible to go to those images to see what the satellite saw when it took the photo used in Google Earth. What Chateau and others did what spot landmarks in the promotional images released by CBS and find those on Google Earth. The rest of the process need not be restated, but that is how, for me, my training to do a property title search as a lawyer factored into the translating of the BLM film permit.

I know it seems boring, but you never know when when you might need a particular skill set for an unlikely purpose.
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Offline georgiapeach

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #76 on: January 24, 2011, 09:41:13 PM »
Y'all are all  AMAZING!! :jumpy:
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Offline DrRox

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #77 on: January 24, 2011, 09:55:21 PM »
I actually used this website to locate that benchmark......

http://benchmarks.scaredycatfilms.com/CA.html

Slowhatch, this website does automatically, what you did manually, ie, overlay the benchmark locations data from NGS onto GE maps.

When you pull it up for California, the default location is up in the Sierras........so you have to pan down and to the right to eventually get to Whitewater Canyon. As you zoom in, most all of those benchmarks in Slowhatch's GE shot disappear. Just re-center the area and zoom in till you get there.......there are only 4 benchmarks.....and it is pretty easy to tell the one where WRP filmed. I really dont think anyone out there knew what they were walking around.

I think that long linear line of benchmarks in Whitewater Canyon mark a fault associated with the San Andreas Fault. The SAF crosses almost perpendicular to Whitewater Canyon about 8-10 miles north of where the TAR start line was. The fact that Whitewater Canyon is almost straight probably signifies that erosian along that fault cut the canyon. I think they put all those benchmarks in there to monitor movement along that fault.
« Last Edit: January 24, 2011, 10:29:38 PM by DrRox »
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Offline Slowhatch

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #78 on: April 10, 2011, 09:46:53 PM »
No Google street view for Austria--only pseudo-streetview (a collection of still photos). The GSV cars went through Austria in the middle of 2009, but implementation has been  held up by the whole German/Swiss/Austrian privacy controversy.  :meow:
Norc, the Romanian street view, fills the gap well in Vienna. The drop-down button for English is at the top-right. Also, linking to particular viewpoints is restricted to registered members.

Offline Slowhatch

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #79 on: April 21, 2011, 01:08:06 PM »
A new photo cluster feature may help you zip through the panoramio photos in GE faster: instructions here.


Offline georgiapeach

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #80 on: June 29, 2011, 05:32:39 PM »
:bump

Too good to bury!!  :tup:
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Offline Slowhatch

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #81 on: August 05, 2011, 01:15:13 AM »
The old TripGeo has morphed into Animated Route Maps from Map Channels:
here's the route from Hsi Lai to LAX (click Play upper-right).

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #82 on: August 05, 2011, 09:04:04 AM »
Thanks Slowhatch! How neat is this! It's a natural progression for using the technology.  :tup:
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Offline georgiapeach

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #83 on: August 05, 2011, 09:11:38 AM »
That is WAY cool!! Does it work in other countries too??
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Offline Slowhatch

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #84 on: August 05, 2011, 06:54:23 PM »
Quote
Does it work in other countries too??
Sure. Sometimes you have to work around the points--I had to enter a street address instead of "Core Pacific Mall"--but it goes wherever Google goes. Here's the route from Core Pacific to Dajia riverside park; notice the Bing map (no usable bird's eye for Taiwan).


Offline georgiapeach

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #85 on: August 05, 2011, 07:41:44 PM »
oohhhh...can you put these up in TAR please, they are GREAT! :hearts:
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Offline Prophet

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #86 on: August 05, 2011, 07:49:18 PM »
I love this Slowhatch! Thanks for finding it! I can see how this could be really useful in TAR detecting. With all these innovations we hardly have to leave the house anymore :lol:
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Offline Dom

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #87 on: August 06, 2011, 02:23:58 AM »
Not sure if this is the right place but here goes:

Regarding the mapping software on the show itself, we know TAR US uses Google Earth Pro, but what software did TAR Aus use instead? Whatever it was looked about 100 times better!

Offline Prophet

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #88 on: August 06, 2011, 02:03:13 PM »
Google has finally perfected the searching by images feature. It works pretty good!

http://www.google.com/insidesearch/searchbyimage.html

For Chrome users this is even easier:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dajedkncpodkggklbegccjpmnglmnflm

(The plugin also includes a screenshot app that allows direct upload to Picasa)
« Last Edit: August 06, 2011, 02:07:16 PM by Prophet »
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Offline Slowhatch

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #89 on: August 06, 2011, 10:56:36 PM »
Thanks. I haven't used GIS (similar images) for a while; it's nice to see how good it's become. I threw five images at it: Phil, Bert, Zenkov cathedral in Almaty, Mount Kailas and the acaraje picture from the TARLA thread. I stripped the captions just to make sure it wouldn't cheat  :). It correctly identified all five (try to use full-frontals and avoid obliques and profiles).
The alternatives are struggling: Tineye is still around, but Gazopa is shuttered.

Offline calphin

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #90 on: August 07, 2011, 12:03:26 AM »
Google has finally perfected the searching by images feature. It works pretty good!

http://www.google.com/insidesearch/searchbyimage.html

For Chrome users this is even easier:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dajedkncpodkggklbegccjpmnglmnflm

(The plugin also includes a screenshot app that allows direct upload to Picasa)


Oh my, never knew Google has this facility. This is nice! Thanks Prophet!
I know where we we can use this kind of amazing stuff! *coughTARcoughgamescoughcoughcough*

Offline theschnauzers

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #91 on: August 07, 2011, 12:19:12 AM »
Facebook is using this Google tool to help its users identify people in photos that they post.  (It is in fact how I found out about TAR 6's Kris and Jon's wedding  a couple of months back because they were identified by their Facebook user name!)
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Offline Prophet

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #92 on: August 07, 2011, 08:04:27 AM »
LOL @ Calphin <3

I have used Tineye and it struggles a lot. Google is the only one that does the visually similar feature.
« Last Edit: August 07, 2011, 08:14:22 AM by Prophet »
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Offline Slowhatch

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #93 on: October 01, 2011, 12:34:00 AM »
Google maps now offers a bird's-eye view of your route: just click the 3D button if you have Google Earth enabled in your browser (here is the route from the airport to Ximen station).

Offline Slowhatch

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #94 on: October 21, 2011, 01:27:00 AM »
For next season: simultaneous social search.


Offline georgiapeach

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #95 on: October 21, 2011, 06:33:00 AM »
cool!! Thanks!!
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Offline Dom

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #96 on: October 22, 2011, 09:38:19 PM »
Google have launched their own flight searching service, which automatically searches for connections, but at the moment it only works for US flights. This will probably not be so useful to detectives who are experienced with geography and general flight patterns, but for people who don't know their Heathrows from their Gatwicks, this could prove invaluable!

http://www.google.com/flights/

Offline Prophet

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #97 on: January 26, 2012, 01:12:51 PM »
Google street view has come to portions of South Korea for the first time:

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2012/01/take-tour-of-south-korea-using-street.html
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Offline Slowhatch

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #98 on: February 02, 2012, 01:59:45 AM »
Quote from: theschnauzers
Hold on, the original video is presumably filmed in HD, right? The problem is that one needs to capture similar high resolution caps of the video in order to enhance it and get closer detail. I'm not blaming anyone who's made caps from video since TAR went to HD, but the recording technology most of us have access to is not in HD, but SD, so we're losing a fair amount of date in the signal translation before the images are captured. Of coursem I have no idea whether the online videos from CBS are HD or not, but I doubt anyone else necessarily has the proper eqipment to capture images from the HD feed. (One way to est this is whether there are such things as Blu-Ray video recorders, and as I recall there are not because the media companies are afraid of the quality of copies that can be made that way. Of course one can pay to download HD versions of the episodes, but those things are memory hogs on computers....about 1 GB for a regular episode of TAR.
A video clip from the CBS site clocks in at 640 X 360 resolution; the same clip, however, offered by CBS through Youtube is available in 720p. It can make a difference, just...not in this case.

Offline theschnauzers

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Re: Technical notes
« Reply #99 on: February 20, 2012, 10:38:53 PM »
For future reference, regarding aircraft identification numbers. Each country generally has a unique letter(s) identifier for its aircraft registration number, which have to be visible on the aircraft (planes, jets, balloons, all of 'em). The U.S. prefix is "N". There is a registry which I believe can be accessed online through the Federal Aviation Administration, that is maintained in Oklahoma City, and it will provide you with aircraft type, model, ownership name and address.
I've never had reason to check, but it all likelihood other countries have a similarly accessible registry of such information online.
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