What do ‘Avatar™’ and ‘Minority Report™’ have in common?

They all present augmented reality as fiction, but it’s fast becoming a fact

Hollywood technology predictions have either come true or fizzled into a distant memory, relived only on movie nights. The ’Back to The Future™’ trilogy correctly predicted wireless video games, hand held computers, video conferences and wall mounted widescreen televisions. Sadly, some technological dreams depicted in the movie have yet to become reality - such as the hover board Marty McFly used to escape the clutches of his father’s school bullies.

Augmented reality is another technology that some people may class as purely science fiction. It’s certainly not something they would expect to use in everyday working life. However, the technology behind augmented reality is gaining traction and is increasingly being used in consumer facing industries.

Augmented reality provides a digitally enhanced view of the world in real time, and because of this the technology’s potential has not gone unnoticed in the commercial world. Companies are increasingly using its ability to bring real-time solutions to practical problems.

With augmented reality apps you can overlay sets of information on top of a live, real-time environment picture of your surroundings.  In the building and construction industry, such technology is already revolutionising the process in which site assessments and construction projects are managed. For example, current mapping applications allow users to overlay information, so that, for example you can plot route and distance information on existing area maps. The British Geological Survey has already developed the iGeology App that allows users to explore the rock geology beneath their feet using the camera on a mobile phone.

We have also recently enhanced our Envirocheck Analysis online mapping software. This is designed to deliver significant time savings and improved accuracy when analysing historical mapping for Phase 1 environmental site assessments, providing a quick and easy way to overlay current and historical maps and aerial photography.

It is currently only available on the desktop platform, but future technological enhancements using mobile technology are being investigated.

Augmented reality, once a dream of science fiction writers and fans, is  becoming a reality which will transform the way you work.  Perhaps we should still hold some hope for Marty McFly’s hover board after all.

Landmark are proud to be renewing their partnership with Olympian Jessica Varnish

We are proud to be renewing our partnership with Olympian Jessica Varnish, and medal prospect for British Cycling & Team GB at Rio 2016.

Jesss Varnish is the most promising young talent of the British Track Cycling Team, with many suggesting she will take over from Victoria Pendleton as the face of women’s cycling. As a determined, talented and driven athlete she has her eyes firmly set on World titles and Olympic gold medals.

“Landmark have been with me throughout my Olympic journey, being my first corporate partner. I really value the support Landmark have given me and I hope I can make Landmark’s employees, clients and business partners see that achieving your personal goals is really a matter of planning the journey and sticking with it."

What’s next? I’m looking forward to building momentum towards Rio in 2016.”

During the course of the partnership Jess will be providing insights into her training & lifestyle from the bird’s eye view of an elite athlete on the Road to Rio. Jess’ core values are well aligned with the groups’. Creativity, innovation, energy and motivation are the driving force of success for both Landmark and Jess.

 
Landmark’s HR Director Julia Lovell said of the partnership, “We’re thrilled to be supporting Jess Varnish on her journey as an elite athlete. Jess is a great fit, across all the Landmark platforms, especially following our Corporate Responsibility drive and employee welfare.”

Mark Milner, CEO of Landmark commented, “We are delighted to be working with Jess because she truly embodies the values of Landmark: through hard work to change behaviours and improve health, not only do people feel better, but they can get rewarded as well.”

 

Plotting the UK’s Ancient Woodlands

In an article by the BBC’s Science and Environment team this week, it was reported that the “scale of ancient woodland being lost to development is being made worse because of a lack of accurate data.”  

In the report, the Woodland Trust claimed that it is not possible to identify how much ancient forest has disappeared in the last decade.  

“Our data supports The Woodland Trust’s position that ancient woodland has been disappearing over many years,” confirms Chris Stubbs, Managing Director – Environment & Mapping at Landmark Information Group:  “However, it is not correct to say that data isn’t available to demonstrate what is being lost each year.  Here at Landmark, we have the data available to show designated ancient woodland, both historically and today, and can overlay a range of datasets to show how it has changed over the years.” 

By overlaying historic maps with ancient woodland maps (dating as far back to 1600 in England and Wales, or 1750 in Scotland), it is entirely possible to visualise any changes that may have occurred. And by overlaying data from current and approved planning applications we can identify if proposed or approved future developments put more ancient woodland at risk. 

Continues Chris: “The data is out there. Our historic mapping is able to reveal the changes to the natural landscape, with the impact of development being clearly visible not only for ancient woodland, but also on green belt, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, nature reserves, country parks, and many other notable locations.”

Landmark has an unrivalled source of large-scale current and historic digital maps together with high quality environmental risk and planning information.   Its digital archive of historical maps is the UK’s largest and most comprehensive, comprising of over one million historical maps.

 

 

 

Example Ordnance Survey maps showing an area located in Reading (NGR 466070, 154481)

Find out more about our data and services at:

www.landmark.co.uk

www.promap.co.uk

www.envirocheck.co.uk

The unforeseen consequences of tidal surges and winter storms

As a rule, the only inherent dangers in promenading and eating an ice cream are seagull attacks and a spike in your delicious waffle cone calorie intake. Recent severe weather conditions and tidal/storm surges have however caused all manner of chaos across the UK, and uprooted some unexpected risks. Flooding in Somerset and the North-East still persists and is having direct impact on quality of life and property with no sign of abating.  While many people are suffering in, frankly, dreadful conditions a small story (but no less terrible) caught our interest:

Exmouth sea front is a 2km stretch of sand dunes, small nature reserves and an award-winning beach.  As with all the best UK beaches it also hosts fish and chip shops and a most excellent ice cream kiosk…up until a few days ago.

 

 

Severe winds and erosion of the sandy beach displaced the entire kiosk, causing a potential hazard to shipping. Emergency work was quickly carried out to dismantle the kiosk and, in the process, an alarming discovery was made. Unexploded ordnance, thought to be a smoke grenade (used in military training exercises from around 20 years ago), was discovered under the kiosk.

It’s a bit of a leap of logic but military training in the Exmouth area is well known locally.  Lympstone barracks are less than 5km away from the town and Straight Point rifle range is only 3km along the coast.  Could it be that a training exercise on Straight Point or at Lympstone lead to the grenade falling into the sea? Could the canister have travelled on the tides only to end up washed onto the beach like some sort of weaponised message in a bottle?

Regardless of how it ended up there what this highlights is the often unforeseen consequence of storms, flood and past land use.

The team at LandmarkInformation Group can help you identify areas of both potential flood risk, as well as land used by the military in and around your property area with our extensive analysis of historic mapping - over 10,000 areas of military land identified over a range of mapping from the 1850s up until the early 2000s.  

Daniel Lewis-Carter is Data Information Co-Ordinator at Landmark Information Group.

Landmark Information Group launches social housing heat maps

Landmark Analytics extends property market data to provide social housing density analysis for urban or property studies

Landmark Information Group, the UK’s leading supplier of digital mapping, property and environmental risk information, has today announced the unveiling of new social housing heat maps that highlight social housing density by postcode or region, at a glance. 

Via the Landmark Analytics division, the heat maps have been launched to provide an additional layer of data insight into the concentration of social housing property, as well as view average prices, crime information and ‘£ per sqm’ heat maps. 

Managing Director, Selwyn Lim of Landmark Analytics said: “Our aim has always been to find new and innovative ways to equip our users with key property data and so today’s announcement strengthens this.  The social housing heat maps will be of interest to a wide range of different users, from social housing organisations through to developers, local authorities or urban planners who are undertaking analysis of towns, boroughs or property density in general.”

Drawn from various data sources, the social housing heat maps will provide Landmark Analytics clients with access to data from across England and Wales. This freely available new addition to the Landmark Analytics product suite provides users with an overview of where social housing properties are clustered.  Users can type in the postcode of their area of interest, and navigate their way around, viewing the distinct differences in areas, and utilising the colour-coded key on to calculate percentage rates.

The accuracy and breadth of Landmark Analytics’ property database, which is used by HMRC, and in models approved by Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s, supports housing officials with verifying and maintaining the overall quality of their internal records.  The Landmark Analytics database includes a wealth of data including 90 million property images, 20 million sold price records, 18 million historic estate agency listings, 3 million floor plans, plus bedroom numbers, estimated internal area and Council Tax banding information.

In addition, Landmark Information Group provides a wealth of consultancy, data and mapping services, including simple, online GI mapping solutions that enable housing providers to instantly identify areas of risk, visualise essential business intelligence and deliver significant efficiencies and improvements.

For further information visit www.landmarkanalytics.co.uk. 

Darren Connaghan, Argyll Environmental Ltd recently posted to the Philippines with MapAction.

For the past nine years Darren Connaghan, a GIS Consultant at Argyll Environmental Ltd., part of Landmark Information Group within the Daily Mail General Trust, has played an active role in the charity MapAction, which specialises in providing mapping for humanitarian emergencies and disasters. Darren and MapAction were needed in late 2013, when Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines causing huge amounts of suffering and loss of life. Below, Darren shares his story of his time in the Philippines, providing a first-hand account not only of how desperately challenging it can be to get help where it is most needed in the immediate aftermath of a humanitarian disaster, but also how essential modern mapping technology is in terms of responding to the clean-up operation.

“I remember watching the news the morning the disaster struck, on 8 November 2013, although as MapAction already had a team pre-deployed, I was aware of the scale of the disaster due to the MapAction Support Base structure the charity has in place. The images of devastation and destruction were horrendous and reminded me of my deployment to Haiti in 2010, it was going to be a tough and challenging deployment.”

Even before the Typhoon first hit land, MapAction had already mobilising its cohorts of volunteers, drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds and specialisms. Darren, because of his work for Argyll, is part of the data team whose responsibility was to manage the GIS data that is present in all reports generated for clients.

“I flew out on the 16 November and arrived in the country after 20 hours of travelling. I was in Manila for five days liasing as Team Leader with the UN country coordination team but then deployed forward to Tacloban which is on the Eastern side of the archipelago, to catch up with the team that had split due to the various demands upon us. The UN organised a shuttle bus service between the RDC (Reception Departure Centre) at the airport and the UN OSOCC (On Site Operations Co-ordination Centre) for all incoming aid workers. During the journey, a normally chatty bunch descended into silence as the destruction was in all directions, only a few brick buildings still standing. On arrival at the OSOCC, I immediately joined the MapAction forward team, received a briefing from the team leader and started work on a task to produce a map product showing camp locations and numbers of occupants.

“We realised almost immediately that the situation was far graver than what we’d seen on the news. The weather was horrendous, hindering all forms of transport and communication; two tools which are vital to first responders in the wake of a disaster.”

Darren was staying in a tented space within a partially destroyed athletics stadium but it was sobering to think that it was a hundred times better than what people were experiencing outside, in the aftermath of the Typhoon. The UN OSOCC was one minute walk from the tented area. The ongoing challenge for Darren and the team was to decide how they could put their limited resources to the best effect.

“Our main role in the relief effort was to provide mapping and analysis of the incoming data as well as printing maps for relief workers. During our time in the Philippines we generated and printed well over a 1000 maps and trained numerous workers on how to analyse and use mapping data to help improve the relief effort. We were based in a coordination centre, which was located in the partially damaged local athletics stadium. Despite the considerable destruction, what stood out for me was the desire of the local population to get back to normal as quickly as possible. The road clean-up was in full swing and soon enough the market stalls and street sellers began to return to the area.

“Food was simple with ration packs being the highlight of the day. After nearly 7 days in the field and over two weeks since the Typhoon hit, we were very fortunate that we found a local street seller selling a bottle of beer – a one litre bottle of Red Lion. Sharing that among nine people, strangers only a few days previously, demonstrated the camaraderie that front line disaster humanitarian workers share.

“The team worked extremely hard in Tacloban, providing the UN with much needed mapping and data assistance. We also supported the UN with administrative tasks such as printing briefing documents, IT support and other non-MapAction related work.”

Everyone pitched in where needed. Darren and the team were regularly working 13 hour days, with Darren joking that “the accommodation also came with a built in alarm clock – the daily helicopter landing and taking off at 5am”.

After being in the Philippines for 13 days, Darren returned back to the UK, although even this was not without its difficulties.

“Transport in and around disaster affected areas is always going to be difficult and, when we arrived at the airport, we were only to be informed that our plane had departed two hours earlier than planned. However, the welfare of the volunteers is a high priority and our UK travel coordinator pulled out all the stops to get us home in time for work on Monday morning!”

Darren Connaghan BSc MSc, GIS Manager, Argyll Environmental Ltd.

BSc Cartography and Computer Studies, Oxford Polytechnic 1992
MSc geographical Information Systems, University of Greenwich 1995

Darren is a Geographical Information Systems consultant with over 15 years’ experience working throughout the world for some of the largest Corporate (Shell) and NGOs (United Nations) in the world. Darren is an active member of the only Humanitarian Mapping charity (www.mapaction.org) in the world, having deployed to Pakistan (2005 earthquake), Kenya (2006 flooding), Sri Lanka (2008 UXO clearance), Haiti (2010 earthquake) and Philippines (2012 flooding) to name a few, to support the humanitarian response.

Landmark Information Group provides asset management, geocoding mapping services to Affinity Sutton

Supports the creation of visualised representations of housing provider’s property assets for improved management and operational delivery.

We have been selected by one of the largest housing providers in the UK, Affinity Sutton, to deliver a range of address verification and geocoding services that supports the management, maintenance and improvement strategies for Affinity Sutton’s portfolio of 57,000 homes.

Via the Landmark Analytics division, the housing association has been able to apply ‘door level mapping’ to all property assets contained within its data warehouse and GIS platforms, providing a highly accurate picture of all properties. The organisation’s staff can now map repairs performance, long-term voids, tenant demographics or view issues as mapped clusters, enabling Affinity Sutton to develop enhanced improvement strategies.

Julian Pimm-Smith, Head of Business Intelligence of Affinity Sutton said: “Affinity Sutton is a location-based business and the GIS visualisation of our asset and tenant information is a critical component of our Business Intelligence suite.  The ability to visualise our information down to door-level accuracy gives our Asset and Housing staff a picture of their properties and patches that a spreadsheet could not convey.  Whether we are mapping repairs performance, long-term voids or other information, the visualised data gives us the ability to better understand clustered issues and begin to develop improvement strategies.”

Adds Julian Pimm-Smith: “Our Active Asset Management performance models are incredibly complex. They cover hundreds of detailed attributes over periods of 30 years on tens of thousands of properties. The mapping of that data therefore turns huge sprawling datasets into clear drillable graphics, from the entire country, down through regions and estates, or even down to a single property and its individual financial and qualitative performance. This level of detail is essential for our operation and provides our mobile officers with the ability to access the information they need, via hand held devices, revolutionising operational delivery.”

Carole Oliver, Business Development Manager, Landmark Information Group added: “Affinity Sutton is one of the largest housing providers in the UK and we are pleased to have been able to support the team in this large scale asset management and geocoding project.  By utilising Landmark Analytics’ address verification and geocoding services, the organisation now benefits from accurate, door-level mapping of all its property assets, creating significant management efficiencies.”

Landmark Information Group provides a wealth of consultancy, data and mapping services, including simple, online GI mapping solutions that enable providers to instantly identify areas of risk, visualise essential business intelligence and deliver significant efficiencies and improvements.

For further information visit www.landmarkanalytics.co.uk or www.affinitysutton.com/en/.

Landmark provides asset management, geocoding mapping services to Affinity Sutton

Supports the creation of visualised representations of housing provider’s property assets for improved management and operational delivery

Landmark has been selected by one of the largest housing providers in the UK, Affinity Sutton, to deliver a range of address verification and geocoding services that supports the management, maintenance and improvement strategies for Affinity Sutton’s portfolio of 57,000 homes.

Via our Landmark Analytics service, the housing association has been able to apply ‘door level mapping’ to all property assets contained within its data warehouse and GIS platforms, providing a highly accurate picture of all properties. The organisation’s staff can now map repairs performance, long-term voids, tenant demographics or view issues as mapped clusters, enabling Affinity Sutton to develop enhanced improvement strategies.

Julian Pimm-Smith, Head of Business Intelligence of Affinity Sutton said: “Affinity Sutton is a location-based business and the GIS visualisation of our asset and tenant information is a critical component of our Business Intelligence suite.  The ability to visualise our information down to door-level accuracy gives our Asset and Housing staff a picture of their properties and patches that a spreadsheet could not convey.  Whether we are mapping repairs performance, long-term voids or other information, the visualised data gives us the ability to better understand clustered issues and begin to develop improvement strategies.”

Adds Julian: “Our Active Asset Management performance models are incredibly complex. They cover hundreds of detailed attributes over periods of 30 years on tens of thousands of properties. The mapping of that data therefore turns huge sprawling datasets into clear drillable graphics, from the entire country, down through regions and estates, or even down to a single property and its individual financial and qualitative performance. This level of detail is essential for our operation and provides our mobile officers with the ability to access the information they need, via hand held devices, revolutionising operational delivery.”

Carole Oliver, Business Development Manager at Landmark commented: “Affinity Sutton is one of the largest housing providers in the UK and we are pleased to have been able to support the team in this large scale asset management and geocoding project.  By utilising Landmark Analytics’ address verification and geocoding services, the organisation now benefits from accurate, door-level mapping of all its property assets, creating significant management efficiencies.”

 

You can augment your bottom line

The construction industry needs to wise up to the many benefits that augmented reality can bring to project management, saving you time and money, says David Mole.

For many, augmented reality is something from science fiction films, not something that can be used in the everyday working life. But in fact, much like the progression of the internet and social media, the technology behind augmented reality is gaining traction and will be widely available within the next decade.

In effect, augmented reality provides a digitally enhanced view of the world in real time. With it you can overlay sets of information with other sets of information, completing a fuller picture of your surroundings.

There are actually two types of augmented reality: GPS/compass-based augmented reality, and vision-based augmented reality. The GPS-based version uses location data to provide real-time information to the user, whereas vision-based augmented reality uses a device’s camera to scan and provide information.

Augmented reality is increasingly being used in consumer facing industries. But the technology’s potential has not gone unnoticed in the commercial world and companies are increasingly using its ability to bring real-time solutions to practical problems.

In the building and construction industry, such technology is already revolutionising the way that site assessments and construction projects are managed. For example, current mapping applications allow users to overlay information, so that, for example you can plot route and distance information on existing area maps. The British Geological Survey has already developed an app that allows users to explore the rock geology beneath their feet using a mobile phone’s camera.

We have recently enhanced our Envirocheck Analysis online mapping software. This is designed to deliver significant time savings and improved accuracy over manual historic map analysis for Phase 1 environmental site assessments, and provides a quick and easy way to overlay current and historical maps and aerial photography.

It is currently only available on the desktop platform, although a mobile version, using augmented reality, is planned in the near future.

Current mobile technology can also take advantage of mobile hardware, as well as software. For instance, there are applications that can use a mobile phone’s camera to measure the distance of an object and then calculate other information such as dimensions and overlay this data onto photographs and diagrams. Mobile technology also allows those in the construction industry to create detailed notes and information, along with images and videos, of current projects and to share that data with colleagues and others involved. This aids collaboration and speeds up the overall process. It will allow junior consultants and those with less experience to be supported remotely by more senior members of a team.

Other technologies are emerging that will help construction projects even more in the future. Already there is an increasing use of video to improve the efficiency of work completed in the field. The way that video imagery is captured is also changing. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be increasingly common as they can provide up-to-date, real-time information that will allow environmental consultants to survey locations remotely, thus saving time. In fact last month the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved six sites for testing UAVs for commercial use. There is also the possibility of using nano satellites to capture and provide high definition images for commercial use.

Despite these advances, the construction industry still really needs to seize the opportunities that augmented reality offers. Those in the industry need to get used to using the technology to solve practical problems and develop it further. If this happens, the cost savings and efficiency improvements will make a substantial difference to operating costs in the future.