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Fog of World

fogofworld.com

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Re: Fog of World

#151

Post by FaceKicker »

greggman wrote: post #119
FaceKicker wrote: post #21

This is neat, I wish Google Latitude had it. For that matter, I wish Google Latitude had any useful visual representation of the 2+ years' worth of location data I've been feeding it. =|

Um, have you actually tried using the Web interface? Here's a screenshot from my vacation a few days ago. http://greggman.com/downloads/examples/latitude-maps.png

Right, it only lets you view up to 30 days at a time. I want to see it all at once, and I wouldn't even mind if it's just a messy pile of incomprehensible lines. Something like this fog of war idea would be even better, though.

Re: Fog of World

#152

Post by corwinstephen »

hnriot wrote: post #97
beatpanda wrote: post #65

Correction — "Know the Area You Have Explored Around the World, Around A Continent, Or Even Around A Country, Where Your Phone Had A Full Battery, GPS Was Available, And There Was Reliable Electricity For Recharging!" This is dumb. Any given user is going to have massive holes in their map, which, at least according to my experience, will be the best parts of their trips — the parts where they didn't have their phone…

People turn their phones off? We must know different people because everyone I know has their phone switched on all the time. Not all travel has to be to wilderness, there's just as much enjoyment to be had in visiting regular places, not just middle if nowhere kind of places. They might be boring to you, but that's a very narrow kind of thinking to assume that of others. And unless you're spelunking, there's a very…

I agree. Just because your definition of travel is apparently centered around outdoorsy activities that take you far away from civilization doesn't mean that there aren't other reasons to travel that are just as viable, but not nearly as desolate. I for example, prefer to spend my time in big cities. That just happens to be what I like. If I were to take a trip to Tokyo, I would want to spend a lot of my time eating at Japanese restaurants, meeting new people and hanging out at Japanese bars, and just experiencing what life is like for the average person who lives there. And honestly, for that sort of travel, this service could be really cool.

On another level, it's even useful for finding the parts of a city you've never seen before. I've lived in Los Angeles my whole life, and have begun to find it very boring, but perhaps if I were to unlock parts of the city that I didn't realize I'd never been to before, I could make some interesting new discoveries and keep myself entertained without even having to travel!

Re: Fog of World

#153

Post by beatpanda »

beatpanda wrote: post #65

Correction — "Know the Area You Have Explored Around the World, Around A Continent, Or Even Around A Country, Where Your Phone Had A Full Battery, GPS Was Available, And There Was Reliable Electricity For Recharging!" This is dumb. Any given user is going to have massive holes in their map, which, at least according to my experience, will be the best parts of their trips — the parts where they didn't have their phone…

A lot of you misinterpreted what I said. I'm not necessarily talking about being outdoors.

For example — this summer, I was travelling between Skopje and Belgrade. After hitch hiking the whole day to Skopje, my phone was dead. I only had 30 minutes in the train station to charge my phone, and electricity was not available on the train.

By the time I got to Belgrade in the morning, my phone was dead again, and charging it would have meant hunting down a cafe with outlets and wasting two hours waiting for it to charge.

At that point, it was easier to just ask people where stuff was than screw around with my phone to get maps working.

"Passive location" apps like this just add to that stress, because it's just draining your battery faster for marginal benefit. "Be a painkiller, not a vitamin" and all that.

I think there's a huge opportunity in web-connected paper maps for relieving travel stress. I know that's what I needed this summer.

Re: Fog of World

#154

Post by robbles »

olliwang wrote: post #121

I'm the creator of this app. I'd like to explain the idea behind this app a bit. Our dream is to go around the world, so we create this geo/map/game hybrid app to remember everywhere we have been in our whole life time. We want to use the exploration map to memorize our entire life when we are old and unable to walk. We also use the map to find out places nearby where we live but we never know. We actually got surpri…

I think it's a fantastic idea. Will it work while the device is locked though, or do I have to walk around with my iPhone/iPad open all the time? The page doesn't really make that clear, and it's the most important decision factor for me since I'd want to just have it passively tracking in my pocket or backpack.

Re: Fog of World

#155

Post by iso8859-1 »

lisper wrote: post #148
beatpanda wrote: post #65

Correction — "Know the Area You Have Explored Around the World, Around A Continent, Or Even Around A Country, Where Your Phone Had A Full Battery, GPS Was Available, And There Was Reliable Electricity For Recharging!" This is dumb. Any given user is going to have massive holes in their map, which, at least according to my experience, will be the best parts of their trips — the parts where they didn't have their phone…

> I still can't find a reasonably good offline maps app for Android, for when access to the Internet isn't so easy. You want this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ulmon.andr...

Did you try MapDroyd? How does it compare?

Re: Fog of World

#156

Post by olliwang »

robbles wrote: post #154
olliwang wrote: post #121

I'm the creator of this app. I'd like to explain the idea behind this app a bit. Our dream is to go around the world, so we create this geo/map/game hybrid app to remember everywhere we have been in our whole life time. We want to use the exploration map to memorize our entire life when we are old and unable to walk. We also use the map to find out places nearby where we live but we never know. We actually got surpri…

I think it's a fantastic idea. Will it work while the device is locked though, or do I have to walk around with my iPhone/iPad open all the time? The page doesn't really make that clear, and it's the most important decision factor for me since I'd want to just have it passively tracking in my pocket or backpack.

It works while the device is locked. However, to save battery life, locations will be reported every 40-50 meters when app is in background. Thus no fog will be removed if you only move a few meters.

Re: Fog of World

#157

Post by olliwang »

onethumb wrote: post #149
olliwang wrote: post #121

I'm the creator of this app. I'd like to explain the idea behind this app a bit. Our dream is to go around the world, so we create this geo/map/game hybrid app to remember everywhere we have been in our whole life time. We want to use the exploration map to memorize our entire life when we are old and unable to walk. We also use the map to find out places nearby where we live but we never know. We actually got surpri…

The app is such a great idea, so I bought it immediately, but I have to say I'm disappointed. Much of my travel abroad happened when I was young. There were no smartphones, or GPS. But I know plenty of the places I've visited, hotels I've stayed in, train routes I've ridden, etc. I'd love a way to "paint" the fog away manually, and maybe tag that "painting session" with some metadata (dates, at a minimum, maybe photo…

You can do it in Google Earth, one of our users drew his track and exported them as GPX files. You can then import those GPX files back to the app.

We're also planning some new importing sources, including geo-tagged photos.

Re: Fog of World

#158

Post by zxoq »

olliwang wrote: post #121

I'm the creator of this app. I'd like to explain the idea behind this app a bit. Our dream is to go around the world, so we create this geo/map/game hybrid app to remember everywhere we have been in our whole life time. We want to use the exploration map to memorize our entire life when we are old and unable to walk. We also use the map to find out places nearby where we live but we never know. We actually got surpri…

I think it's a great idea. But to be persistent over my entire life, there really needs to be an export option so that when smartphones are no longer around and we got neural implants or something I can still make use of the data collected now.

Also 1% of the world seems impossible considering the line of sight when walking around. Even 1% of most countries is impossible.

Re: Fog of World

#159

Post by olliwang »

zxoq wrote: post #158
olliwang wrote: post #121

I'm the creator of this app. I'd like to explain the idea behind this app a bit. Our dream is to go around the world, so we create this geo/map/game hybrid app to remember everywhere we have been in our whole life time. We want to use the exploration map to memorize our entire life when we are old and unable to walk. We also use the map to find out places nearby where we live but we never know. We actually got surpri…

I think it's a great idea. But to be persistent over my entire life, there really needs to be an export option so that when smartphones are no longer around and we got neural implants or something I can still make use of the data collected now. Also 1% of the world seems impossible considering the line of sight when walking around. Even 1% of most countries is impossible.

Due to goal of this app is to save tracks over a person's entire life. The data is saved with super high level optimization. Thus it's impossible to export them to other services like Google Latitude.

However, we're working on database synchronization between different devices. Soon you will be able to sync your data between your iPhone and iPad through Dropbox (also for backup). We also have plan for a Mac version in the future, and due to the power of a desktop computer. Photo mapping or more options are expected to show along the fog map.

That's true it's almost impossible to explore over 1% of the world. So the app doesn't lie to you, right? Anyway, the app encourages people to explore more of the world, discover new places, and know more around where you live. Those numbers really do not matter. It's about your life, and you will know how many places (or area) you have explored in your whole life.

Re: Fog of World

#160

Post by olliwang »

beatpanda wrote: post #153
beatpanda wrote: post #65

Correction — "Know the Area You Have Explored Around the World, Around A Continent, Or Even Around A Country, Where Your Phone Had A Full Battery, GPS Was Available, And There Was Reliable Electricity For Recharging!" This is dumb. Any given user is going to have massive holes in their map, which, at least according to my experience, will be the best parts of their trips — the parts where they didn't have their phone…

A lot of you misinterpreted what I said. I'm not necessarily talking about being outdoors. For example — this summer, I was travelling between Skopje and Belgrade. After hitch hiking the whole day to Skopje, my phone was dead. I only had 30 minutes in the train station to charge my phone, and electricity was not available on the train. By the time I got to Belgrade in the morning, my phone was dead again, and chargin…

It is always recommended to use a dedicated GPS logger in a long-distance trip. You won't experience these issues if you have one.
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