iRobot, the maker of Roomba, made big news this week when an interview with its CEO mentioned plans to sell the map data of customers’ homes to third parties. Today, the company launched damage control measures and the CEO is spreading assurances that this is all just a big misunderstanding.
An unprecedented collaboration involving 20 countries, 75 institutions, and over 250 marine geologists has yielded a new atlas that’s providing our best glimpse yet of the seafloor at both polar regions of the planet. The images are of significant scientific value, but they’re also quite beautiful.
We are visual beings: Our perception of the world is intrinsically tied to our ability to perceive light. But what about the places where light doesn’t fall? Do places in shadow still encode information for the visual cortex to process? Can shadows actually tell us something meaningful about the landscapes they darken?
A series of beautiful digital terrain maps, created by the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), are immortalizing something that might soon be lost: the magnificent, ice-carved landscapes of the Arctic.
What lies beneath the deep blue sea? So much more than you might think.
This story takes place far inside the Arctic Circle but, no, it’s not about Santa Claus. What it is about is truly embracing the Christmas spirit—the part where you give of yourself.
Thanks to a super-sensitive new tool, NASA can now see exactly where air pollution is increasing and decreasing–down to the level of neighborhoods–and in some cases, the results are surprising.
Statistically, the coldest days of the year should be a pretty simple thing to map. So why does this map look so splotchy?
Yes, Bing Maps does still exist, and thanks to a brand-new update, you might even have a reason to use it again.
There are more than 2,250 satellites orbiting the Earth right now. But that abstract number didn’t prepare me for the shock of watching a Soviet-era rocket body whipping over my house in real-time.
A glorious, glorious heatwave is keeping most of the US toasty right now, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says we’re all living in denial—winter is coming, and it has a data visualization to prove it.
Laser scanning has helped England do everything from discovering new things about Stonehenge to planning better flood infrastructure. Now, the country has made the entirety of its massive trove of scans available for free—in part because of requests from everyone from researchers to Minecraft players.
Car alarms, jackhammers, barking dogs, drunken brawls outside your window—ah, the sounds of the city. Urban living comes with challenges, and annoying, loud noise is one of ‘em. But these maps show us which neighborhoods you’ll want to steer clear of in three major U.S. cities if you want a sound night’s sleep.
Where the Chrysler Building stands, there may have been gray wolves and hoary bats. Chinatown was home to a long tidal creek and salty marsh. A Lenape trail wound through the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge.
There’s a good reason why you don’t know how your data gets from one place to another on the internet. The major network cables that truss the United States haven’t ever been fully viewable to the public–until now.
We know less about the deep ocean than we do about the surface of Mars. But if we want to really understand how humans are impacting the Earth, we need to start looking down deep into the muck. That’s why scientists created the first digital map of the seafloor’s geologic composition.
People choose where to live based on all sorts of data: Price, public transit, proximity to pizza chains. But noise is tougher to measure. And since sound is pretty much invisible, you might not know about the nightly clanking from the local concrete recycling plant until you’re all moved in. A new mapping app can…
Ever wondered how high school graduation rates vary across the country? Well this map shows you exactly how.
With a subtle announcement on its website, Apple has confirmed that it’s sending cars out on to the streets of the U.S., UK and Ireland in order to acquire data—including images—that will be used to improve its Maps service.
As rescue efforts in Nepal begin to shift to recovery mode, relief workers in the earthquake-ravaged country are focusing on infrastructure—including the catastrophic loss of so many historic structures. And increasingly, they’re using emerging technology to do it.
