6 ms·

I think I'm a neo-luddite.

secstate 13y ago
I pretty much stopped reading when they were going through the possible applications. Find my way around a super-store, shit I'd rather just stay out if at all possible. In the meantime, I'm sure this will revolutionize something. It always does. I'm just in your same position ... a neo-luddite. Also, I would much rather have a space elevator than a 3D mapping phone.
- JabavuAdams 13y ago
  The 3D mapping phone gets you the space elevator, because you need AI lab-assistants / engineers / scientists to build the space elevator.
- SamuelKillin 13y ago
  It's not really an either/or situation
gilgoomesh 13y ago
I don't think you're a luddite. With any technology like this, it's important to ask: what applications does this really enable and will those applications simply be a waste of time. This is an unveiling of a technology but the "applications" they show in this video are probably a waste of time to most users. Google have not shown a killer app that uses this tech. Maybe they're working on something (they hint that they may be planning to integrate indoor mapping into Google Maps which might be interesting) but they're not showing it in this video. That doesn't mean the tech is bad. But we haven't seen enough to judge it as useful to end users.
- jrockway 13y ago
  Google Maps already has indoor maps.
  - girvo 13y ago
    Yeah but they even said in the video that they struggle with indoor navigation and positioning.
- malvim 13y ago
  Google has acknowledged that their vision of where this is going is, at best, partial: "While we may believe we know where this technology will take us, history suggests we that should be humble in our predictions. We are excited to see the effort take shape with each step forward." I liked this part.
neumann 13y ago
hah! That's the word I was looking for.
Gigablah 13y ago
This has applications even for, uh, "normal" people. For example, online real estate portals. People who are house-hunting would probably appreciate floorplans or a 3D tour. Agents, landlords or property developers would be able to easily create those with their mobile device.
- aestra 13y ago
  >Agents, landlords or property developers would be able to easily create those with their mobile device But they won't! It is very difficult to get those people to post more than a low res picture of one room online when they can very easily walk through the house with a video camera, for example. Even large apartment complexes have 1-2 pictures on their website and call it a day.
  - steveax 13y ago
    Indeed. Panoramic photo VR tours were also gonna be the next big thing for real estate (remember QTVR?) but that only made sense for one-of-a-kind high end properties. Everything else is a commodity.
  - janjongboom 13y ago
    I used to work for one of the largest real estate portals in Europe, and people seldom watched the video of a property (if available). We also added floorplans from floorplanner.com and that converted way better. Now 25% of the listed properties has one.
    - smikhanov 13y ago
      To be honest, 25% is a very low number for such an essential piece of information about the property. Do you mind sharing how often people look at floor plans on your portal? I'm a Russian living in the UK and it still surprises me that what Russians consider to be a viable information about property (gross internal and net internal area, kitchen area and a floor plan) is so rarely present on the UK property sites. "Lovely 2-bedroom" is all you normally expect.

I pretty much stopped reading when they were going through the possible applications. Find my way around a super-store, shit I'd rather just stay out if at all possible. In the meantime, I'm sure this will revolutionize something. It always does. I'm just in your same position ... a neo-luddite. Also, I would much rather have a space elevator than a 3D mapping phone.

JabavuAdams 13y ago
The 3D mapping phone gets you the space elevator, because you need AI lab-assistants / engineers / scientists to build the space elevator.
SamuelKillin 13y ago
It's not really an either/or situation

gilgoomesh 13y ago

I don't think you're a luddite. With any technology like this, it's important to ask: what applications does this really enable and will those applications simply be a waste of time. This is an unveiling of a technology but the "applications" they show in this video are probably a waste of time to most users. Google have not shown a killer app that uses this tech. Maybe they're working on something (they hint that they may be planning to integrate indoor mapping into Google Maps which might be interesting) but they're not showing it in this video. That doesn't mean the tech is bad. But we haven't seen enough to judge it as useful to end users.

jrockway 13y ago
Google Maps already has indoor maps.
- girvo 13y ago
  Yeah but they even said in the video that they struggle with indoor navigation and positioning.
malvim 13y ago
Google has acknowledged that their vision of where this is going is, at best, partial: "While we may believe we know where this technology will take us, history suggests we that should be humble in our predictions. We are excited to see the effort take shape with each step forward." I liked this part.

neumann 13y ago

hah! That's the word I was looking for.

Gigablah 13y ago

This has applications even for, uh, "normal" people. For example, online real estate portals. People who are house-hunting would probably appreciate floorplans or a 3D tour. Agents, landlords or property developers would be able to easily create those with their mobile device.

aestra 13y ago
>Agents, landlords or property developers would be able to easily create those with their mobile device But they won't! It is very difficult to get those people to post more than a low res picture of one room online when they can very easily walk through the house with a video camera, for example. Even large apartment complexes have 1-2 pictures on their website and call it a day.
- steveax 13y ago
  Indeed. Panoramic photo VR tours were also gonna be the next big thing for real estate (remember QTVR?) but that only made sense for one-of-a-kind high end properties. Everything else is a commodity.
- janjongboom 13y ago
  I used to work for one of the largest real estate portals in Europe, and people seldom watched the video of a property (if available). We also added floorplans from floorplanner.com and that converted way better. Now 25% of the listed properties has one.
  - smikhanov 13y ago
    To be honest, 25% is a very low number for such an essential piece of information about the property. Do you mind sharing how often people look at floor plans on your portal? I'm a Russian living in the UK and it still surprises me that what Russians consider to be a viable information about property (gross internal and net internal area, kitchen area and a floor plan) is so rarely present on the UK property sites. "Lovely 2-bedroom" is all you normally expect.