extrapixel

In the project “Hardware Interface Design” I was looking for new GPS applications.
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Getting there
I came up with the final concept “spotFiles” after these early ideas:
GPSecureStick: This USB memory stick includes a GPS receiver. Files saved on the stick are automatically geo-tagged. If you select the secure option, the files can only be viewed at the place you saved them. This “secure place” can also be added afterwards by hand.

My Favourite Spots (MFS): MFS is a software for Macs/PCs. It makes the computer react on the place it is used at. MFS learns places I visit often. With comparing many settings on the computer at the different places, MFS learns where I like what best. E.g. a simple desktop image in the office, high music volume at home, standard mail accound, network settings, often used applicaions, etc.

Final concept: spotFiles

SpotFiles is a geographical add-on for MacOS X’s file system. Using GIS- and GPS data, spotFiles adds a geographical context to all files on the computer.

SpotFiles consists of three elements:

SpotFiles Stick: is a GPS receiver for the USB interface. It supplys the computer with a GPS location. If there is weak or no satellite connection, its assumed that the computer is in a building and the last valid location is used as the actual position.

Finder Plugin: adds a geographical view to the OS X Finder. Now one can surf the file system geographically.
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Spotlight Plugin: collects and combines the necessary data from geographic information systems. E.g. if a city name is found in the contents of a file, its coordinates are fetched from the GIS.

The main data sources of SpotFiles are its GPS-stick and external GIS-databases. If a file ist created or edited, create- and edit place are saved in the file’s metadata. The GPS data is continously added to the tracklog. The tracklog is a database on the users computer, that holds all the places that the computer has been at.
Apple’s spotlight indexes all the files in the file system. SpotFiles recognises geographical names like cities, countries etc. during this process. It fetches information about this geographical entities from external GIS services. So, for example, if there is an address in a letter document, SpotFiles will add its coordinates to the files metadata.
For visualisation purposes all this data is combined: metadata from the files, the tracklog database and the indexed spotlight data. So, if there should be a file without geo-tags, it can still be put in a geographical context with the tracklog database

Please see the project documentation for more information.

Downloads:
Project documentation (pdf)
Presentation (including interactive interface dummy) (swf)