Key trends and new tech for the supply chain
By: Stephen Lambe
At Locate, we covered everything from LiDAR sensors for autonomous vehicles to a new HD vector tile specification. Of the many talks and announcements, three stand out for Transportation & Logistics companies that want to crank up to 11.
Custom-built live tracking
With over 8 billion connected IoT devices and 2 billion GPS-equipped smartphones already online, real-time asset tracking is changing how companies view the supply chain. A combination of cloud computing, inexpensive hardware, and flexible APIs is making it more economical to create in-house tracking solutions. Four main components are powering these applications: location updates, stream processing, database storage, and dashboard tracking. Read more about the four things you need to track anything and stay tuned for deep dives in the coming weeks.
Advanced data visualization with the Custom Layers API and Kepler.gl
Visualizing billions of live location updates and gathering insights at a massive scale is getting a lot easier thanks to Kepler.gl, a new open-source geospatial analysis toolkit built by Uber’s data science team. Even better, the Mapbox GL Custom Layers API launching later this summer will bring these capabilities to our dev community.
Complex layers from Kepler like animated arcs and hexbins can then be instantaneously converted into map layers using our API, meaning they’ll integrate directly into any application built with our tools. For example, you could build an animated visualization of location updates every 15 minutes from all 250,000 aircraft flying daily in the USA.
Vision SDK
We announced the Vision SDK, which enables developers to build heads-up displays featuring Augmented Reality (AR) navigation, efficient image classification, and semantic segmentation on the edge device.
Image processing on the local device means a parcel delivery firm can use the Vision SDK on its trucks to map hard-to-navigate facilities like ports or distribution centers in real-time as drivers transit them. Every new truck driver could then have a complete map of key points like entry points and loading bays.
AR navigation increases driver efficiency and safety with contextual visual guidance. For example, a ride-hailing company could radically improve pickup experiences in crowded environments like airports or concerts. Imagine a driver navigating to an AR marker that indicates exactly where the rider is — much easier than trying to coordinate locations over the phone using landmarks and street names. Additionally, a corporate fleet manager could use the SDK’s traffic sign identification to automatically log and send notifications to a driver if their speed exceeds posted limits.
The Vision SDK is in private beta now and will be publicly available in September. Sign up for updates.
Learn more about our maps and location services for transportation and logistics businesses. Reach out to our team with any questions.
Exploring the edges of logistics was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.