Ordnance Survey recruits AR developer to build 'geolocated quests' to help get Brit couch potatoes exercising outdoors
- Reference: 1605778204
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/11/19/ordnance_survey_recruits_ar_firm/
- Source link:
Come rain or shine (OK, mainly rain), there's a niche of enthusiasts among the British population that likes nothing more than donning cagoules and sturdy walking shoes and getting a breath of fresh air, reliable OS map in hand as a navigation aid.
But the Ordinance Survey, a government-owned company founded in 1791, thinks that niche might be expanded with a bit of augmented reality, helping to improve the health of a nation at the same time.
"The western world has an activity crisis," [1]a contract award notice said . "People are not being active outside half as much as they should be. Yet, increasing indicators suggest it's also not as much as they consciously want to – with awareness rising of the mental and physical wellbeing needs across society in the UK alone, evidence is mounting that many more people want to connect with the natural environment than they currently quite know how to. This presents us with a compelling opportunity."
Ready to grasp this opportunity is games and AR developer Preloaded, which has been awarded the £300,000 contract.
The company will be charged with creating "a series of geolocated quests, challenges and special events, using augmented reality to enhance engagement with the outside," which could help "create something truly unique and really disrupt the market, encouraging everyone to 'Get Outside' more often," the contract notice said.
Preloaded has worked on [2]AR projects on behalf of the BBC, the V&A Museum, and dictionary publishers Merriam-Webster.
This contract win relates to a [3]tender notice published in January .
The Ordnance Survey has also issued a £6m contract notice for the development of a "new gaming app". It has yet to respond to The Register 's questions about whether it is related to the Preloaded deal.
Regardless, the Ordnance Survey has a point when it comes to physical activity in the UK. [4]According to government data , a lack of it is responsible for one in six deaths – that's as many as smoking causes. It estimates the cost to the economy is £7.4bn annually, including £900m to the NHS alone.
Perhaps some age-appropriate version of Pokémon GO based around Derbyshire's Anglo-Saxon churches would be in order? ®
Get our [5]Tech Resources
[1] https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:555047-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0
[2] https://preloaded.com/work/bbc-earth-microkingdoms-senses/
[3] https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:024073-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML
[4] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/physical-activity-applying-all-our-health/physical-activity-applying-all-our-health#:~:text=Physical%20inactivity%20is%20responsible%20for,35%25%20less%20active%20by%202030
[5] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I pay £25 per year for unlimited access to all OS maps on my phone and browser.
Sounds pretty good to me.
What AC said.
To find footpaths you need the paid-for OS service. They have a free app, but it is based around pre-set walks and curated points of interest. If OS were actually serious about physical activity, they would make their data about footpaths easier to access.
(I'm not talking about being in remote areas where my safety might depend on knowing where I am - in which case I would hsppily buy and carry a paper map and compass, in addition to my phone. I'm talking about more casual walks, where knowing of footpaths might let me explore an area)
I don't know how much of their revenue is from selling maps to hikers, and how much is from selling GIS data to commercial organisations such as property developers.
What's really fun is buying an xyz CSV point cloud file of the topology of your local area from the OS, derived from radar mapping. About £100 for a few square miles, depending upon resolution.
EDIT: my info about the topographical data might be out if date, sine it turns out some changes were made in 2010... I'm just exploring some links provided here at the mo:
http://vterrain.org/Locations/uk/
Subscription £2.99 a month. Less than a coffee for the entire UK in "outdoor leisure" 1:25000 scale. Can use the maps on smartPhone and download the areas you are exploring for when you out of signal/battery saving, and you can view them in a browser on you Desktop/laptop for plotting your route in the evening.
"The western world has an activity crisis," a contract award notice said. "People are not being active outside half as much as they should be. Yet, increasing indicators suggest it's also not as much as they consciously want to
Yes.
STAY AT HOME
PROTECT THE NHS
SAVE LIVES.
The single most important action you can take is to stay at home in order to protect the NHS and save lives.
You should only leave the house for very limited reasons. . .
Also: hey, after constant 24/7 propaganda telling the public that they would drop dead if they stepped foot outside of their houses for months they aren't going out as much. I wonder why . . . . Maybe an app will help?
Yeah yeah, maybe. But even before the pandemic obesity and lack of regular exercise was being portended and scare-mongered as the next great human pandemic. I'm just not sure how an app is going to motivate those who choose to live a low exertion lifestyle to change their ways, if indeed there is really any requirement for them to do so.
Then again, and to paraphrase a wise old sage "better to do than do not" and as an active triathlete I might even give this a look myself when it is released.
Just go geocaching?
Maybe they should just promote geocaching.com. Save everyone a bunch of money.
Perhaps they could start by reducing the insanely high costs of their digital mapping? I'm sure that would help people to get outside. The US equivelent mapping is free since it was paid for through taxes in the first place, and they seem to spend more time in outdoor pursuits.
You can probably tell I'm not in favour of them "inventing" Minecraft Earth so that people go outside to find things that aren't there. Why not promote the things that are there instead?