The weird and wonderful world of position art

Over the last year a new use for GPS has emerged that developers could never have expected.

Prompted by a Nokia publicity-seeking stunt (see www.theworldismycanvas.com), users around the world have been using GPS-equipped smartphones to create so-called ‘Position Art’, using the tracklog generated by the software, overlaid onto a map or satellite image, to ‘draw’ a cartoon image in real time, as shown in the examples here.

Creating position art is quite good fun and yet another way to get you out and about on foot, enjoying fresh air and exercise. It’s hard work in terms of creating a quality image though – our tips would be to plan meticulously on a printed out street map of your chosen area, make sure you cover large enough areas that small ‘side of the street’ GPS errors are ‘lost in the noise’ and to allow enough time.

And yes, doing it in a car is cheating.

Originally published in Smartphone & PDA Essentials magazine. Words by Steve Litchfield.

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