Would you share your indoors for the rest of the world to see?
Written by Travis Kellerman
It was a hot summer afternoon on the USC campus and the session on “Mapping the World in 3D” was underway in a classroom filled with resolute engineers and “data enthusiasts.” This one proposed a shift in human experience in an otherwise watered down series of sessions at Big Data Day LA 2018.
With an engineer’s passion, Ryan Measel, CTO of Fantasmo, held little back. He spoke with a calm monotone in a disturbingly-honest style. It’s a manner of open talk I respect when done with compassion: big vision and idealism.
I felt myself playing campaign manager like I was back in politics; each statement was an unknown risk. My hands clenched and unclenched, waiting for the ‘candidate’ to say something shocking.
I’ve noticed this style of communication in Engineering managers and scientists, who filled a good portion of the seats at the session. When you address people who talk mostly to machines — and they ask questions about how your machines talk to other machines — the ethics and human elements are often left behind as everybody goes technical.
Ryan would go on to specifically cite the ethical and legal problem, hinting at the moral problem, of invading and mapping indoor spaces. Giving permission and scaling storage via the blockchain. As more companies take on the challenge, the solution to privacy and “opting out” seems unclear in the rush to compete and establish AR and mapping standards.
Fantasmo is a handful of Ph.D.’s looking to take on the world — or at least map all the indoor space on it. Here’s a primer from their site:
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