Watch New Yorkers Hurry Across Union Square in Real-Time | Hacker News Reader

Watch New Yorkers Hurry Across Union Square in Real-Time

citylab.com

123 pointsinfinite8s32 comments

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The video in the linked article [0] is scary as hell. It reminds me of the Person of Interest TV series [1].

0: http://www.citylab.com/tech/2014/08/the-view-from-your-windo...

1: (intro) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U9FuRnyiqk

This is a great talk on mobility models: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k79dZuedXHs

What do you find so scary about the linked video?

Person of Interest became one of my favorite television shows during the first episode of season two when it suddenly is no longer a CSI-like crime show, but hard science fiction.

Person of Interest is, to my knowledge, the only show to have successfully and naturally transitioned between two radically different genres (Monster of the week style crime procedural into overarching plot based sci-fi).

It is beautiful. And it's such a good show, too. Highly recommended, most of the HN audience would enjoy it - very technical, pre-snowden, talks about mass surveillance (ethics, implications, ...) and AI. Original and sci-fi oriented while remaining grounded in reality (Mr Robot tech quality, no CSI bullshit).

PS: If you do watch it, give it a few episodes to grow on you while it transitions genres over the first season.

> to my knowledge, the only show to have successfully and naturally transitioned between two radically different genres

I wonder if it compares..... I have in mind an anime series from 2011 titled Puella Magi Madoka Magica which transitioned naturally from happy-go-lucky slice-of-life Magical Girls and into dark psychological Cosmic Horror (winning the best critical acclaim since Spirited Away in the process). And one of the series it has since inspired, Yuki Yuna Is A Hero (2014), doubles down on the happy-go-lucky slice of life before transitioning into an anti-war drama.

(But I will check out Person of Interest anyway :)

Yes! Your description is dead on!

Oddly enough, the very first scene of this Person of Interest clip is also in Union Square.

Hi, I work at Placemeter, the company that produced this map and the technology behind it. Check out our privacy principles [0] and feel free to email me [1] if you have any questions. Thanks!

0: http://www.placemeter.com/privacy

1: david [at] placemeter [dot] com

Indeed. It is surprising that more technology isn't being put forward to confusing this information. And no, the privacy policy doesn't do anything to calm me down. How does one defeat a digital camera at range?

Well that's creepy ... that intersection is on my commute, and I biked through it a little over two hours ago.

The bike numbers are low today because it's raining, and yes, I did get quite wet on my commute in.

I see an OSM map and that makes me happy... however then I attempt to zoom scroll (in or out) and, instead, it pans up and down (!?!?!?). First instinct is "this non-sensical UX has to be an ESRI map". Of course, I was right.

I'm tempted to start running circles around the intersection just to mess with everyone watching.

You can also watch the traffic cameras as provided by NYC Department of Transportation. Many cool projects have been made with the feeds available here: http://dotsignals.org/multiview2.php.

Here is the direct link to the one at Union Square: http://207.251.86.238/cctv474.jpg.

An awesome documentary[0] related to how people move and use public spaces. "The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces" William H Whyte. citylab actually linked this a while ago [1], but the version embedded in that page has since been removed.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjxXTsHgc8g

[1] http://www.citylab.com/design/2011/10/social-life-public-spa...

Here, watch it in full screen: http://placemeter-arcgisdemo.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws....

Here, watch it in color video :) http://wxyzwebcams.com/en/webcam-418.php

It's raining today, I imagine people are walking faster, not standing around as much, and jaywalking in a lot more risky situations.

This is pretty neat! Dubious conclusion on this particular piece of data though:

"The Chipotle there, for example, has seen around 64 percent less foot traffic today than that three-week average—possibly because of the news about its food-safety concerns."

So really nothing to support that conclusion other than a guess and a link to an article from eight days ago?

Hence the word "possibly"

Or possibly because it's been pouring rain in NYC all day.

Data is data, conjecture is conjecture.

The Geox store next to Chipotle is up 42%.

...a manufacturer of waterproof clothing.

I've been wanting to build a service like this to watch foot traffic around retail businesses and restaurants. Then provide the data for investors. Kind of like that company that uses satellite imagery to watch parking lots to measure patronage.

Hedge funds are already doing this with satellite imagery. It turns out you can get a very good idea of Home Depot's revenue for next quarter by looking at how many cars are in the parking lot.

There's a startup in NYC that does this called Placemeter. Buy a camera, point it out the window, collect data

There's a link. The article says:

> Thomas Richard and Godfrey Yeung, the former Placemeter interns who created the map

The whole thing the article is about is Placemeter as far as I can tell. Your quote made it seem like they were formerly Placemeter interns who later created the map.

Didn't click the link, eh?

That's exactly what the company here is doing.

Yeah I just noticed that in the second to last paragraph. They definitely have a clever solution for doing this.

You may not see much traffic currently because there is a very heavy rainstorm in NYC.

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