IFSEC Insider is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
Rob Ratcliff was the Content and Community Manager of IFSEC Global.com. He is a self-confessed everyman in the world of security and fire, keen to learn from the global community of experts who have been a part of IFSEC for 40 years now.
And following last week’s controversy over the Defence and Security Equipment International conference, it would be easy for members of the general public to confuse security with defence. But the fundamental difference between those two industries is, for me, quite simple: Security is about making technology that makes people safer, generally in a passive manner. Defence is about equipment that provides a deterrent, and, when called upon, active enforcement.
That’s why I feel like Google’s latest effort to prove they live up to their “Don’t be evil” motto actually comes under the broad umbrella of security.
The Halo Trust — a UK-based, not-for-profit that is dedicated to landmine clearance and famous for its association with Princess Diana and now her son Prince Harry — has revealed how it uses Google Earth to map areas that have been effected by landmines.
In an entry on Google’s official blog, the founder of the Halo Trust, Guy Willoughby, explains how the organization uses the application to map detailed areas that have been identified as “at-risk,” or those which have already been cleared. The latter enables people to begin reclaiming land for farming or other activities, while the benefit of the former is relatively self-evident.
What Google Earth enables goes to the heart of what all good security technology should do: Make it easier for people to keep their staff/population/family safer from malicious threats. Willoughby explains:
Google Earth Pro makes it easier for the HALO team to do the dangerous and detailed work of finding and mapping at-risk areas. Because it’s based on the same technology as Google Maps and Earth, it’s easy for our teams to use and create maps without IT or GIS expertise. It’s a tool that is familiar to our employees and something they use in their daily lives, so we can start mapping right away.
It is a simple enough concept, but incredibly effective, supporting families who live near mines, crews who clear them, and donors that support the charity — the HALO Trust also use the maps to show supporters how close the sites they have cleared are to buildings such as schools, underlining how important their work is.
Is Google Earth really a piece of security technology? No, obviously not. But a story such as this underlines how technology is making our world safer, and anyone who works in the security industry can be proud of that.
Free Download: The Video Surveillance Report 2023
Discover the latest developments in the rapidly-evolving video surveillance sector by downloading the 2023 Video Surveillance Report. Over 500 responses to our survey, which come from integrators to consultants and heads of security, inform our analysis of the latest trends including AI, the state of the video surveillance market, uptake of the cloud, and the wider economic and geopolitical events impacting the sector!
Download for FREE to discover top industry insight around the latest innovations in video surveillance systems.
How Google Earth Is Saving Lives From LandminesPeople who work in the security industry can be proud that they are part of an industry that makes our […]
Robert Ratcliff
IFSEC Insider | Security and Fire News and Resources
Subscribe
39 Comments
Oldest
NewestMost Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
JonathanL
September 17, 2013 10:50 am
Thats a interesting way to use Google maps and I thought I was being clever using it to play flight simulator. I think that will become more of a trend in security, not flight simulator, but GIS. Several years ago I was trained in ArcGIS and saw that it truly has unlimited potiential and it is awesome to see such a freely available tool used in such a way that it can provide a service to those people.
Making the most out of readily available technology is something security should be doing more of. It would be interesting to have integrated systems that stepped outside of using the typical security systems, but also used other technology, for example, an alarm is received and incident confirmed and all the security info as well as area maps/ route planner is automatically emailed to the responder.
With tools like this available basically for free it seems to me that the possibilities are endless and that their use across security can only increase. What sorts of things did your training cover?
Indeed and that’s exactly what people like yourself increasingly expect, am I right? The APIs are readily available so it would t be really hard to achieve
We are definately expecting more- the technology we carry in our pockets highlights exactly what is possible- gone are the days when we would be impressed by CCTV that just show/ record images.
@Robert Brown, really our training was more specific to the software package but we ran through exercises with sets of available data that allowed you to cross reference statistics. For example, we learned to take a standard map and then highlight the population centers across it by color based on population numbers and then cross reference that to resources in the area. In particular was emergency response services for a given geographic area. It really does give you a new perspective on somethings, if we wanted a standard response time of say ambulances to be on site within 5 miles… Read more »
I’ve seen images used to manage things like security or HVAC systems that use an aerial photo of a campus but I think the Google Earth solution would be even better. Especially if you could draw out zones that you want to watch more closely and maybe fire off alerts if someone enters a specific zone.
The land mine example is great especially since you should be able to get down to GPS precision of an area, I could see this as being very handy for search teams or security teams watching specific areas.
@Mike Clauss i have also heard of an application like falcon view which have some properties like GPS coordinates, RCI availability, pin point accuracy markerd and route drawing capability. I think you have many apps looking after the aspects its how one uses them.
I’m sure we’ll see more and more creative uses of Google Earth in the future. My one issue though is the time it takes to update. We’ve still got roadways in the area that GPS and Google Maps don’t recognize, using landmarks in a Google Earth based solution might result in some situations where a tree has grown to block a path or new construction might change thing dramatically. I’m really looking forward to more people rolling out solutions like this though.
@Mike Clauss I am not sure we will be seeing any application giving us real time update. I think that can only be used for military purpose and if somehow somebody hacks into that it might be a risk of national level. What do you say?
I don’t know, we already have shared live traffic info available. If the info can be secured (it can) then why can’t we share more live situational information. This is what people are increasingly going to be wanting. Everything is becoming more and more instant: eg news (Twitter)
@Robert Brown falcon view is basically a tool for flight route planning and it provides in detail the map world over. I was refering to the availability of GPS coordinates as well as few helping tips. But it is not in comparison to google earth in any way.
@Robert Brown I think providing a cctv footage live, traffic info or real time data is having no comparison to having availability of data worldover through google earth. I think it will definitely help many law enforcement agencies but on the other hand you are giving your security a less chance of success if people with wrong intentions catch hold of it.
I recently saw a DARPA project that creates a very impressive real time map using a drone with multiple cameras. I think local law enforcement will be able to use a product like this to organize searches for example or authorized construction contractors might get access to more up to date images but I think that you and I using those images to check our commute isn’t going to happen.
@Mike Clauss that was actually my point. I think the real time availability of images like google earth might not be available. The use of drones to create an imagery is very expansive and will take quite a while to get updated. Updating complete set of imagery one regular basis is not cost effective till the time its going to be used for highly specialized tasks or tasks of national interest where security is important then money.
Hopefully drone imaging goes the same direction that GPS goes. It wasn’t long ago that we couldn’t get the precision of GPS data on a dedicated device that we can get from a cellular phone now. It might not be this year, it might not be in 5 years but I think we’ll eventually get the drone data just the same.
@Mike Clauss I have my serious doubts on its availability. I think it might just be possible if we have developed the tech more advanced then real time imagery or data relay by drones and that can offset its wrong use. I feell before that I am keeping my fingures tightly crossed 🙂
For top top top line security ie. defence such tech is extremely useful and I think increasingly applicable. But as you say, for the rest of us, no. However, that doesn’t mean you couldn’t secure your own private property with cameras attached to ‘mini drones’ that patrol your perimeter.
SunitaT
September 25, 2013 4:27 am
Google Earth might “obviously not” be a piece of security technology, but it can certainly go a long way in aiding the security technology in place. I might actually be referring to @holmesd’s idea of integrated systems that could include components like Google Earth for real time mapping of the concerned area. Anyway it is good to see more innovative and useful applications of Google Earth.
@ safeNsane, Google Earth would certainly be more useful in aerial view of buildings. Besides, your point of identifying special zones is a potent one. It will make the task of high attention scrutiny much simpler and easier. In this way you can quickly refer to closer CCTV cameras for a closer look at the activity in that particular area.
@Robert Brown, we actually discussed something like this but inside our warehouse space. Mini drones patrolling the sky or the camera on wires that you see used in sports broadcasts. Being in an area prone to lightning I don’t think we could do this outside without padding the budget for lost drones.
One idea could be using it for security guards to mark when an area has been swept. Real-time tracking of guards plotted straight onto Google Maps, so a manager can see how recently an area has been swept by a security guard. You could colour code places that hadn’t been looked at in over, say, 5 hours as red, and anywhere seen within the last hour as green, for instance.
@ JohnathonL
I agree it is really cool to see these tools being put to use in this way. It’s cool to see how technology can actually be used in different wyas to save lives.
@ holmesd
Very good point. It is amazing what can be done with technology today. To think, my first cell phone was the size of a brick, cost nearly a thousand dollars and I was lucky to get a decent call through with it. Today we practically carry a supercomputer in our pocket.
@ safeNsane
I agree Google Earth is very handy for drawing out zones I like how they are using the gPS precision here. I worked for a software company for awhile that made customer relationship managenent software for the service industrey and when I left the company they were developing an App for a tree trimming service that used Google Earth. They were able to pull up the property and mark up areas where work would be done, mark trees for removal, etc. Very cool technology.
That’s a cool idea for an app but what do you do when the data is a couple years old and you have issues like a tree that is already down due to storm damage or a tree that is much larger than it appears on Google Earth? This is the type of issue I wonder about when I see apps built around their maps.
@ SafeNsane
That is a very good point, I know when I pull up my property on Google Maps the image is at least five years old (The old lady who owned my house before me, before she passed away is sitting in her swing in the front yard). I suppose for it to be usefull one would actually have to get an in-person view of the property to check for discrepencies.
I haven’t seen any data on how often specific areas are updated but I do know that it is far from consistant and it doesn’t seem to be on a regular schedule for the area I’m in. I know they use a lot of arial photos from local municipalities but I don’t imagine the city informs Google when they do a new survey. That makes me wonder if we will start to see partnerships develop between cities/counties and Google to ease things like code enforcement. Maybe give Google your maps and Google develops a tool for cities to do a side… Read more »
@ Rob
I am not sure how often the images are updated. I am sure it isn’t very often for the “street view”. I know there are a lot of rural areas still where you can’t even use that feature yet because they haven’t got images.
We could use some of that planning around here. I swear that when schools are built they just look for open space and put a pin in a map. Traffic going into and out of the school is typically a nightmare and you wonder if anyone gave thought to how the roadways around the school were going to handle the increased activity.
Thats a interesting way to use Google maps and I thought I was being clever using it to play flight simulator. I think that will become more of a trend in security, not flight simulator, but GIS. Several years ago I was trained in ArcGIS and saw that it truly has unlimited potiential and it is awesome to see such a freely available tool used in such a way that it can provide a service to those people.
Making the most out of readily available technology is something security should be doing more of. It would be interesting to have integrated systems that stepped outside of using the typical security systems, but also used other technology, for example, an alarm is received and incident confirmed and all the security info as well as area maps/ route planner is automatically emailed to the responder.
With tools like this available basically for free it seems to me that the possibilities are endless and that their use across security can only increase. What sorts of things did your training cover?
Indeed and that’s exactly what people like yourself increasingly expect, am I right? The APIs are readily available so it would t be really hard to achieve
We are definately expecting more- the technology we carry in our pockets highlights exactly what is possible- gone are the days when we would be impressed by CCTV that just show/ record images.
@Robert Brown, really our training was more specific to the software package but we ran through exercises with sets of available data that allowed you to cross reference statistics. For example, we learned to take a standard map and then highlight the population centers across it by color based on population numbers and then cross reference that to resources in the area. In particular was emergency response services for a given geographic area. It really does give you a new perspective on somethings, if we wanted a standard response time of say ambulances to be on site within 5 miles… Read more »
Impressive. Add in to that live traffic info as well and you get a really dynamic picture of response times etc.
I’ve seen images used to manage things like security or HVAC systems that use an aerial photo of a campus but I think the Google Earth solution would be even better. Especially if you could draw out zones that you want to watch more closely and maybe fire off alerts if someone enters a specific zone.
The land mine example is great especially since you should be able to get down to GPS precision of an area, I could see this as being very handy for search teams or security teams watching specific areas.
@Mike Clauss i have also heard of an application like falcon view which have some properties like GPS coordinates, RCI availability, pin point accuracy markerd and route drawing capability. I think you have many apps looking after the aspects its how one uses them.
I’m sure we’ll see more and more creative uses of Google Earth in the future. My one issue though is the time it takes to update. We’ve still got roadways in the area that GPS and Google Maps don’t recognize, using landmarks in a Google Earth based solution might result in some situations where a tree has grown to block a path or new construction might change thing dramatically. I’m really looking forward to more people rolling out solutions like this though.
@Mike Clauss I am not sure we will be seeing any application giving us real time update. I think that can only be used for military purpose and if somehow somebody hacks into that it might be a risk of national level. What do you say?
It’s the simplicity which does it for me. As I said that gets to the heart of what technology should do
Falcon view, not heard of it. Is it any good?
I don’t know, we already have shared live traffic info available. If the info can be secured (it can) then why can’t we share more live situational information. This is what people are increasingly going to be wanting. Everything is becoming more and more instant: eg news (Twitter)
@Robert Brown falcon view is basically a tool for flight route planning and it provides in detail the map world over. I was refering to the availability of GPS coordinates as well as few helping tips. But it is not in comparison to google earth in any way.
@Robert Brown I think providing a cctv footage live, traffic info or real time data is having no comparison to having availability of data worldover through google earth. I think it will definitely help many law enforcement agencies but on the other hand you are giving your security a less chance of success if people with wrong intentions catch hold of it.
I recently saw a DARPA project that creates a very impressive real time map using a drone with multiple cameras. I think local law enforcement will be able to use a product like this to organize searches for example or authorized construction contractors might get access to more up to date images but I think that you and I using those images to check our commute isn’t going to happen.
@Mike Clauss that was actually my point. I think the real time availability of images like google earth might not be available. The use of drones to create an imagery is very expansive and will take quite a while to get updated. Updating complete set of imagery one regular basis is not cost effective till the time its going to be used for highly specialized tasks or tasks of national interest where security is important then money.
Hopefully drone imaging goes the same direction that GPS goes. It wasn’t long ago that we couldn’t get the precision of GPS data on a dedicated device that we can get from a cellular phone now. It might not be this year, it might not be in 5 years but I think we’ll eventually get the drone data just the same.
@Mike Clauss I have my serious doubts on its availability. I think it might just be possible if we have developed the tech more advanced then real time imagery or data relay by drones and that can offset its wrong use. I feell before that I am keeping my fingures tightly crossed 🙂
Oh, I see, it’s a routes-type thing, fair enough, thanks
For top top top line security ie. defence such tech is extremely useful and I think increasingly applicable. But as you say, for the rest of us, no. However, that doesn’t mean you couldn’t secure your own private property with cameras attached to ‘mini drones’ that patrol your perimeter.
Google Earth might “obviously not” be a piece of security technology, but it can certainly go a long way in aiding the security technology in place. I might actually be referring to @holmesd’s idea of integrated systems that could include components like Google Earth for real time mapping of the concerned area. Anyway it is good to see more innovative and useful applications of Google Earth.
@ safeNsane, Google Earth would certainly be more useful in aerial view of buildings. Besides, your point of identifying special zones is a potent one. It will make the task of high attention scrutiny much simpler and easier. In this way you can quickly refer to closer CCTV cameras for a closer look at the activity in that particular area.
@Robert Brown, we actually discussed something like this but inside our warehouse space. Mini drones patrolling the sky or the camera on wires that you see used in sports broadcasts. Being in an area prone to lightning I don’t think we could do this outside without padding the budget for lost drones.
Hah! Yes, lots of dead drones with all that lightning around! But interesting you did consider it.
One idea could be using it for security guards to mark when an area has been swept. Real-time tracking of guards plotted straight onto Google Maps, so a manager can see how recently an area has been swept by a security guard. You could colour code places that hadn’t been looked at in over, say, 5 hours as red, and anywhere seen within the last hour as green, for instance.
@ JohnathonL
I agree it is really cool to see these tools being put to use in this way. It’s cool to see how technology can actually be used in different wyas to save lives.
@ holmesd
Very good point. It is amazing what can be done with technology today. To think, my first cell phone was the size of a brick, cost nearly a thousand dollars and I was lucky to get a decent call through with it. Today we practically carry a supercomputer in our pocket.
@ safeNsane
I agree Google Earth is very handy for drawing out zones I like how they are using the gPS precision here. I worked for a software company for awhile that made customer relationship managenent software for the service industrey and when I left the company they were developing an App for a tree trimming service that used Google Earth. They were able to pull up the property and mark up areas where work would be done, mark trees for removal, etc. Very cool technology.
@ Sunita
I agree. I like the idea of Google Earth technology being used to enhance security.
@ Rob
Very good ideas your brainstorming here! Be careful, someone will make an app for that!
That’s a cool idea for an app but what do you do when the data is a couple years old and you have issues like a tree that is already down due to storm damage or a tree that is much larger than it appears on Google Earth? This is the type of issue I wonder about when I see apps built around their maps.
@ SafeNsane
That is a very good point, I know when I pull up my property on Google Maps the image is at least five years old (The old lady who owned my house before me, before she passed away is sitting in her swing in the front yard). I suppose for it to be usefull one would actually have to get an in-person view of the property to check for discrepencies.
It’s a good point, how often do these images tend to be updated? Suppose it depends on how densely populated an rear you live in?
I haven’t seen any data on how often specific areas are updated but I do know that it is far from consistant and it doesn’t seem to be on a regular schedule for the area I’m in. I know they use a lot of arial photos from local municipalities but I don’t imagine the city informs Google when they do a new survey. That makes me wonder if we will start to see partnerships develop between cities/counties and Google to ease things like code enforcement. Maybe give Google your maps and Google develops a tool for cities to do a side… Read more »
Could also help town planners, who could look at how changes have impacted… i dunno, traffic flow rate etc.
@ Rob
I am not sure how often the images are updated. I am sure it isn’t very often for the “street view”. I know there are a lot of rural areas still where you can’t even use that feature yet because they haven’t got images.
We could use some of that planning around here. I swear that when schools are built they just look for open space and put a pin in a map. Traffic going into and out of the school is typically a nightmare and you wonder if anyone gave thought to how the roadways around the school were going to handle the increased activity.