GeoTeq: Emerging technologies

In addition to our other core teams, we also keep our eyes on emerging technologies and the impact they may have on Ordnance Survey and its customers.  There is a need to understand what the technology trends are, and how Ordnance Survey and our customers can use them.

Our investigations of these technologies are generally short-term projects - although there are some longer-term strands. By concentrating on rapid concept development projects we are able to produce prototypes that illustrate our ideas without the need for technology to already exist. 

Our work is designed to spark new ideas about how Ordnance Survey data can be used in relation to emerging technologies. We look towards prospective trends and are helping to enable Ordnance Survey, its partners and customers with the geographic data of the future.

Virtual World Environments

Online virtual worlds - 3D, immersive environments where users are represented as avatars - have been in existence for over a decade with an industry now with millions of paying users and total revenues well in excess of $1Billion. Our research seeks to advance this trend of building parallel environments and experiences further by constructing a virtual world based upon real world topography using OS height data and datasets such as OS MasterMap.

Flexible Displays

(Image of Polymer Vision's Readius)

This project closely monitors the developments in the field of flexible displays with a view to identify threats/opportunities, advise and help Ordnance Survey formulate an adaptive strategy. A flexible display, an electronic screen that one can bend, roll, fold or conform to an uneven surface, has long been a sort of technological holy grail. Lightweight, durable, highly power efficient, cheap and environmentally friendly to produce and dispose of, the entrance of flexible displays to the consumer market will represent something of a revolution, with a disruptive effect for many related industries.

More recently there have been some important breakthroughs in the field and the first true flexible displays are poised to come on to the market later this year while elements of the technology, such as E-ink, are already available in a number of applications. Manufacturers of computers (especially laptops), televisions, projectors and almost any mobile device from phones to entertainment players are poised to take advantage of the benefits of flexible displays while the conventional graphics industry producing magazines, newspapers, books and signage are formulating strategies to deal with the expected positive/negative knock-on effects in their respective markets.

For Ordnance Survey, flexible display technology may have an adverse effect on the sales of paper maps but it may also provide some new opportunities. Freed from the constraints of the limited power and screen sizes in mobile devices, flexible displays could open up new markets, offering new distribution channels for maps and spatial information.