Augmented Reality Lets the DPD Know Where You Are

Google Earth and similar programs show a synthetic view of the world using satellite and aerial imagery, overlayed with street information and points of interest. What if you could replace the satellite imagery with live video from an infrared camera? That’s just what the Denver Police Department does with the latest technology. Until this system, officers had to locate targets on the ground using traditional automotive-like mapping systems (or worse, paper maps) that required them to take their eyes off of the suspect in order to attempt to locate their position so that they could communicate it to ground units.

Learn how hardware-accelerated 3D graphics and GIS databases might save your life, what happens when geeks meet cops, and how all of this helps make desktop software better.