Our geohash

• by hcvst
• September 12, 2011

In preparation for Software Freedom Day and the H4H stand here is the Geohash of the H4H address: kekhczvdbmvb. Geohashing converts a GPS location into a string. Latitude and longitude are expressed as two sequences of bits where each bit increases the precision by halving the interval a value falls into. For example, with latitude the first bit indicates whether a point is on the northern or southern hemisphere (90-0 or -90 to 0 degrees) the second whether the point falls into the (+/-) 90 to 45 or the 45 to 0 degrees range, etc.. The bit sequences are then merged into one sequence (even bits for longitude, odd bits for latitude) and finally converted to base32. There’s a worked example on Wikipedia.

Although short, a Geohash code is not a pleasure to type. One possible use other than to share it online is to generate a QR-code (Quick Response) for it as shown below.

Proudly generarted at http://qr-code.co.za – my very own, all Python QR code generator in a messy but working pre-alpha state. 🙂

 

In preparation for Software Freedom Day and the H4H stand here is the Geohash of the H4H address: kekhczvdbmvb. Geohashing converts a GPS location into a string. Latitude and longitude are expressed as two sequences of bits where each bit increases the precision by halving the interval a value falls into. For example, with latitude the first bit…