Citysense: Where Is Everybody?!

A new smartphone application developed by Sense Networks tells you where to find the most crowded spots at a specific moment. Nice for deciding where to go out, or maybe where not to. Citysense is an innovative mobile application for real-time nightlife discovery and social navigation, answering the question: “Where is everybody going right now?”

A heatmap shows realtime GPS information sent by other phones. For now this application is available only for the city of San Francisco for alpha testing. Later it will roll out to major metropolitan areas in the States and abroad. For more info and a test version, check Sense Networks. The developers say:

“Citysense shows the overall activity level of the city, top activity hotspots, and places with unexpectedly high activity, all in real-time. Then it links to Yelp and Google to show what venues are operating at those locations. Citysense is a free demonstration of the Macrosense platform that everyone can enjoy.”

Most fascinating in the context of this blog is the idea that place and time get separated. The tool produces time layers about the temporary importance of places. This might reset the fixed mental map that most people carry with them. Citysense is not only a nice instrument for investigating city’s intensity in time lapse. Besides this, it’s a city exploration tool, making it possible to join crowds that you did not know of. Think about the possibility of spontaneous demonstrations, unprogrammed flash mobs, and, best of all: ILLEGAL PARTIES!

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