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What Three Words

Posted: 28 October 21 8:34 am
by caughtatwork
https://what3words.com/

They have an API which we can incorporate into the Toolbox.

Do you think it would be useful?

Re: What Three Words

Posted: 28 October 21 8:42 am
by mattyrx
I’ve had to use What Three Words to find a couple of caches now. One on this site, and one on the other. I think it would be useful for both finders and hiders if it’s not too much trouble to incorporate.

Re: What Three Words

Posted: 28 October 21 8:58 am
by Sol de Lune
If we can add it, I believe it would certainly be used, so yep I think we should.

Re: What Three Words

Posted: 28 October 21 8:16 pm
by WazzaAndWenches
How about Plus-Codes?
I'm not up with api's but did find https://github.com/google/open-location-code

Re: What Three Words

Posted: 29 October 21 1:53 pm
by caughtatwork
WazzaAndWenches wrote:
28 October 21 8:16 pm
How about Plus-Codes?
I'm not up with api's but did find https://github.com/google/open-location-code
Interesting. There is no PHP implementation on that GitHub. I have found an encoder, but I do want to talk about the limitations.

The pluscode that is returned from the code is a 14m x 14m square. The entered co-ordinates are "INSIDE" that square, not always at the center. When decoding the pluscode we get the same square back. But if you co-ordinates were at the top right and I find the centre of the box (because we don't get back where the co-ordinates are in the box, just the actual bounding box), then you could be anywhere up to 7m off the "expected" co-ordinates. That's a decent chunk of space to search.

e.g.
This is at the corner of Flinders Street and Swanston Street in Melbourne.
https://plus.codes/4RJ65XJ8+XX
Putting that through the decoder gives me: -37.8175625,144.9674375 which is here https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/37 ... 44.9674375

I'm not sure that that's an acceptable "error" to havein the toolbox where the user (untrained in the ways of the pluscode) will expect 3m accuracy and will wonder why the co-ordinates are "off".

It's enough to find a house or address (which it's purpose), but with a bounding box 14m x 14m, this might not be good enough for us.

Thoughts?

Re: What Three Words

Posted: 29 October 21 3:42 pm
by mattyrx
I think you can drill down to a 3m x 3m area – just need an extra char at the end.

e.g. https://plus.codes/4RJ65XJ8+XX is 14x14m area
https://plus.codes/4RJ65XJ8+XXG is a 3mx3m area

It’s another interesting coordinate format. Would be pretty cool to have it in the GCA toolbox too if it’s not a headache to get working.

Re: What Three Words

Posted: 29 October 21 6:26 pm
by whitewebbs
Yes thanks, What3words would be handy in the toolbox.

Re: What Three Words

Posted: 29 October 21 7:32 pm
by WazzaAndWenches
caughtatwork wrote:
29 October 21 1:53 pm
... then you could be anywhere up to 7m off the "expected" co-ordinates. That's a decent chunk of space to search.
Based on the number of newbies that expect a cache to be at exactly zero, maybe 7m is a bit too far.
mattyrx wrote:
29 October 21 3:42 pm
I think you can drill down to a 3m x 3m area – just need an extra char at the end.
If the accuracy can be reduced to 3m there's less chance of "It's not there" logs. :-"

Re: What Three Words

Posted: 31 October 21 10:56 am
by caughtatwork
WazzaAndWenches wrote:
29 October 21 7:32 pm
caughtatwork wrote:
29 October 21 1:53 pm
... then you could be anywhere up to 7m off the "expected" co-ordinates. That's a decent chunk of space to search.
Based on the number of newbies that expect a cache to be at exactly zero, maybe 7m is a bit too far.
mattyrx wrote:
29 October 21 3:42 pm
I think you can drill down to a 3m x 3m area – just need an extra char at the end.
If the accuracy can be reduced to 3m there's less chance of "It's not there" logs. :-"
The code does not provide the 3mx3m. Only the 14mx14m. The website may provide that, but he code does not.

Re: What Three Words

Posted: 31 October 21 3:54 pm
by Laighside Legends
There are a few puzzles in SA that use OLC/Plus codes. The lack of accuracy has caused problems with some of these puzzles. The solution seems to be to make sure the Geochecker has a radius of about 15m on it so it accepts all coordinates within the square.

Re: What Three Words

Posted: 31 October 21 4:11 pm
by Laighside Legends
Also be aware that W3W will charge us for using there API if we go above 1000 requests per month. I have no idea how close we'd get to that limit.

There is also a thing out there called "What Free Words" which is an open source version of the same algorithm the W3W uses. The people at W3W are not too happy about this and tend to send DMCA takedown requests to anyone that publishes the code. So use it at your own risk I guess.

Re: What Three Words

Posted: 02 November 21 2:44 pm
by caughtatwork
Laighside Legends wrote:
31 October 21 4:11 pm
Also be aware that W3W will charge us for using there API if we go above 1000 requests per month. I have no idea how close we'd get to that limit.

There is also a thing out there called "What Free Words" which is an open source version of the same algorithm the W3W uses. The people at W3W are not too happy about this and tend to send DMCA takedown requests to anyone that publishes the code. So use it at your own risk I guess.
There is a monthly limit
1,000 convert to coordinates requests per month
Plus unlimited* requests for
Convert to 3 word address
AutoSuggest
40+ languages
Grid
I cannot imagine our toolbox hitting that limit. They have no automated billing details (Credit Car, PayPal, etc), so all they can do is invoice if we hit the limit. They could restrict the service if we hit the limit and then I assume we get an error message. They seem like a pretty litigious organisation so I'll bear that in mind should I decide to progress.

Re: What Three Words

Posted: 03 November 21 9:51 pm
by Richary
Given I have what3words on the phone already, I don't know if it is a critical thing to implement. It also displays in the Emergency+ app if you have that. Though my iPhone accuracy at least indoors gives me less than 3m accuracy anyway so it keeps changing :D But it could be useful for anyone who wants to solve puzzles at home and doesn't use a smartphone.