[HN Gopher] FixPhrase - open-source, patent-free what3words alte... ___________________________________________________________________ FixPhrase - open-source, patent-free what3words alternative Author : nodoodles Score : 22 points Date : 2022-06-21 21:22 UTC (1 hours ago) (HTM) web link (fixphrase.com) (TXT) w3m dump (fixphrase.com) | sixhobbits wrote: | What stops W3W legal team shutting down this ohe like they did to | the other open source implementation? | 1970-01-01 wrote: | I would also like to know why this isn't considered patent | infringement. | | https://patents.justia.com/assignee/what3words-limited | | --- | | I've poked around the website. They claim an "open-source, | patent-free algorithm" is used, and therefore the entire | concept doesn't infringe on W3W's patents. Yikes. They can | expect letters and lawyers. | | https://source.netsyms.com/Netsyms/fixphrase.com/wiki/How-It... | teraflop wrote: | The fact that W3W managed to get their patent issued is | pretty hilarious in light of this: | https://patents.stackexchange.com/questions/13629/i-had- | inve... | [deleted] | samwillis wrote: | It looks like the key difference between this and what3words is | that squares near each other have mostly the same words. With | only the last word changing for adjacent squares, and even then | they are similar. I can see the motivation for this (you can | abbreviate to fewer words for a general area), but alto suspect | it is partially about the W3w patent. However it also increases | the risk of being slightly wrong with a location, w3w is good for | things like emergency rescue as you can't be slightly wrong. | kybernetikos wrote: | Why would it increase the risk of being slightly wrong? If | anything, it helps to have consistent prefixes because you make | it more likely that someone will be able to recognise areas, or | know when places are near to other places. | | If the system allows it, you can also use fewer words to target | a bigger area. For example | https://wherewords.id/juniper/detailed/ is an area of Paris, | while https://wherewords.id/juniper/detailed/rate/thunder is a | specific point in the Gare du Nord. | | The only real reason I think it can be good to avoid a | hierarchy is because having one makes the sensitivity of the | word list much more significant. For example, if an entire | country has a negative association word like 'stingy' or | 'lying' in its first word, that could be a significant problem. | | If you really need a checksum, https://wherewords.id/ supports | an optional emoji checksum. | croes wrote: | "However, security researcher Andrew Tierney demonstrated in | 2021 that the What3words algorithm does not sufficiently | protect against confusion between nearby locations because it | may assign words that are similarly spelled or pronounced, | which can limit the value of the system when a precise and | unambiguous location is required, like safety-critical | applications. Analysis by Tierney showed that close repetitions | and the use of plurals occur in physically close locations. The | company says that this has a one in 2.5 million chance of | occurrence, but Tierney's analysis has highlighted areas where | the odds are around 1 in 500." | | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words#Criticism | kybernetikos wrote: | This is a bit like my http://wherewords.id that I made as a fun | holiday project. I used the S3 mapping (same as the one used by | pokemon go), and my own wordlist. | | The wordlist is surprisingly hard work. The first location I | clicked on fixphrase had as one of its words 'french'. That's | potentially pretty confusing. | ortusdux wrote: | I picked a random location and got "daringly kleenex sloppily | very". Are there any issues with the fact that "kleenex" is a | registered trademark? | beeneuf wrote: | Kleenex is widely viewed as a genericized trademark and appears | as an English word in the Merriam-Webster and Oxford | dictionaries, which this may use as a source. | baal80spam wrote: | I'm trying to think of a use case for such a service. Any ideas? | stop50 wrote: | For places that don't have an adress or the adress is ambigious | Ayesh wrote: | Telling a location over the phone when you are in an emergency | comes to mind. Easier to remember than a series of numbers as | is the case latitude/longitude. | toolz wrote: | neither this nor w3w are as useful as googles already open source | https://maps.google.com/pluscodes/ in my opinion. | | With plus codes you can both have a short, memorable address and | gauge relative distance with other nearby addresses. I'm not sure | I can think of a reason to ever use fixphrase or w3w as an | alternative to this already existing open standard. | pkulak wrote: | w3w considers the disambiguity an asset. Almost like a check | sum. If you enter an address, and it's in the middle of the | Pacific, you know you wrote it down wrong. | toolz wrote: | that's an interesting point, but in practice I don't see how | it's meaningful. If you write down a plus code and end up in | a similar area, you contact the person with the address and | figure it out without much issue. If you can't contact that | person again, well you're at least most likely to be in the | area and can ask around for directions. | | with w3w if you can't contact the person with the address | again, you've no idea where on the planet this place might | be. | kybernetikos wrote: | The point of using words is that it should be more reliable | when roundtripping via voice or memory. I think it's much | easier for people to remember 'reader giraffe suppose advance' | than WF24+VMR ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-06-21 23:00 UTC)