The City Bikes API is used to find information about bike share systems, such as the available bikes, available docks, quotes, and passes. Usage fees are charged with passes, and possible tax rates that a specific bike could be charged. It is possible to get the location of a single bike or station as well, and the information for a bike system, such as an ID or access key. The data extends beyond 400 cities around the world and it’s open to public use. This data can be used for research, projects, or creating apps, and it is used by developers, companies, and cyclists.

When I first saw the word “API” I thought to myself: “what the heck is API?” API seems confusing to people until they understand what it stands for: Application Programming Interface. In Jer’s article ART AND THE API, he defines API as a bridge that allows computer programs to communicate. But how is it related to art ? Well, according to Jer, API can be extremely useful for media artists because it enables them to “makes a permanent link between two applications, one whose pitch and timbre can change as the data themselves are updated.”

An example of the use of API in the art world could be the  Met collection API. It is the Met’s Open Access datasets that are available through a RESTful web service in JSON format. The API provides access to all of the Met’s Open Access data and to corresponding high resolution images.

In the OpenStreetMap API, it is able to retrieve and store raw geographical info on the OpenStreetMap database.  While this API provides data, it is not used for web use like google maps. It is more so used as a map editor software. You can still, however, request sections of code to use for a map. It is open sourced so anyone can use this to build what they want, and anyone can edit it. The current version, after updating it, is 0.6.

 

An API that is currently in use is the “People In Space API.” As the name implies, it is a simple API that returns the current, up-to-date data on the number of people in space right now along with their names and the names of the spacecrafts that they are on. It takes NASA’s data and and displays it in a simple programming interface. There is no input for this API. Data that has not been displayed in this API are the previous records on the number of people in space.

http://api.open-notify.org/astros.json

http://open-notify.org/Open-Notify-API/People-In-Space/

API – Houndify

Houndify is an audio and language API that could be implemented to provide voice-enabled intelligence and audio identification to make products and services more interactive and personally responsive to customers. Through Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU), the API allows users to add an AI experience that continuously learns and collects data that can be customized. It follows a speech-to-meaning system with deep meaning understanding to allow a natural voice service so that users can find the results they want on any connected software or platform. Houndify has private beta features by request that include iris recognition, emotion detection, and face recognition. Users of these features don’t necessarily know how this information is being collected and what the data is used for.

Uses of the API include being featured in voice control in automobiles, audio and music recognition for users to identify sounds and songs to discover, location based services to make results relevant to users, and wide multilingual capabilities that bring together more diversity and accessibility.

https://www.houndify.com/

The “International Space Station Pass Times” is an API that  tells you the next n number of times that the international space station (ISS), which is an orbital outpost, will be overhead. The required inputs for this API include the number of passes to return, a latitude, longitude, and the altitude of the place to predict passes. The definition of overhead here is 10 degree in elevation for the observer. After coputing, the API will returns a list of timestamp, which are the upcoming ISS passing for a specific location in JSON format, with the duration in seconds. However, the times will be less accurate as time pass because of the unpredictability of the orbit of ISS decay, but the information is enough to compute pass times for several weeks.

Link:

http://open-notify.org/Open-Notify-API/ISS-Pass-Times/

http://open-notify.org

https://www.twilio.com/

Twilio is a communication API that engages customers through a variety of platforms such as SMS, video, audio and WhatsApp. I use it for my competition prototype to connect customers and keep them updated. For example, Twilio can send customers messages and react based on their responses. As the articles suggested, the basic function of API is to bridge one piece of software to another. And the reactions will change as the data themselves are updated. The API let me access basic contact information of customers which are not open to public. Hence it helps to keep track of customers’ activities. And through the platform, several reaction processes are simplified into a few if statements.

other uses of Twilio:

Twilio Flex: contact center platform, integrate several platforms into one, so it’s more convenient to manage customers’ contact information

add more channels e.g. Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Slack, RCS business messaging

“Current Location of the International Space Station” is an API that, as the name suggests,  provides the user with access to information on the location of the international station. The object contains a timestamp for when the information was collected and a location object with the longitude and latitudes of the space station. The data for the API is relayed from the NORAD and NASA databases and verified using “Two Line Element.” This API can be used to potentially map out the path of the International Space Station and determine relative position from the user, to get a sense of scope for this celestial machine. The API, unfortunately does not have information on the altitude of international space station, which is a piece of relevant information I imagine exists

 

Link to API: http://api.open-notify.org/iss-now.json

 

Link to page: http://open-notify.org/Open-Notify-API/ISS-Location-Now/

Name of API: Lusha

link: https://www.lusha.co

Lusha is a contacts API which provides access to contact details. User can get full profile info on individuals for recruitment purposes, including full name, email, picture, phone numbers and location details.  Users can also get rich information of companies for macerating or sales, such as company logos, locations, description, etc. Lusha can also be integrated with marketing tools and sales tools.

APIXU is a API platform that provides datas like real-time weather, weather forecast, historical weather forecast, astronomy, time zone, location data and so on. All the data can be accessed by using city name, zip code, latitude and longitude, ip address and so on. The data base is powerful and accurate. It has a high availability of data. The weather API requires more cause the data type is changing all the time. The API has to keep updated instantly and simultaneously. The data source can be accessed easily. You can use the APIXU by type in city’s name. Or you can type in airport code. Or you can even use auto IP detection.

APIXU-JAVA:https://github.com/apixu/apixu-java/blob/master/.gitattributes

The conditions:http://www.apixu.com/doc/conditions.json