onsdag den 31. marts 2010

Great Britain's Ordnance Survey Launches OS OpenSpace - Mashups Made Easy


Det ville være fedt om KMS ville gå samme vej ...
/Sik


Way to go!
/Sik


Quote

Welcome to the OS OpenSpace API

The OS OpenSpace API is free to access and lets developers create amazing web applications and online projects with Ordnance Survey maps.

But OS OpenSpace API is not just for developers.

Although the API uses JavaScript to make web pages more interactive, anyone can create an application by following our sample code and tutorials.

Get Ordnance Survey maps on your website to enhance the service and customer experience.

  • Register
  • Developer area
  • Forum
OS OpenSpace API screen shot

Example of OS OpenSpace API displaying Ordnance Survey data


Read more: http://openspace.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/openspace/

Map the State of Play in Your Community!


Beskriv din legeplads ... Vores lokale legeplads er ikke noget at råbe hurra for ... desværre ...
/Sik


Map and play ...
/Sik


Quote

KaBOOM! is a site dedicated to getting people (especially kids) outside to play. There are tips on how to get kids outside to play, and why it's really important to do so. You can get a map (and ratings) of your local playgrounds, too. [...]




Read more: http://playspacefinder.kaboom.org/?playspace_id=92386-hanneberg-kvarterpark

Self-confessed map addict Mike Parker explores modern cartography


Hør Mike Parker fortælle om kort på BBC ...
/Sik


Listen to maps ...
/Sik


Quote

AVAILABLE NOW ON BBC IPLAYER

  1. LISTEN TO THE LATEST PROGRAMME

    Off the Map

    MORE:
    programme information

    (15 minutes)

    Available since yesterday with 6 days left.

    7/10. Mike Parker visits a Cold War military site that was once a blank space on an OS map.

  2. ALSO AVAILABLE

    1. World View

      MORE:
      programme information

      (15 minutes)

      Available since Monday with 5 days left.

      6/10. Mike Parker looks at the picture that maps and atlases give us of the wider world.

    2. The Lie of the Land

      MORE:
      programme information
      related links

      (15 minutes)

      Available since Friday with 2 days left.

      5/10. Mike Parker discovers how maps can be used as tools of power, politics and propaganda.

    3. Social Mapping

      MORE:
      programme information
      related links

      (15 minutes)

      Available since Thursday with 1 day left.

      4/10. How society is now being analysed online in cartographic mash-ups and crowd-sourced data.

    4. Motoring Maps

      MORE:
      programme information

      (15 minutes)

      Available since last Wednesday with 7 hours left.

      3/10. Mike Parker recalls a bygone age of elegant motoring maps.


Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rd8z5

The MapProxy Project


Hvis kort var en virus MapProxy kunne være inkubationsrummet ....
/Sik


If maps were a virus this is the incubation chamber ...
/Sik


Quote

MapProxy is an open source proxy for geospatial data. It caches, accelerates and transforms data from existing map servers. Unlike other solutions, the OGC WMS standard remains on client and server-side.

It is a middle-man between existing web map servers (like MapServer or GeoServer) and clients. All existing web and desktop GIS applications can be used, but also modern clients like OpenLayers and GoogleEarth.

mapproxy

Features of MapProxy

MapProxy acts as a WMS, TMS and KML server. It does not render any data itself but delegates requests to other server. It stores all responses and reuses that cached data for further requests. It can requests data from WMS and TMS clients.

MapProxy supports:

MapProxy can:

  • accelerate existing WMS
  • reproject to other SRS (i.e. cache in EPSG:4326, requests in EPSG:31467)
  • combine individual map layers from different WMS services
  • hide the origin WMS servers
  • fill caches dynamic, in advance or both
  • add watermarks and/or attributions to all responses
[...]

Read more: http://mapproxy.org/

Cities at Night - The View From Space


Mønstre af lys som stråler af liv ...
/Sik


Patterns of light reflecting the life of mankind ...
/Sik


Quote


To an observer in space, humanity's footprints on the surface of the Earth are large and varied. They include the regular patterns of irrigated cropland, straight lines of roads and railways running across continents, reservoirs on river systems, and the cement rectangles of ports and seawalls along coastlines. But what about humanity's signature footprint-cities? By day, cities viewed from space can blend into the countryside, or appear as gray smudges, depending on the style of development and size of the urban area. [...]


Everything you ever wanted to know about GPS


Bare det virker ...
/Sik


Just as long as it works ...
/Sik


Quote

[...]

  • There are always at least 24 active GPS satellites circling Earth, although today there are more than 30, including a couple of spares. Their orbits are spread out so that no matter where on Earth you are, you will have at least six of them in your line of sight.
  • Each GPS satellite goes around the world once every 12 hours. The satellites travel 12,500 miles (20,000 km) above us at roughly 7,000 miles per hour (11,000 km per hour). They have small boosters so they can adjust their path when needed.
  • The first full constellation of 24 satellites was completed in 1994. The first of those 24 satellites was sent up in 1989.
  • To get a reliable position reading, your GPS receiver will have to combine the signals from at least four satellites, although in some special cases, three are enough.
  • GPS was made public due to a tragedy. In 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007 entered Soviet airspace after a navigation error and was shot down, killing all 269 passengers. This incident resulted in President Ronald Reagan ordering the Unites States military to make the Global Positioning System available for civilian use once it was completed, so that similar incidents could be avoided in the future.
  • NAVSTAR is the US military name for the Global Positioning System.
  • GPS isn’t just for navigation. It can also be used to get a very exact time stamp. Every GPS satellite has multiple atomic clocks and the time is included in the signal it sends out. With the help of these signals, a GPS receiver can determine the current time within 100 billionths of a second. These signals are for example used to synchronize base stations in cell phone networks.
  • Relativistic effects. The clocks on the satellites, although very exact, are still subject to the effects of Einstein’s theory of relativity, which means that the time of the clocks in the satellites will slowly start to deviate from those on Earth. This is adjusted by control signals from Earth.
  • Ground antennas spread around the world are used to control the satellites’ paths and synchronize their clocks.
  • The 50th Space Wing of the United States Air Force operates the GPS satellites. GPS is owned by and is under the control of the United States Department of Defense.
  • Until 2000, civilian GPS use was crippled by a feature called Selective Availability. It introduced a random error of up to 328 feet (100 meters) in the civilian signal to make GPS less useful for precision navigation. (GPS has different signals for military and civilian use.) Selective Availability was deactivated in May 1, 2000. The United States still has the ability to deactivate the civilian signal, if need be even for specific regions.
  • During the Gulf War in 1991, many US soldiers were equipped with civilian GPS units due to a shortage of military ones. However, Selective Availability made it extremely difficult to properly coordinate troop movements with civilian GPS units, so it was turned off for the duration of the war.
  • GPS is a work in progress. The system is continuously being upgraded and new satellites are being launched. This all means that precision will keep getting better, which will make the system increasingly useful.
  • GPS isn’t the only game in town. There are several other Global Navigation Satellite Systems in existence or on their way: The European Union is working on a system called Galileo, Russia has GLONASS (completed in partnership with India), and China has plans for a system called Compass. There are also systems that offer specific regional coverage, for example Japan’s QZSS and China’s Beidou.
  • The beginning: Satellite navigation systems date back to 1960. That was when Transit, used by the United States Navy, was first tested successfully. Transit used up to 10 satellites, and receivers judged their position based on the Doppler effect on the signals sent out from the satellites. Modern systems like GPS work differently, relying heavily on exact timing, hence the use of atomic clocks in the GPS satellites.
[...]

Read more: http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/03/23/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-gps/

Speed up Map Production


Automatiseret kartografi? Sikkert godt for nogen, men skidt for de fleste ...
/Sik


Some things can be automated - some things cannot - is this such a thing?
/Sik


Quote


AutoLayout

AutoLayout is an extension for ArcGIS. It helps ArcGIS users to quickly produce large numbers of map layouts while maintaining control over the quality and details of the output. It’s built to work with ArcMap around usual layout production process.

AutoLayout lets you automate map production while combining the art of cartography with the quality and precision of a mass production process.

AutoLayout functionalities and tools extend beyond map production and can be used separately for other purposes.

AutoLayout offers great user experience with a user interface that is easy to understand, lots of options to give you control over the application, and connectivity to our web services to help you stay updated and with full support.

Check out some of the Screenshots, or justDownload a trial and start using it now.

Learn More

Learn More

Read about AutoLayout's features and how it can help you.

Screenshots

Screenshots

Take a quick tour of AutoLayout's different functionalities.

Download

Download

Download a trial and start using it now.

Tutorials

Tutorials

Read detailed tutorials on how to use AutoLayout.

Purchase

Purchase

Get a license for AutoLayout oractivate your license.

Support

Support

Got a question? Just contact us or get help from other users in our community.


Read more: https://www.allthingsgeo.com/

Global Wellbeing Surveys Find Nations Worlds Apart


Hvorfor er det lige at vi er så tilfredse ...
/Sik


Oh happy day ...
/Sik


Quote

Gallup's global snapshot of wellbeing reveals a vast divide that underscores the diversity of economic development challenges around the world. The percentage who are "thriving" ranges from a high of 82% in Denmark to a low of 1% in Togo. [...]




Read more: http://www.gallup.com/poll/126977/Global-WellBeing-Surveys-Find-Nations-Worlds-Apart.aspx

mandag den 29. marts 2010

Portable Real Estate Listings — but With a Difference


Augmented mashup ...
/Sik


Mashing up the data and the real world ...
/Sik



Quote

Open the mobile phone application offered by a French real estate agency and point your phone at a building along the Champs-Élysées or some other street in Paris. Within seconds, you will see the property’s value per square meter, superimposed over a live image of the building streamed through the phone’s camera.

An illustration of augmented reality technology.

Speed and convenience delivered with the aim of a smartphone. Could this be the new frontier of on-demand property search?

It depends whom you ask.

The application, engineered by Layar, a 10-month-old company based in Amsterdam, uses “augmented reality” technology, or A.R., to harness a phone’s camera, global positioning system and compass. Elements like statistics and 3-D images are, essentially, layered over a live picture so the user gets a single view with all available information.

These A.R. “mash-ups” already are being used to display information about tourist sites, chart subway stops and restaurants, allow interior designers to superimpose new furniture or color schemes on a room, and give crime statistics for a specific area.

The A.R. Beatles Tour, for example, superimposes videos and 3-D models, like a yellow submarine, when a smartphone with the application is pointed at locations in London and Liverpool that were significant in the band’s career.

But, “does it provide users with information that they find valuable?” asked Simon Baker, chief executive of Classified Ad Ventures, the publisher of an online real estate site called Property Portal Watch. “Is there real value in using it? Will it fundamentally replace the way we do things? Or is it a gimmick?”

According to the French agency, MeilleursAgents.com, the results have been positive. Julien Cheyssial, one of the agency’s founders and its chief technology officer, said it took a developer only two days to customize the Layar browser with prices, based on city and agency records, and GPS coordinates. Since the agency’s version of the application was introduced in August 2008, he said, there have been several thousand downloads a week. [...]


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/greathomesanddestinations/26iht-rear.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th

fredag den 26. marts 2010

Ain't No Mountain High Enough...


Mere Google tager højde for ...
/Sik


The z-axis is back ...
/Sik


Quote

Lombard Street, San Francisco is featured on a million postcards as "the crookedest street in the world" due to the 8 hairpin bends on the block between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets. The famous turns are clearly visible on a map, but it is not obvious why they are necessary. And the rest of Lombard St looks like an innocent section of straight road from above.

However, it was while driving along the section of Lombard St west of Hyde that I was first introduced to the smell of a burning clutch. I was stuck in traffic in a car with manual transmission trying to drive up what is actually an incredibly steep hill, one of many in San Francisco. But apart from the shading in Terrain view there is no way to appreciate that on a map unless you switch to Street View.

We are therefore happy to introduce a new service to the Maps API family that enables applications to determine elevation profiles. Using either the new ElevationService Maps API v3 class or the Elevation Web Service you can request the elevation in meters for one or more sets of coordinates, or you can request a specific number of elevation samples equally spaced along a path. If any sampling points are over bodies of water, the service will return the depth relative to sea level as a negative number.

The below application uses the Google Visualization API to plot elevation profiles. You can add additional points by clicking on the map or entering an address, drag existing points arounds, and switch between different modes of travel. If you roll your mouse over the profile chart you can see on the map the point that the given sample relates to.

To facilitate easy generation of elevation profiles for routes generated for driving, cycling, or walking directions we have also added a new property to the DirectionsResult object called overview_path. This is a simplified path guaranteed to be short enough to pass to the Elevation Service.

As with all other Google Maps API services, the elevation service must be used in compliance with the Maps API Terms of Service which require that it be used in conjunction with display of a Google map. This means that if you display elevation information to your users that you have obtained using this service, or any data that you have derived from it, you must also show a Google map that indicates the points, path, or route concerned.

We think that this new elevation service is a natural complement to our recently launched bicycling directions. Now you can determine in advance just how painful your bicycling route is likely to be. In fact you’ll be happy to hear that the Maps API bicycling directions already factor in elevation, which is why if you ask for a route up Lombard Street you will be sent the long way round.


Read more: http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2010/03/aint-no-mountain-high-enough.html

ArcGIS.com Means a Full GIS in the Cloud


Hvad er der i vente? GIS data i skyen via Amazon ...
/Sik


What is cooking? Clouds ahead ...
/Sik


Quote

In a continuation of ESRI’s cloud-centric strategy following the Federal User Conference, where the relationship with Amazon Web Services was announced, this week’s Business Partner Conference includes news that users will be able to rent ArcGIS Server on Amazon and just pay for usage. In addition there are plans to have an online application store that will give users the ability to share data, services, models and templates.

The more intriguing news is the announcement of ArcGIS.com, a complete GIS implementation on the cloud, that will be made available later this year. This fully functional online platform could be the right fit for a number of users. This will bring down the barrier to entry, and allow a greater audience of potential users to become familiar with the tools without a huge up-front investment ...




Read more:

Discover Earth's Moon with amazing 3D graphics and touch navigation


I got the full moon in my hand ...
/Sik


Take me to the moon ...
/Sik


Quote

Moon Globe

Discover Earth's Moon with amazing 3D graphics and touch navigation. Moon Globe shows you how the Moon appears today, and lets you zoom in like a telescope with up to 500x magnification. Switch to globe mode, and you can spin above the surface, taking in the hidden far side, and look over the limb to see Earth in the distance. Surface features and landed spacecraft are labelled in an elegant 3D tag cloud. Adjust the time dynamically with on screen controls, and watch the sunlight move over the terrain. It even shows you where the Moon and Sun are in the sky at your location, with its dynamic sky compass.

Features:

  • Smooth 3D touch navigation.
  • Telescope mode and globe mode.
  • Sharp high-resolution views.
  • Dynamic time and illumination point adjustment.
  • Realtime topographic shading.
  • Over 1800 labelled terrain features.
  • "Sky compass" shows Moon and Sun position in the sky; points toward actual north on devices with a built in magnetic compass (iPhone 3GS).
  • Image rotate and reverse to match how the Moon appears through a telescope or binoculars.

Now available on the iTunes App Store!

screenshot screenshot

Read more: