I’ll introduce a new section on the “Geospatial Talk” blog called Jobs. Each month I’ll describe 5 GIS or Geo-related jobs around the world. This month selection includes:
The combination between Google Maps and YouTube allows you to make a virtual travel from Moscow to Vladivostok. The video is georeferenced and synchronized with the map. This feature allows you to navigate on the map an see the corresponding section in the video.
Original text to the application:
The great Trans Siberian Railway, the pride of Russia, goes across two continents, 12 regions and 87 cities. The joint project of Google and the Russian Railways lets you take a trip along the famous route and see Baikal, Khekhtsirsky range, Barguzin mountains, Yenisei river and many other picturesque places of Russia without leaving your house. During the trip, you can enjoy Russian classic literature, brilliant images and fascinating stories about the most attractive sites on the route. Let’s go!
You can see this widget on : http://www.google.ru/intl/ru/landing/transsib/en.html
The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.
Data: Digital Universe, American Museum of Natural History (http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/universe)
Visualization Software: Uniview by SCISS
Director: Carter Emmart
Curator: Ben R. Oppenheimer
Producer: Michael Hoffman
Executive Producer: Ro Kinzler
Co-Executive Producer: Martin Brauen
Manager, Digital Universe Atlas: Brian Abbott
Music: Suke Cerulo
For more information visit http://www.amnh.org
ArcGIS Online has migrated map tiling scheme of their map services to Google Maps and Microsoft Bing Maps well known tiling scheme. All ESRI Map resources can now overlayed and mashed-up with Google Map layers and Bing Map layers, because they use the same coordinate system, map DPI and tile size. Also cached levels of detail match with the Google/Microsoft “Industry Standard”.
For example their new topographic Map looks great and has a lot of details (at least in some parts of the US):
Server URL: http://services.arcgisonline.com
Coordinate system: Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere (WKID 102100)
Units of measure: Decimal degrees
| Global Extent: | Maximum Longitude: Approx. 180 | |
| Maximum Latitude: Approx. 85 | ||
| Minimum Longitude: Approx. -180 | ||
| Minimum Latitude: Approx. -85 | ||
Map DPI: 96
Tile Size of Map Cache: 256 pixels by 256 pixels
Levels of Detail: The number of cached levels of detail varies among map services. The scale levels are calculated, based upon the tile size (256 by 256) and the WGS 1984 Web Mercator coordinate system, such that when tiles are laid out starting at 180W and proceeding eastward, the final tile aligns perfectly (no overlap) with the first tile at the international date line.
These are the standard map scale and cell sizes:
| Layer level | Map scale | Cell size |
|---|---|---|
| L00 | 1:591,657,528 | 1 pixel = 1.40624 Decimal degrees (Meters at equator:156,543.033928) |
| L01 | 1:295,828,764 | 1 pixel = 0.70312 Decimal degrees (Meters at equator: 78,271.516964) |
| L02 | 1:147,914,382 | 1 pixel = 0.35156 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 39,135.758482) |
| L03 | 1:73,957,191 | 1 pixel = 0.17578 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 19,567.879241) |
| L04 | 1:36,978,595 | 1 pixel = 0.08789 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 9,783.939620) |
| L05 | 1:18,489,298 | 1 pixel = 0.04395 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 4,891.969810) |
| L06 | 1:9,244,649 | 1 pixel = 0.02197 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 2,445.984905) |
| L07 | 1:4,622,324 | 1 pixel = 0.01099 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 1,222.992453) |
| L08 | 1:2,311,162 | 1 pixel = 0.00549 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 611.496226) |
| L09 | 1:1,155,581 | 1 pixel = 0.00275 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 305.748113) |
| L10 | 1:577,791 | 1 pixel = 0.00137 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 152.874057) |
| L11 | 1:288,895 | 1 pixel = 0.00069 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 76.437028) |
| L12 | 1:144,448 | 1 pixel = 0.00034 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 38.218514) |
| L13 | 1:72,224 | 1 pixel = 0.00017 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 19.109257) |
| L14 | 1:36,112 | 1 pixel = 0.00009 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 9.554629) |
| L15 | 1:18,056 | 1 pixel = 0.00004 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 4.777314) |
| L16 | 1:9,028 | 1 pixel = 0.00002 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 2.388657) |
| L17 | 1:4,514 | 1 pixel = 0.00001 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 1.194329) |
| L18 | 1:2,257 | 1 pixel = 0.000005 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 0.597164) |
| L19 | 1:1,128 | 0.000003 Decimal Degrees (Meters at equator: 0.298582) |
We know Google mounts car with 360 degrees cameras and GPS to show us streets. We know Google also mounts bicycles with 360 degrees cameras and GPS to show us streets where cars are not allowed to drive. But now Google also mounts snowmobiles with 360 degrees cameras and GPS to show us ski slopes in the mountains.
Rign on time, only several days before the official start of the winter olympics Google publishes street view images from Whistler Mountain and several other ski resorts around Vancouver.
Quote from the Google Blog:
The Street View team’s constant experimenting yielded a snowmobile decked out with cameras to capture slope-level imagery of several runs on Whistler Blackcomb Mountains. The view from the top of 7th Heaven chairlift on Blackcomb and from the peak of Whistler are among my favourites, as are the top of the Dave Murray downhill, where the men’s alpine skiing events will start, and the Peak 2 Peak gondola. (That’s Whistler’s new feat of engineering which takes skiers and riders from Whistler to Blackcomb.) With the Street View trike, we’ve also covered Whistler Village and Whistler Creekside at the mountains’ bases.
The Google Maps team also launched a new site, including all street view areas of ski slopes, for the Olympic Winter Games: www.google.com/games10
The only question left: Where else will be StreetView and do we need all this imagery?
Critical Statement: The next thing announced are indoor StreetViews in stores and shopping centers. Again a playground for marketing. I hope at least some places on planet earth will left blank on the StreetView Map.
[http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/02/street-view-hits-slopes-at-whistler.html]
Recently the new version of Google Maps show up in the Android Market and asks for an update. The current version is called 3.4 and includes Multi-touch as amazing new feature for Map navigation. Now it is really convenient to browse the map using following functions and gestures:
Multi-touch should work on all devices. So not only on the Nexus One or Motorola Droid/Milestone but also on older devices such as Samsung Galaxy, HTC Magic, HTC G1 or HTC Hero (at least with custom Roms).
It really seems Google will no longer consider Apples “claim” for Multi-touch. In the near future it is expected that Google and 3rd party developers of Android will provide a lot of apps with Multi-touch capabilities (some examples like the browser are seen in the video). Reasons for buying an iPhone are smelting like snow in the sun.
Other new features for Android Maps are extended Lab functions. Following “experimental” functions are available:
With the new version it should be also possible to use your Google My Maps Account.
