What is special about Geospatial?

In Youtube now you can also search for videos from a special region or location. To use local search you can enter the name of one location in the search box of YouTube. In most cases there appear a small map with 3 videos form the local search linking to an map interface. If you cannot see this map on the search results you have to specify the location in the advanced search.

The local search uses a Google Maps which is located directly above the search results. The maker and the buffer (as red circle) shows the region where videos are searched. One drawback until now that there is no direct linking between the search results and the map.

The marker in the map can be changed to search for another region.

[via GWB]

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

Adobe will release their new version of the Acrobat family soon. One of the new features is the integration of spatial data and maps in PDF.

Now it is possible to create and share PDF maps by importing geospatial files that retain metadata and coordinates. For this reason Adobe is working together with ESRI. Acrobat user can enable everyone with the free Adobe Reader to measure and comment on geospatial enabled PDF maps.

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

The Austrian Federal Enviromental Agency (Umweltbundesamt) maps air quality data from gauging stations distributed over the area of Austria. The recorded data from the sensors can be actualised by the user from the map interface. Used technologies are Google Maps and geonames.org for georeferencing.

Values for ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monodixe and some other are recored and mapped. I’m not sure if the application works for any browser, becuase I had some troubles with Safari.

Link: http://luft.umweltbundesamt.at/pub/gmap/start.html

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (see definition at Wikipedia).

The application fields of augmented reality for spatial problems are very broad. The contain navigation, enviromental planning, etc. Object recognition is here also an issue. Currently many GI researchers are dealing with the topic of augmented maps. Some interesting papers are for example:

• Augmented Maps
• Localisation and Interaction for Augmented Maps
• Clarification Dialogues in Human-Augmented Mapping
• Overlaying Paper Maps with Digital Information Services for Tourists

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

Klagenfurt is the capital of the federal state of Carinthia (where I live) in Austria. It has a population of over 90,000 people, making it the sixth-largest city in the country. Klagenfurt is also a host city of the EURO 2008 which will take place next month in Switzerland and Austria. Now there is a cool new service simmilar to Google’s Streetview available, where you can see georeferenced Panoramas of the city. The great thing here is that there are also photos of walking areas available.

Screenshot of the Site:

(Click on the image to enlarge)

If you are interested you can also see it live at http://www.virtual-klagenfurt.at/

Unfortunately there is no information who has implemented this service. But I suggest this is a private project. The service is also relatively new therefore users have the posibillity to report errors.

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

Mozilla FireFox is an awsome Internet browser. With the version 3 the developers have enhanced the usability of the software once more. Therefore it is not surprising that the maket share is rising according to XiTi.

Click on image to enlarge the map

In Austria there is makret share of about 32%. I think after the official release of version 3 there will be an further boost in the maket share.

[via derStandard]

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

It’s one of the biggest secrets of Google is about their data centers: Where are these centers and how many centers do Google have all over the world? It’s assumed that all in all an area of an small city will be needed for Googles services - but nobody knows the exact amount. The website “Royal Pingdom” has published a map where the majority of Googles data centers is located.

In this map 36 locations are entered, where centers are assumed. This list is not complete and could also include wrong information. According to this map 19 of 36 centers are located accross the USA, 12 are in Europe, 3 in Asia and 1 in Russia and South Africa. Several additional centers are alleged planned in Taiwan, Malaysia, Lithuania and in South Carolina.

» Map Data Centers
» List Data Centers

[via GWB]

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

Today Microsoft has updated their Webmapping service Virtual Earth to version 6.1. In this actual version lots of new functions were integrated. Now the service should be working also on Safari and Internet Explorer 8 Beta. New photographies are integrated and the 3D function is improved. Additional useres can generated their own maps and share them with other internet users.

A shot summery of important changes:

• 3D
  • More realistic due improved textures and 3d Trees.
  • Improved Representation of Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; Dallas, TX; und Denver. Another 250 cities should follow shortly, hopefully also Vienna.
  • Make your own 3D routes with 15 to 30 fps.
  • Improved Support of Birds-Eye
• Birds-Eye
  • Hybrid-View with Birds-Eye to view street names.
• Platform Browser Support: Support of Safari 3 und IE 8.0.
• Collections: Upload your personal map on Virtual Earth and publish it on Virtual Earth Collections. For this use MapCruncher from MS research, which you can download here. An Example: Crunch sample including Seattle Transit
• New Routing functionality
  • Walking-Direction
  • Routing considering traffic. Using ClearFlow-Technology to integrate traffic information from traffic.com. Example: SeaTac to UW
• Improved Language Support for Walking-Routes/Routes in 15 Languages including: German, English, French, Spanish, Portugese and Italian.
• Geocoding: The new reverse Geocoding-Support enables to convert Longitude and Latitude into an Adress.
• Improved Search: New data from Zagat and Yep included, two sources for restaurants. Example: Reviews of Papa John’s in Redmond
• SDK-Update: New functions for developers with the SDK.

[via winfuture.de]

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

Recently Google Updated their Google Charts API. Now there are some new chart types available. These new chart types and the new unlimited API calls for the Chart API makes this API even more useful.

Interesting is the new chart type Map. this chart type allows you to color countries of the world. For the map cou can choose either a world map or maps from the continents. For more information check the official google sites.

[via code.google.com]

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

Spatial applications arise from a strong tradition of of the importance of spatial information and techniques to represent our place or other phenomena in our world. Maps are the basic concept to achive this.

Maps are informative.

Maps are directive.

Maps are aesthetic.

Maps are a lot of things.

Maps are changing…

In the era of the internet and new Web 2.0 techniques the question arise how much is the unterstanding about spatial information changing? What’s new in mapping? Is it a little or a lot? It think it is a lot and a little.

Hockenberry has a great presentation on this entitled with Design of Spatial Applications.

| View | Upload your own

[via Hockenberry, MIT]

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.