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WorldWind Java Demo Apps

Published at May 9, 2008 in Google Earth. 0 Comments

I used to use the NASA open-source digital globe WorldWind a lot when it first came out, back when you had to pay to use Keyhole. But after Google bought Keyhole and released a free version of it as Google Earth, my WorldWind use dropped dramatically. Despite WorldWind’s strengths in some areas, I found Google Earth easier to use and create data for, and the larger user base meant that more content was being developed for it.

When WorldWind announced that it it was suspending development of the original version in favor of a Java version, I wasn’t really sure where they were going with that, apart from multi-platform. But after seeing this page of WorldWind demo apps, I had a major “Now I get it!” moment. I don’t think that WorldWind ever had a chance in its original format of being competitive with Google Earth as a general digital globe, but as an open-source application-driven geographic interface, it has a lot to offer. I look forward to what people will be doing with it in the future, especially when it graduates from its preview releases. Caution: you’ll need a 3D graphics card with updated drivers to make it work.

Via The Earth Is Square.



Projection Parameters / Point-Of-Origin For State Plane Coordinate Systems (SPCS)

Published at May 9, 2008 in coordinate conversion. 1 Comment

In a comment on this post, Theron was looking for command-line solutions for converting from UTM to SPCS coordinates on a Unix system; I pointed him towards OGR and GeoTrans as possibilities, and he found that GeoTrans offered a solution. But he also discovered that finding the projection parameters for SPCS wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be. He did track down a few using Google, and was good enough to send them on to me:

A simple, unorganized text listing

Links to both a CSV-listing and an Excel spreadsheet

To find the proper SPCS zone for your location, you can use the program described in the above-linked post, or try this website.



Static And Animated World History Maps

Published at May 7, 2008 in cartography. 0 Comments

The Mapping History site (from the University of Oregon and Universitat Munster) has dozens of static and animated maps illustrating US, European and Latin American history. Examples include “Cotton Production In The South: 1790-1860″; “Peasant Rebellions In Early Modern Europe”; and changes in the political status of South American countries. Some of the animated maps are slider-based (with a play button), and it’s obvious how they work. For other Flash-based maps, you’ll have to click on the map and select “Start” to begin the animation, and select “Key” to bring up the map legend.



Using The Demo Version Of Global Mapper As A Raster/Vector Data Viewer

Published at May 6, 2008 in GIS and coordinate conversion. 1 Comment

Global Mapper is a first-rate program for viewing and converting GIS data, raster (image and elevation) and vector. It opens over 100 different raster/vector formats, with on-the-fly support/display conversion of virtually every coordinate system / projection / datum you can think of, and some you might not (the Moon, Mars, the moons of Jupiter). It comes in a demo version with the following limitations (from the help file):

  • You will be unable to export data to any format.
  • You will be limited to loading a maximum of 4 data files at a time. With the full version, you can load any number of data files simultaneously.
  • No 3D capabilities (full version supports 3D views, viewsheds, line of sight, cut-and-fill volumen
  • You will be unable to load workspaces.
  • You will be unable to work with map catalogs.
  • You will be unable to download data from WMS map servers.
  • You will be unable to save rectified imagery to fully rectified files.
  • You will not be able to print to a specific scale (i.e. 1:1000).
  • You will have to endure a nagging registration dialog every time that you run the program.
  • You will not be eligible for free email support.

There’s one more, which is you don’t have the option of printing/exporting the screen display as an image file (though you can still print to a printer what’s visible on screen; zoom in to get a higher-resolution printout). Global Mapper’s display options for vector objects are also more limited than a standard GIS data viewer (e.g. no coloring by attribute for shapefiles). For those two reason, the TatukGIS viewer may be a better choice, since it lets you export the data view, raster or vector, as a high-resolution georeferenced raster image. But TatukGIS Viewer only supports about 30-odd raster and vector file formats, and doesn’t do on-the-fly re-projection. For examining the occasional odd data format you run across, in unusual projections/coordinate systems, and making a quick print, Global Mapper is good to have in your toolbox.

As a bonus, it also has a great line/area measurement function, which lets you modify the measurement units from metric to English and back on the fly, and copy them into the clipboard:

gmmeasure

The TatukGIS Viewer has a measure function, but it gives area only in the data’s native projection, less than useful if it’s in the geographic coordinate system (e.g. square degrees for area).

Finally, if you’re looking for an all-purpose data format converter with batch conversion capabilities, don’t need the considerable power (or expense) of FME, and don’t want to deal with the GDAL command-line utilities, you could do far worse than the $299 fully-registered version of Global Mapper.



Quantum GIS (qGIS) Version 0.10 Released

Published at May 2, 2008 in GIS. 0 Comments

Slashgeo posts on the release of the latest version of the open source GIS, Quantum GIS; this is version 0.10, code-named “Io”. There’s a press release describing the new features, with screenshots. The vector editing capabilities in particular seem to have gotten a major boost in functionality, but there are other improvements as well (default style layers, better raster control, in-application browsing/installation of Python plugins). I look forward to giving it a spin.



Quick Country Information With The World Gazetteer

Published at May 1, 2008 in cartography and data. 1 Comment

If you need a quick rundown of basic information about any country, the World Gazetteer is one option. From the site’s homepage:

  • Current population figures and area size for all countries and important territories
  • Population figures and area size of administrative divisions
  • Population figures for the largest cities, towns and places as well as for metropolitan areas
  • Historical population data (census or estimates; mostly from last or last two censuses)
  • Overview maps that show the position of the country or the administrative divisions
  • Summary statistics for countries and territories as well as for the largest cities and agglomerations
  • Current national flags
  • Summary maps for various subject
  • A pronunciation guide for some languages
  • There is a downloadable file for offline research
  • A population clock that show the current population of the world
  • Comprehensive meta information about statistics and the project

Sample maps from the website (for Poland):

overview map of Poland

Poland administrative divisions

Poland map of important places



Geotagging Photos With GPSed

Published at April 30, 2008 in GPS and geotagging. 3 Comments

In the comments to my post on GeoSetter, someone suggested I take a look at GPSed Photo Take’n'Pin as an option for geotagging photos. GPSed itself is a service for uploading and sharing GPS track and point data. From the website’s FAQ:

GPSed, a location-based and geotagging service, is designed to enable real-time tracking from mobile devices and collecting track data in an online archive.
The service is designated for hikers, bikers, drivers, tourists, adventure travelers, sportsmen, photographers and GPS/GIS professionals working in various industries such as forestry, fishery, transportation and others. GPSed can also be used just for having fun.

GPSed Photo Take’n'Pin is their free application designed to use GPS track data to geotag photos. Gave it a spin, and wasn’t terribly impressed:

  • You apparently can’t use a local GPX track file on your computer to geotag the photos, only one that you’ve already upload to the GPSed website. Since you likely already have that track on your computer, there’s no reason not to use a better geotagging program that supports local GPX files like GeoSetter. By way of contrast, the similar service locr provides a free application that does let you use your own GPS data to geotag your photos.
  • I say “apparently” above because I couldn’t get the program to geotag my standard test photoset even with an online track, and there’s no help file in either the program or the website to help me sort out what the problem might be.
  • Even if I could successfully geotag a photo with the GPSed Take’n'Pin application, there’s nothing I can do with it on the GPSed website. You can take the photos and export them to Google Earth, Picasa, or Flickr, but you don’t need this program to do that. With locr, you can upload the photo to the website and share it and its location with others.
  • The program crashed on me several times (I’ll cut it some slack on that, since it’s labeled as a beta).

Given those issues, I’ll stick with my previous statement that GeoSetter is the best geotagging application I’ve seen to date, with GPicSync a worthy alternative. Even if GPSed Photo Take’n'Pin worked as advertised, it doesn’t offer any features to make it worthwhile.



Congrats To HeyWhatsThat

Published at April 28, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I’ve posted several times about HeyWhatsThat, a website that shows:

  • A panorama of what’s visible from that location, marking the position of peak geographic landmarks
  • A list of the peaks, and the ability to show their position relative to your location on Google Maps
  • Terrain profiles (elevation versus distance from the location to any point on the map)
  • A plot all the areas visible from that location in red on Google Maps (aka the “viewshed” or “weapons fan”)
  • Contour lines (zoom in for these)
  • Google Earth export of position, viewshed, horizon line and horizon extent.
  • Horizon terrain profiles in Google Sky

Well, the mobile version of HeyWhatsThat just placed 2nd in NavTeq’s Global LBS Challenge with a version of HeyWhatsThat for mobile phones. Have a 360 panorama with the labeled peaks of your current location delivered to your cellphone. There’s also a version for the Google Android platform, and an API for low-volume non-commercial use by websites/mobile phones.

Congratulations to Mike Kosowsky and his co-conspirators.



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