Customized Google Maps for Android


Custom Maps is an essential app for Android phones for any serious off-trail hikers, sailors or anyone else who needs detailed off-line maps.

The app lets you quickly create a custom map for your Android phone from any map image or photo file. The image can be a photo or scan of a paper map. It could even just be the photo of a map posted at the beginning of a trailhead or at the entrance to an amusement park, which you can capture with your smartphone camera.

To create a custom map all you have to do is choose two (or more) points in your map image and plot them on a Google Map. That’s all it takes. Your finished map can then show your GPS location and will work even when a data signal is not available like in a state park or when abroad.

I have a boat that is moored on a river with lots of tributaries and creeks, some of which are navigable and some of which aren’t. When you start exploring these backwaters it is very easy to quickly lose a sense of where you are.

Using Custom Maps I made an off-line map for my phone in less than five minutes using a scan of a river chart. Now I should never get lost on my boat again.

The source code for Custom Maps is also available on Google Code. Several new features are also planned for the app including distance measurement, marking map locations with icons and making it possible to geolocate map images without Google Maps or a data connection.

Via: Open Source at Google

Google Maps Mashups 19

Google Street View Generator

Giacomo Andreucci has released a wizard called Google Street View Generator. Giacomo’s wizard even lets you set the size of your Street View static image and can display a preview.

The New Jersey State Atlas


The New Jersey State Atlas is using Google Maps to showcase aerial photography of the entire state taken in the 1930’s (OK … I admit there is no satellite imagery from the 1930’s).

The opacity of the aerial photo layer can be adjusted. This means it is possible to compare the aerial view of the state in the 1930’s to Google’s current satellite imagery and observe how the state has developed over the last 80 years.

The map also includes the option to view Google Maps’s annotated roads and to switch to the map view. It is therefore very easy to find locations in the state that you might want to see with the 1930’s aerial view.

Uboot-sim!


Uboot-sim! is a Google Maps based game, inspired by WWI submarine combat. In the game you control submarines in the North Sea and the Atlantic sea, hunting freighters and avoiding dangerous destroyers.

You can move your ships and hunt down your opponents’ boats by right clicking on the map. The game includes some clever collision detection algorithms, which means you can’t move your ships over land.

If your ships get destroyed by your opponents you can build new ships and U-boats in your dockyards.

DART St. Louis 2011


In April 2011 over 250 creative St. Louisans gathered to throw darts at a huge map of the City of St. Louis. Participants then had one month to visit the area where their dart landed and take a photograph.

DART St. Louis 2011 is a Google Map of the resulting collection of photographs. It provides a wonderful snapshot of St. Louis as it is today, one random block at a time.

Neighborhood Change in Connecticut


Neighborhood Change in Connecticut lets you view aerial imagery of Connecticut from 1934 side-by-side with the modern satellite view on Google Maps.

This map, created by the Trinity College and University of Connecticut Libraries Map and Geographic Information Center, lets you explore the changing landscapes of Connecticut from the 1930’s to the present. The dual map control allows you to zoom in on different areas and compare the past and present views. For example, in the picture above you can see commercial development on formerly rural farmland.

As well as imagery of Connecticut from 1934 the map includes aerial imagery from 1990, 2004 and 2006.

45° imagery transitions


Google have added some cool transitions for the 45° imagery (Bird’s Eye view) in Google Maps. Now when you zoom in and out of the 45° imagery in Google Maps there is a smooth transition between the different zoom levels. Google have also added transitions when you rotate the imagery.

The transitions only work in Google Chrome at the moment. To see the transitions in effect check out this animated view of Venice in Google Chrome.

DFLD Radar


DFLD Radar is a Google Map of real-time air traffic over Europe.

There are quite a few live aircraft tracking maps already but DFLD Radar has a nice USP. DFLD Radar colour-codes the aeroplane map markers by altitude. The redder map markers indicate that the plane is flying at a lower altitude and the greener markers show planes flying at a higher altitude.

You can also click on any of the plane markers to read further details, such as the type of plane and vertical speed.

Fluglärmkonturenkarten

One consequence of all that aircraft traffic over Europe is quite a lot of noise pollution. Fluglärmkonturenkarten (you really do have to admire Germany’s skill in eradicating those useless spaces that other languages insert between words) is a series of Google Maps showing noise pollution around Frankfurt Airport.

These heat maps show noise levels around the airport using data from 2007 and also show noise level predictions for 2020 in two different traffic modes.

Berlin Elections Map


The Beliner Morgenpost has used Fusion Tables to create this nice Berlin Elections Map. The election was held on September 18th to elect members to the Abgeordnetenhaus. All 141 seats were up for election.

The map allows you to click on any of the political parties and view the constituencies where their candidates won. It is also possible to search the map by address or by district to view local results.

Census Map Maker

The Wall Street Journal’s Census Map Maker lets you create your very own census map for any neighborhood.

Once you have logged into the Census Map Maker with your Facebook or Twitter account you can start building your map. To create a map you simply need to click on the census blocks that you are interested in on a Google Map and then press ‘save’.

That is essentially it. Once you have clicked on your chosen census blocks you have your very own census map. The map can show the race breakdown for each block you clicked and for the entire selected area. The map even comes with it’s own pie chart of race and ethnicity in your defined neighborhood.

Shaded Relief Map

The Shaded Relief Map fills in a couple of Google Maps missing map types.

As well as providing the usual satellite, map and hybrid layers the Shaded Relief Map includes a shaded relief and a natural map layer. The natural map layer displays Tom Patterson’s Natural Earth map.

The Shaded Relief Map also includes a number of handy tools. Users can click anywhere on the map to find the elevation at that point. Users can also measure the distance between two points on the map and measure an area, for example a building or piece of land.

Google Maps Mashups 13

GIS Cloud

GIS Cloud is a powerful free cloud based GIS service, that allows users to create, edit, analyze and publish data from only one GIS service. When creating a map with GIS Cloud users can choose from a number of base tiles, including OpenStreetMap, Bing Maps and Google Maps. Users can then add GIS data to the map, either from data already hosted on GIS Cloud or from their own files. Because the application is web based GIS Cloud enables centralised access to projects. Teams can work together on a project, with each member having their own account. Any changes then made to a project are available immediately to every member of the team. GIS Cloud projects can be shared, either by sharing the GIS Cloud URL of the project or by embedding the map in your own website. GIS Cloud also comes with a REST API and a JavaScript API.

Street View Image API

Google has released a Street View Image API to quickly and easily add a static image to a web page. The API provides a simple method for adding a Street View image or thumbnail to any application without the need for JavaScript. The API simply constructs a URL for the required Street View, which you can add to a web page as you would any other image. The API returns the corresponding Street View panorama as an image in JPG format. A quick example is the Street View of the Eiffel Tower above, which I added to this post with the URL http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/streetview?size=523×200&location=48.852733, 2.303183&heading=315&fov=90&pitch=5&sensor=false The API should prove very useful in particular for real-estate, hotel and restaurant listing sites, providing a quick and easy method for providing images of houses, hotels and restaurants.

DVRPC Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission collects traffic volume counts at over 5,000 locations each year. The DVRPC Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts Google Map allows users to select and view pedestrian and bicycle counts taken within the Philadelphia region. The data for the map was collected by the DVRPC over a one week period with detailed hourly reports linked to each location. Using the map it is therefore possible to view bicycle and pedestrian traffic at different locations in the city for the year in which it was collected. If you select an individual map marker you can click through to read a detailed report of the pedestrian or bicycle count at that location, showing the data for every hour within a one week period.

savethepostoffice.com map

The U.S. Postal Service announced this week that it will be studying 251 mail processing facilities for consolidation. If all of these plants were to close, it would reduce the area mail processing network by over half, presumably at a huge cost to delivery times. The website Save the Post Offices has created a Google Map showing the location of the 251 mail processing facilities that may be closed down, Processing Facilities Under Study for Consolidation Map. Save the Post Offices has also created Google Maps to show the location of Post Offices Closed in 2011, 3,653 Post Offices Under Study for Closure under RAOI and 727 (non-RAOI) Post Offices Under Study for Discontinuance.

Obsidian Portal

Obsidian Portal is an online platform for running and organizing table top role-playing games. Using the platform gamers can can build campaigns and find other RPG gamers. The platform also includes an option to easily create a Google Map of your campaign world. Users can create campaign maps from any JPEG image. The map can include map markers to show the position of cities or other important locations in a campaign. The map markers can also include links to a users Wiki page for the mapped location.

Digital Typhoon – Track Forecast Map


Agora’s Digital Typhoon – Track Forecast Map tracks tropical cyclones in and around Japan. The map shows the historical tracks of current typhoons and also shows their predicted path.

The map is currently showing the paths of typhoon Roke and Sonca. When the map first loads an animation of the typhoons’ path is displayed on the map. Different coloured markers indicate the typhoon’s wind speed at different points along its path.

The numbered red map markers show the predicted path of a typhoon. Each marker includes a radial polyline showing the probability circle of the typhoon’s location. You can also click on the markers to view the predicted wind speed.

Submarine Cable Map


TeleGeography’s Submarine Cable Map is a real thing of beauty.

The map depicts 188 active and planned submarine cable systems and their landing stations around the world. Both the cables and their landing points on the map are interactive. Clicking a cable provides access to data about the cable, including the cable’s name, ready-for-service (RFS) date, length, owners, website, and landing points. Clicking a landing point reveals a list of all submarine cables landing at that station.

The map makes great use of Google Map styles and custom info windows to create a map that is both functional and great to look at.

Planefinder.net


Planefinder.net, the real-time plane tracking website, has made some very impressive updates to their Google Map.

Now as well as tracking thousands of planes in real-time around the world you can also play back a whole day’s worth of flights. The playback option allows you to select a date, the number of hours you wish to view and even the speed of the animation. You really should zoom out on the USA, set the time to 23 hours and the speed to 120x and watch a day’s worth of flights.

Another nice update in this new release of planefinder.net is the custom information windows. If you select an individual plane you can view a picture of the plane, the flight and flight details, download a KML of the flight path, zoom the map to fit the entire flight path and share the track on Twitter and Facebook.

Google Map of Speed Traps


Blitzer.de is a new Google Map, and Android & iPhone app which has a huge database of speed traps around the world.

Blitzer.de is the latest application from the ever impressive Ubilabs. The app allows you to view the location of speed traps in your region and around the world. More than 2,000 mobile speed traps are reported by the blitzer.de community per day.

The application allows users to search by location and filter results by fixed speed traps, mobile cameras and all speed traps. The speed trap markers include speed limits where available. Users of the map and the mobile apps can also add speed traps that are missing from the map.

via:googlemapsmania