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Archive for the ‘Mapping’ Category

Bing Maps gets a major boost

03 Aug

Bing Maps added some new major functionality yesterday.

First of these is the OpenStreetMap view. Described as the Wikipedia of maps, it allows the the user to view lots of different sets of data for the same location, without leaving the Bing Maps interface. 

Secondly, Bing Maps announced that its “Sexy Maps” (Microsoft term;-)) built with Silverlight have been rolled out to all Bing Maps users.  The new maps are a “combination of both raster tiles and vector graphics rendered in the browser at run time”.

The new dynamically labeled areas are clickable and will zoom you into the respective region, like peeling back layers of an onion, with this, Bing Maps will add more emphasis on its Local Search

Theres a load of visual effects as well, designed to make seeing the map when you are colour blind easier, and using some of the local machine hardware, and the power of Silverlight to make zooming a load more smoother.

More details can be found at TheNextWeb http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2010/08/03/new-features-in-bing-maps-openstreetmap-taxi-fare-calculator-enhanced-silverlight-maps

 

Bing Maps meets PhotoSynth and Flickr and Video and OMG…!

14 Feb
From the TED conference, Bing Maps’ Blaise Aguera y Arcas demonstrates how augmented reality on top of Bing Maps can help us see into the past, or the future or into space..

Using Photosynth like technology to integrate photos from sources such as flickr, I think its fantastic that this software can map photos from multiple sources can be integrated so semlessly. Add in the telepresence options from a roving camera on a backpack, or other video source and we get the ability to get an understanding about somewhere that are just not possible with standard mapping stuff out there at present.

Imagine looking a a map that shows how busy the traffic is at a location, or watching some street entertainment happening now, or following some other incident happening anywhere in the world theres a camera.

Blaise also shows integration from telescopes when he points the ‘map view’ into the sky.

Its just awesome…!

Watch it at http://www.simplyzesty.com/technology/stunning-microsoft-augmented-reality-maps-ted

Fantastic work guys..