Hugo Estrada's House of Wonder

For those interested, the worlds largest panorama is now online for your viewing pleasure. From the engadget blog : "It's just been a few months since a 45-gigapixel panorama of Dubai claimed the title of world's largest digital photograph, but it's now already been well and truly ousted -- the new king in town is this 70-gigapixel, 360-degree panorama of Budapest. As with other multi-gigapixel images, this one was no easy feat, and involved two 25-megapixel Sony A900 cameras fitted with 400mm Minolta lenses and 1.4X teleconverters, a robotic camera mount from 360world that got the shooting done over the course of two days, and two solid days of post-processing that resulted in a single 200GB file -- not to mention a 15-meter-long printed copy of the photograph for good measure. Of course, what's most impressive is the photo itself. Hit up the source link below and start zooming in. "

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geocodedArt writes "Mobile google maps provides a guide to visiting the sites of masterpiece landscape paintings, and brings the painting to the place. The geocodedArt blog reports on seeing art en site around Greenwich and other sites along the Thames, using simple blackberry and mobile maps. Photos compare the art image with the scene today. The blog is here: http://geocodedart.blogspot.com/ and the map of paintings is here." We mentioned Geocoded Art going mobile in the past.

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Found on cnet news. Head on over there to check out a video of it in action : "Instead of having users venture from one "bubble" of captured imagery to the next, as is done in Google's StreetView and Microsoft's Streetside, the new technology, called "Street Slide," stitches together multiple panoramas into one, large strip that users are able to scroll through side to side. And in place of putting information overlays on the imagery itself, things like street signs and business information are placed below, and out of sight of what was captured. The end result is something that lets users skim around long stretches of street, as if they were looking out the window of a moving vehicle, then stopping to get out and look around, once they've reached any one particular spot within the series. This obviously works better for long, straight roads, but in large cities and even small towns where a main avenue is prevalent, it can create a browsing experience that is more seamless and that requires less clicking."

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Here's Google-related geonews for the last 10 days or so, during my absence. Google Maps for mobile 4.4 has been released. There's also Google Sky Map for Android that was recently released. Important in some regions, Google improved political borders accuracy in Google Earth and Maps, screenshots included: "[...] today we are happy to announce some significant improvements to our borders for over 60 countries and regions [...]". Ogle Earth offers his own analysis of the improvements. In Spain, Seville is now in 3D in Google Earth. Here's an interactive multi-layered Google Earth map of 4 degree temperature rise. Here's an entry named newly discovered crater is one of Earth's youngest impacts, found in Google Earth.

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In a long and interesting post, O'Reilly Radar shares an entry named Redesigning the New York City subway map. The introduction: "Maps are one of the most basic data visualizations that we have; we've been making them for millennia. But we still haven't perfected them as a tool for understanding complex systems -- and with 26 lines and 468 stations across five boroughs, the New York City subway system certainly is complex. The KickMap is the result of my quest to design a more effective subway map, and ultimately to encourage increased ridership." See also related stories below, it's not the first time we discuss NY subway maps.

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The FOSS4G 2010 conference team provided an update: " We are getting closer to the conference dates, Sept. 6th - 9th, and we are pleased that the interest is still very high. More than 500 people have already subscribed and we are confident to reach 1000 in time for the event. In the Latin cultures we are famous to be late subscribers. A list of the presentations and their abstract is available online. If you have not thought to subscribe yet, do it now. Some workshops are already sold out so don't loose the chance to choose your favourite workshop. The following companies are already supporting, don't loose your chance to be part of this unique event!

In our FOSS4G section, you'll find many previous stories about this pertinent conference. We will be on site to provide coverage of the event.

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Cameron Shorter writes "The OGC and OSGeo will develop conforming documentation for key OGC standards and geospatial open source application descriptions. Both sets of documentation will be available online and on the OSGeo-Live DVD, to be released at the international conference for Free and Open Source Software, FOSS4G, in September 2010, in Barcelona, Spain. ... more."

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The popular open source MapServer 5.6.5 has been released. From the announcement: "The MapServer team announces the release of MapServer 5.6.5. This release fixes a scale calculation issue that was introduced in the 5.6.4 release from a few days ago. All users are strongly advised to upgrade to this release since it also contains the security fixes that prompted the quick release of 5.6.4." See also selected previous MapServer stories below.

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While we mentioned quite a few times Fortius One's GeoCommons services in the past, here's a technical overview of what GeoCommons is. From the review's introduction: "GeoCommons is provided by FortuisOne and builds on their software products to provide a free and public community service. GeoCommons currently provides two easy-to-use free services based on open source and other freely available datasets. GeoCommons Maker is a simple point-and-click map creator that does not require programming experience; and GeoCommons Finder is a data uploading and sharing service with some basic geocoding abilities."

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bleifisch writes "NAVTEQ 3D City Models Overview: A Product Guide for Developers. Content of the white paper:

• NAVTEQ Visual Content Product Portfolio: Provides developers a graphical representation of the real world to improve the user experience with their solutions.
• NAVTEQ 3D City Models: Height and rooftop data combined with Enhanced 2D footprints to create a 3D City.
• FAQs

This document was edited by Jeff Wagner, Resource & Community Service Manager with NAVTEQ. If you want to learn more, click here. The access to this document requires a registration. The registration is free."

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Andrew Zolnai writes "The tropical storm threatening the Gulf of Mexico oilspill cleanup shows up very well in Google Earth (GE) by simply using EPA's Deepwater Horizon — Gulf Spill Response KML, and Google Earth's legend that comes complete with ocean data. View this mashup in my blog, or load the KML in GE to watch the storm unfold!"

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kstreith writes "Opticks release candidate for 4.4.0 has been released along with updates to the existing Python Scripting extension, IDL Scripting extension and Spectral Processing extension. The highlights include:

• performance improvements for loading data
• the ability to rotate an image to north up
• define color composites based upon wavelength ranges
• developers can now build extensions using the free Microsoft Platform SDK on Windows

The Python Scripting extension highlights:

• now supports 64-bit Windows

The Spectral Processing extension highlights:

• algorithm to calculate NDVI
• additional options for plotting signatures
• additional visualizations for working with many signature match results

In total, 38 enhancements and 40 bug fixes are in this release candidate."

We mentioned the open source software Opticks quite a few times in the past, see related stories below.

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Another nail gets hammered into the TomTom coffin. How do you market a paid app/device versus a free app (so long as you pay your cell carriers data charges), which performs worse? From slashdot : "A real-world road test of several different satnav systems has found that the free Google Maps Navigation outperformed TomTom's premium GPS unit. PC Pro put the satnavs through four different real-world tests, covering country roads, inner-city traffic and motorway driving. The Google satnav finished the four tests more than half an hour ahead of the top of the range TomTom Go 950 Live. "For those in rural areas or people who spend hours in their car every day, we believe the investment in a dedicated satnav device or software will still pay off," PC Pro concludes. "But for the recreational user, it's amazing what you can get for free.""

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As Apple faces the music, Google fight keeps getting worse. From slashdot : "Attorneys General from 37 states have joined the probe into Google's Street View data collection. The investigation seeks more information behind Google's software testing and data archiving practices after it was discovered that their Street View vans scanned private WLANs and recorded users' MAC addresses. Attorney general Richard Blumenthal said, 'Google's responses continue to generate more questions than they answer. Now the question is how it may have used — and secured — all this private information.'"

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Currently in discussion on slashdot. Here is their summary : "Scientists, using three NASA satellites, have created a first-of-its-kind map that details the height of the world's forests. The data was collected from NASA's ICESat, Terra and Aqua satellites. The latter two satellites are responsible for most of NASA's Gulf spill imagery. The data collected will help scientists understand how the world's forests both store and process carbon. While there are many local and regional canopy maps, this is the very first global map using a uniform method for measure."

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On the heel of the Google wifi collection debacle, it's Apple's time to get scrutinized. From the slasdot article : "In a 13-page reply (PDF) to questions from Congressmen Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Joe Barton of Texas, Apple said iPhones running OS 3.2 or iOS 4 collect GPS data and encrypt it before sending it back to Apple every 12 hours via Wi-Fi. Attached to the GPS data is a random identification number generated by the phone every 24 hours. The information is not associated with a particular customer and Apple uses the data to analyze traffic patterns and density, it said. Apple collects such data from customers who have approved the use of location-based capabilities on the phone and who actually use an application that requires GPS."

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Andrew Zolnai writes "Two anecdotes on remote sensing and environmental monitoring highlight some issues in measuring and predicting the current Gulf of Mexico oil rupture. Go here to see a video of screenshots from the US EPA / Coast Guard's Deepwater Horizon Gulf Spill Response KMZ in Google Earth from 11 May to 15 July. It shows the oilspill pulsating over the last 85 days."

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Phisan Santitamnont writes "== Indiginous Traffic Reporting System over Bangkok === Months ago, a Thai LBS company 'Longdo' , has been developing a traffic reporting system using their own technology together with Thailand road map from their partmer 'Numap'. The most interest stories is 'volunteers' could dowload small pieces of software running silently on 'iPhone' and android gadget reporting individual traffic situations mixing with the official one. Check it out here So you could see many color contious colored lines representing traffic from conventional traffic detectors and the small colored-lines, scattering arounds, are traffic status from volunteers. Visit Bangkok and help us report traffic. If you cannot read Thai , but you could see the interface here."

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Currently in discussion on slashdot, here is their summary : "Most of the satnav companies allow users to report errors with their maps, but do they ever get fixed? PC Pro's Paul Ockenden uses Google StreetView to highlight glaring and dangerous flaws in Tele Atlas maps — which are used by TomTom and Google Maps itself — but the company has failed to respond to numerous reports of map errors posted over the course of several years. 'About half a mile from where I live, a Tele Atlas-based satnav will instruct you to turn off at a junction where there's only an on-ramp,' Ockenden reports. 'I've witnessed some confused and dangerous driving at this junction as people try to find the non-existent exit, so I wouldn't be surprised if major mapping errors like this are a danger to road safety.'"

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Here's your weekly dose of geonews in batch mode. I will be away on holiday next week, other Slashgeo will still be active and monitor your geonews submissions.

On the FOSS4G/Geodata front, Google Maps API v3 reached OpenLayers development version. Here's an entry on United Nations geospatial data accessibility. Learn about WhooTS, a small and simple wms to tiles proxy / redirect system. Good news, Vodafone open sources Wayfinder. There's a new initiative on Crowdsourcing Ocean Navigation Data and related, here's the crowdsourcing of Marine Conservation Zone Mapping.

On the ESRI front, out of the numerous ESRI-related entries: ESRI Released ArcGIS 9.3.1 Service Pack 2, Publishing Your Own Maps To ArcGIS Server 10 For Use In ArcGIS For iOS, ESRI Unveils ArcGIS Server 10 On Amazon and ArcGIS API For Microsoft Silverlight/WPF 2.0 Now Available. It seems ENVI/IDL is getting more and more integrated into ArcGIS. From a blog I just discovered, named The Sandpit, here's how to extract geographic locations from an email or web page with ArcGIS 10.

On the Google front, some news from the official source: Google Maps can now send destinations directly to more than 20 car brands worldwide and there was an imagery update earlier this week. Here's another entry on Making Tracks: New KML Extensions in Earth 5.2. There's also a new 3DHawaii.com, leveraging Google Earth. Good news, Google Maps gets short URLs. And why not, explore Climate Change Impact Using Google Earth.

In the miscellaneous category, here's an entry named Quantifying the Business Benefits of Open Geospatial Standards. Related, MapGuide Enterprise 2011 and Topobase Web 2011 are now WMS v1.1.1 Certified. Regarding Microsoft, here's an entry named Data Connector: SQL Server 2008 Spatial & Bing Maps. The FGT blog shares these two entries: Handheld GPS Units – Beyond The Manual and Geotagging Coordinate Viewer For Adobe CS5. Three months after their acquisition Nokia sells MetaCarta. It's now nothing less than 95% of data that is georeferenced data.

In the maps category, here's an interesting entry named The Agnostic Cartographer. APB informs us MapSherpa got significantly updated. Here's an entry on Alberta: Energy and Interactive Mapping.

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