Map overlays with WebGL: affine, polynomial, TPS transformations in JavaScript with GLSL

A new approach on how to overlay high-resolution images on top of online slippy maps (such as Google Maps, OpenLayers or Leaflet) has been introduced by Petr Pridal from Klokan Technologies at ETH Zurich (one of the world’s top technical universities) during the conference The Graphical Web 2012 / SVGOpen 2012.

The HTML5 and WebGL technology enables on demand calculation of various overlay transformations (affine, polynomial, TPS) for high resolution zoomable maps or large raster data (such as aerial photos) directly in a web browser - immediately, with instant response for an user interaction, as demonstrated in http://vimeo.com/50144414.

Technically it is an viable and scalable client-side alternative for traditional server-side services such as OpenGIS WMS or WMTS for some specific use cases.

This technology will soon be integrated with the Georeferencer online service - to be available to general public on the high resolution maps published in the David Rumsey map collection or in the British Library as well as other institutions using this service which allows to turn scans into true maps with a few clicks inside of a collaborative online interface.

The warping technology may be integrated with other third-party systems - desktop, server or mobile applications with OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible GPU. Support for transformations between custom map projections is also on our roadmap.

The record of the complete presentation is online.

This technology complements the MapTiler Cluster product, the significantly improved version of the popular open-source GDAL2Tiles utility for generating map tiles suitable for cost effective and scalable TMS and OpenGIS WMTS compatible map publishing from any cloud storage or a traditional Apache+PHP webhosting, practical for Google Maps API mashups and for native mobile applications (iPhone/iPad/Android) utilizing Apple MapKit, RouteMe or OSMDroid.

MapTiler available on the Mac App Store

The latest version of MapTiler for Mac is available on the Mac App Store for free:

http://itun.es/ch/jFlyJ.m

If you have a laptop or desktop computer from Apple running Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8), Lion (10.7) or upgraded Snow Leopard (10.6.6+) you can now easily install the latest version of MapTiler from the Mac App Store, as a free application.

This version of MapTiler is powered by our C/C++ rendering core, which means it is faster, it comes with new features, fixed bugs and functionality normally available only to our MapTiler Cluster customers, who are rendering large maps from multiple files for extremely fast displaying in their web applications (powered by Google Maps API, OpenLayers, Leaflet, ...), native mobile applications on Android or iPhone/iPad (powered by Apple MapKit, RouteMe or OSMDroid) or for opening the maps in desktop GIS clients (ArcGIS Desktop, QGIS, ..) as an OpenGIS WMTS layer.

Some of the cool features in the new version of MapTiler:

• New viewer built on Google Maps V3 with client side over-zooming and opacity slider 
• Maximally simplified installation on Mac and a full switch to 64bit platform
• Rendering of world maps without issues or preprocessing
• Direct optimisation of the size of the produced tiles (pngnq embedded)
• The XYZ tile addressing directly compatible with OpenStreetMap & Google Maps as the default output 
• Improved KML SuperOverlay implementation
• MBTiles support via mbutil (direct support is planned)
• Hosting the tiles with OpenGIS WMTS standard and TileJSON compatibility by TileServer Open-Source Project is possible, the rendered map tiles are openable in ArcGIS Desktop, QGIS, MapBox JS, Leaflet, OpenLayers, etc.
• Many more small fixes and improvements

A version for alternative platforms (such as Microsoft Windows) will follow soon.

MapTiler Cluster: New version

New MapTiler Cluster is released! The development still continues driven by customers’ needs and we intensively work on creating graphical user interface, which makes the usage of software more convenient.

The new version has following added features: 

• New viewer built on Google Maps V3 with over-zooming and opacity slider 
• Full switch to 64bit platforms (including Windows and Mac OSX) 
• Add own custom watermark 
• MBTiles support via mbutil 
• Possibility to host the tiles as WMTS and TileJSON 
• Support for back compatible TMS 
• Fixes on KML Superoverlay 
• Fixed several bugs 
• New user manual reflecting use cases of our customers 

Contact info@klokantech.com to get a demo.

British Library: 3rd Georeferencer pilot announced

Using Georeferencer software from Klokan technologies, another 800 items have been selected for the Georeferencer Project from the British Library’s collection of over 4.5 million maps. The last time the British Library undertook such a project 708 maps were completed in less than one week.

”It’s easy to use and highly addictive – and a fascinating way to explore the past while improving the information that underpins our digitised collections. This project brings together people’s passion for maps and history with the latest online crowdsourcing tools,” says Kimberly Kowal, Lead Curator of Digital Mapping at the British Library. 

As a result of these previous successful rounds of public crowdsourcing, those maps are now spatially enabled, allowing users to search and navigate maps online. Maps from previous rounds are accessible through the Library’s Old Maps Online portal developed by Klokan technologies.

Petr Pridal, founder of Klokan Technologies awarded Bartholomew Globe

13th December 2012, at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburg during conference “Working digitally with Historical Maps” Bruce Gittings, Vice-Chair of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society presented Petr Přidal, founder of Klokan Technologies with the Bartholomew Globe for a significant and enduring contribution to online mapping.

Taking his speech, mr. Gittings said : “Petr has been responsible for innovative software tools including GDAL2Tiles, MapTiler (which permits the seamlessly rendering of maps), IIPImage which provides streaming of high-resolution images, geographical search with MapRank and crowd-sourced georeferencing with Georeferencer. There is no doubt that his work 'bounced' the traditional field of historical cartography into the 21st century, underpinning many of the projects we are hearing about today.”

GitHub Time Tracking and Invoicing Integration

Would you like to track time for GitHub issues and pull-requests easily and receive nice looking project reports or even create invoices for your clients with one click? We do.

Because we use GitHub for almost all project development and issue tracking we wanted to connect it with a system for recording working time and providing billing - to have a possibility to present our clients with reports showing the time spend on individual tickets.

Therefore we developed an extension for web browser which adds into GitHub one-click time tracking and connects the time reports with the estimated project budget and possibility for direct invoicing. With this blog post we are releasing it for other developers, so others can use this system too.

To add into GitHub the one-click time tracking functionality integrated with all Issues or Pull requests pages, follow these steps:

1. Register the free Harvest account. They have various pricing plans, you get a full 30 day trial which turns automatically into the FREE FOREVER plan with 2 active projects, 4 active clients and unlimited invoicing. It runs just fine, because you can archive the inactive projects, of course the paid project has another advantages. With this sign-up link you may even get discount if you later on decide for a different then free plan:
   
   Register the free Harvest account

2. Install the extension / add-on for your web browser, which adds into GitHub the integration:
   
   Activate Google Chrome Extension
   or
   Activate Firefox Add-On
   

3. Whenever you visit the issues page on GitHub a new button appears next to the #ticket-number
4. With one click you can start to track the time. The dialog also shows the sum of time already spent by you on this ticket.
5. Harvest provides great project reports - with links back to the GitHub tickets.
6. You can track a contract progress based on the estimated time/costs limits, which is very helpful. The system can also send people reminder to fill the time sheets online.
7. It is also possible to directly create nice looking invoices and estimates or track late payments.

Enjoy!

Time Tracking directly integrated with the GitHub Issue Tracker.

Note: the time can be of course tracked by other means, such as with the github commit hooks, on the desktop (Mac, Windows, Linux GTK), or command line or with the mobile apps (iPhone, Android) and directly from Gmail.

BMArchives.org launched

New website BMArchives.org has been launched. The site provides world-wide unique selection of digitised visual and cartographic historical material (over 30,000 images and almost 7000 high-resolution maps) for the public and international scientific community, opening up avenues into a major resource base for 19th and 20th century history of Christian missionaries.

The large archive of maps, photos and archival finding aids counting over 60.000 items is now available online and accessible to anybody who is interested. Coverage of the documents is very broad and includes mostly Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Klokan Technologies participated in development of this exciting project with customization of the open-source Omeka system, with development of a unique instant search technology based around a fast JavaScript interface (powered by Closure Library and AJAX), with application of IIPImage to stream large number of images and with Georeferencer to turn those images into maps.

The metadata follows the international standards: archival description is done in compliance with ISAD(G), and individuals and organisations are described using ISAAR (CPF). In addition, thesauri are being used for geographical and subject terms. The synchronization of the archival system with the website is implemented via OAI-PMH endpoint and uses the DublinCore metadata standard.

The mentioned technologies are available also to other culture heritage institutions seeking a way how to publish own digital holdings and metadata on the web. Feel free to contact us with your enquiries for customization and application of the used open-source components.

http://www.bmarchives.org/