The Best of Rest

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This week I posted a number of examples from newspapers around the world where Fusion Tables has been used with local census data to create maps showing the local distribution of different language speakers.

What many data journalists don't realise is that mapped visualisations with Fusion Tables don't always have to be based on the Google Maps API. For example, this US Drone Strikes Map uses Fusion Tables with MapBox


The map animates a time-line of US covert drone strikes in Pakistan from 2004 to 2013. MapBox have even produced a handy tutorial on how the map was created.


Walkshed is one of my favourite applications created with CloudMade, using OpenStreetMap map tiles. Walkshed have created two walkability maps, one for New York and one for Philadelphia.

The application allow users in both cities to generate walkability heat maps based on their own preferences. Users can choose from a number of criteria that are important to them in a neighborhood and view walkability maps based on those criteria.

For example, if dining and drinking out are important to you, then you can select bars, coffee shops and restaurants and create a heat map of the city, showing the areas you can live where you wouldn't have to walk far to eat or drink out.


The Norwegian broadcaster NRK has used Bing Maps to produce an interesting map showing the routes used by drug smugglers to import illegal drugs into Norway.

Smuggled Trends allows the users to visualise the smuggling routes of a number of different drugs, showing the country of origin and the routes that are used to smuggle the drugs into Norway.

Oakland's Gun Crime on Google Maps

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In 2012 Oakland police recorded an average of 11 gun-related crime reports per day. KQED has mapped the 4,174 gun-related crimes in the city during the year.

The Oakland's Gun Problem Map shows the location of each gun related incident. If you click on a marker on the map you can view the date and time, case number, short description and address associated with each case.

Unfortunately KQED hasn't enabled the heat map option that is possible with Fusion Table created maps. A heat map view would have provided a clearer overview of the gun crime hot-spots in the city. 

Beneath the Thunderdome

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Under the Dome is a new series from CBS based on the science fiction novel by Stephen King. In the novel the town of Chester's Mill is sudenly cut off from the outside world by a huge invisible dome of unknown origin.

To help promote the series, coming this summer, CBS have released a promotional website that includes an application that allows you to check to see if you also live under the dome. To use the app you just need to enter your address. A Google Map then pans across the dome (because it appears that we all do indeed live under the dome).


The app then cuts to a Street View scene of your home as it appears inside the dome.

IP Address Lookup on Google Maps

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IP Address Lookup is a service that allows you to determine the geographical location of an IP address or domain.

The service allows you to enter any IP address and view its real-world location on a Google Map. The service also allows you to view a visual traceroute. The traceroute also uses Google Maps and displays the path of packets from one IP address to another using animated symbols on polylines. 

A Circular Selection Tool for Google Maps

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Mystery Incorporated has developed a circular selection tool for Google Maps that allows map users to define a circular area on a map to load all the markers in that area.

You can view the tool in action on the Cabi Trip Visualizer. To use the tool just press the '2' key. You can then use the circle tool to select CaBi stations on the map. Once you have selected your chosen stations a number of arrows are then drawn on the map to all the other stations in its network.

If you want to add a similar tool to your own maps you can view the tutorial at Circle Selection for Google Maps.

Street View Video Driving Directions

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One of the problems with biking directions in Google Maps is that you are never entirely sure how safe the biking route is before setting off. For example, whenever I use biking directions around my home Google Maps usually suggests roads I would never consider cycling on and ignores far safer and quieter roads.

Cyclodeo helps solve this problem by letting you view a video of a suggested cycling route before you undertake your journey. The application uses Google Maps and videos of a cycling route to allow the user to view the route before setting out. The videos are synced to the Google Map of the route so the user can click anywhere on the route and view the video at that location.

Currently Cyclodeo has video coverage in the Netherlands and a few examples in New York.

Video driving directions is one of those areas that one of the major players are going to crack sooner or later. I think Google and Bing both have submitted patent applications for mapped driving directions that allow users to view routes on a map with video previews of the journey.

If you can't wait for Google and Microsoft to finish their research into video driving directions then you can check out VidTeq who already have video driving directions in place in Bangalore.


VidTeq perhaps is the best example of how video driving directions will work. Using VidTeq it is possible to enter a start address and destination and then preview a suggested route on a map and a view a video of the journey.

As the video of the route plays arrows are superimposed on top of the video player to indicate when turns are required. Beneath the video the step-by-step directions scroll upwards to reflect the position displayed in the video.

Both Vidteq and Cyclodeo use conventional video. I suspect that Google and Bing will be exploring the use of 360 degree interactive videos in their video driving directions. Personally I'm just waiting for the release of Jeffrey Martin's Sphericam. Once this affordable 360 degree video camera is on the market I'm sure we are going to see an explosion of maps featuring immersive Street View video.

Collision Detection in Google Earth

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Anyone who has ever done any development work with the Google Earth browser plug-in will be familiar with the milk truck game. The Monster Milktruck game has been a prominent part of the Demo Gallery for the Google Earth API.

John Aldridge has now developed the code into a fully playable two player shoot-em-up game, called Zeptoblaster. In the game each player controls their own 3d milk truck and has to hunt down and shoot the other player's vehicle.

The game play takes part in Google Earth's 3d map of the world, including 3d terrain and 3d buildings. Each player also has a handy Google Map which shows the position of their truck and the position of the enemy's truck. Players can choose from a number of battlefields by selecting from a number of pre-defined locations or they can play anywhere in the world simply by using the search field.


One of the most impressive features of this game is the collision detection developed by John, which detects when a player's missile has hit the enemy truck. This collision detection works by creating bounding boxes for the 3d collada models of both milk trucks and for all of the missiles. It is then a simple process of detecting when the bounding box of a missile intersects with the bounding box of a truck (actually it isn't simple and actually involves a very complicated algorithm).

The game needs to load two instances of the Google Earth browser plug-in (one for each player), which can be quite memory intensive, so the game runs best in Google Chrome.