Entries tagged with: maps...

Google maps in 4D

0 Comments  |   Permalink  |  Tag(s): maps google ideas

Lately, I've been thinking up some "wouldn't it be cool if..." scenarios for Google maps. After some initial searches, I could only find a handful of examples that related to what I had wanted to do; namely, combine a Google map with some sort of time-line. The idea stems from the need to view a timeline of events in a geographic or spatial relationship rather than a flat text listing.

To illustrate this idea, imagine viewing a police blotter in map form rather than a text listing. If you are searching for crimes close to your neighborhood, or other point of interest, a map is a much more efficient means of displaying that information. Scanning a list and mentally calculating the location can be a bit awkward, so a geographic representation seems like a natural fit. Adding the dimension of time could allow you to discover all sorts of relationships and patterns that may not have been evident from the data alone. Viewing a mapped police blotter over a specified period of time could reveal impacts of new neighborhood watch programs, extended police patrols, or track and correlate certain crimes to geographic locations.
The mockup below shows how you might display this type of information on a map with a slider to control the timeframe (think weeks, days, or hours)

Another useful scenario would be to map upcoming events to locations... For example, sometimes I will pull up the Guidelive events page or upcoming.org to see if anything interesting is... |  Posted:05.17.08