From the Labs -- MetaCarta Labs Weblog

I hadn’t rectified an image in a while, so I decided to give it a run through, just to double check everything was in working order after a recent hardware change for the machine hosting it.

• 23:03 — Decide to rectify an image. Visit the rectifier, open the FAQ, follow the link to the University of Texas Map Room.
• 23:04 — Choose a Texas Tectonic Map, download to local computer. Upload to rectifier.
• 23:05-23:06 — Choose GCPs. Texas is an easy state to rectify. 7 GCPs chosen in under two minutes. RMS Error: 2.38
• 23:07 — Warp image, download geotiff.

In less than 5 minutes, I was able to choose an image, upload it, add GCPs, then warp and download the new rectified image. In addition, the new map is visible in the MetaCarta Maps browser, and usable as an OpenLayers layer for anyone who want to use it.

Some other tools that people have mentioned for georeferencing might have the ability to make this easier, but I doubt there are many tools which can make it faster: just downloading OSSIM takes more than 15 minutes, compared to my 5 to rectify an image. Admittedly, that’s a totally unfair comparison, but for a quick-and-easy start to rectifying, the Labs Map Rectifier really takes the cake.

– Christopher Schmidt, MetaCarta Labs Rectifier Ninja

The new MetaCarta Labs web services are not just for external use — we’ll be using them for MetaCarta applications too, of course. One of the first applications to use these new web services is our new map browsing interface: MetaCarta Maps.

MetaCarta Maps offers a demonstration of a number of the functionalities that MetaCarta Web Services provides. The tabs at the top of the page outline the different functions that MetaCarta Maps allows: Geographic Text Search, Location Search, Map Rectifier display, and Map Browsing. Some examples:

• Wikipedia Pages mentioning places in Alaska
• Location Search for San Carlos
• Putting a Marker on the Map
• Rectified Historical Map of France
• Food in Chicago

This interface doesn’t use anything that won’t be accessible from the MetaCarta Labs Web Services APIs. The map layers are all under open licenses: some public domain, some (like the OpenStreetMap road layer) Creative Commons Licensed.

All the map base layers are powered by TileCache.

MetaCarta Maps is designed to let you explore open maps, and see what information is available around you. Perhaps you’d like to see what information is available around the Canary Islands, or just look at current or historical USGS topo maps. MetaCarta Maps is the way to go.

As we create more services, they’ll likely be integrated into this service. If you’d like to see something else in the map, let me know, and I’ll look at pulling it in.

As Schuyler once said: Maps Are Cool. MetaCarta Maps lets you see just how cool they are.

Happy Holidays, and Happy Mapping!

– Christopher Schmidt, MetaCarta Labs Map Monkey

We’ve been mostly quiet here for a while — the reason being that we’ve been working all out on a set of Web Services growing out of the work we did on the GeoParser API back this summer. The new set of services is more complete, robust, and is designed to fill the voids that we never really filled with the GeoParser API.

As a preview of what’s to come, you can check out the Web Services Explorer. There are three services listed here:

• LocationFinder: A simple geocoder lookup. Gives a list of location names which match the query parameter.
• QueryParser: The QueryParser allows the ability to enter a string like “Food in Cambridge” and get a result that splits the location query apart from the textual query, allowing you to create a location search interface using a single query field.
• Search: Geographic and textual document search. This is the meat and potatoes of the work that we’ve been doing inside MetaCarta, and we’ll be releasing an easy to use OpenLayers-based client to use this API. Think of this like the location search in Google Maps or other local search interfaces.

There will be more posted here as these services are documented and usable: you’ll be able to sign up for an API key to use these web services from your website or from any other applications you might want to write.

We’re looking forward to getting these APIs out there and seeing what people can do with them. Keep watching here for updates!

– Christopher Schmidt, MetaCarta Labs Developer