Ducky's InfoVis Project Proposal

Participants

Only me, Kaitlin Duck Sherwood, ducky@csDELETEthisTEXT.ubc.ca

Description

I plan to do a Google Maps mashup that overlays semi-translucent images on Google Maps in order to show area-based data.

Note: I had worried that the overlaying might be too slow, but I have seen someone else overlay transpart Google Maps over Google satellite images with totally adequate performance.

Personal expertise:

I did a project integrating maps, floorplans, and a virtual walkthrough years ago at UIUC.
I have investigated several maps/census schemes in the past 10 years, but never gotten past the exploratory stages.
I am sort of aware of
I have never written anything in Javascript before, nor any dynamic client-side code of any kind, but would like to learn.
I am not a graphics whiz. I am not sure what algorithms to use to select what data is likely to be visible. OTOH, I have not only a copy of Foley and Van Dam, but also Google, within easy reach.
This could be a really cool project.

Proposed solution

your proposed infovis solution. You should propose an infovis solution, and of course relate it to your domain task and dataset. Abstraction is critical here!

I plan to use Javascript and the Google Maps API to serve maps, capture pan/zoom events, and to overlay area data on top of the Google Maps.

I plan to use the gd library, probably with a perl wrapper, to generate a transparent PNG image to overlay on top of the maps.

I plan to use C language Shapefile C library to parse a variant of the TIGER/Line data -- the ESRI shapefile data.

Scenario

a scenario of use. Preview from Evaluation reading hcibib.org/tcuid/chap-2.html

A scenario spells out what a user would have to do and what he or she would see step-by-step in performing a task using a given system. The key distinction between a scenario and a task is that a scenario is design-specific, in that it shows how a task would be performed if you adopt a particular design, while the task itself is design-independent: it's something the user wants to do regardless of what design is chosen.

@@@

Interface mock-ups

# illustrations of what the interface will look like must be included in scenario. Hand-drawn sketches scanned in or mockups made with a drawing program are fine.

@@@ (ready two: one for the Vancouver desirable-living-places, one for STAR scores)

Implementation approach

You don't need lots of detail, just high-level things like which language and platform(s) you will use, and whether you will build on any pre-existing software or toolkits.

@@@ GMaps API, javascript, gd

Milestones

Include a list of project milestones with dates, breaking down the work into a series of smaller chunks.

~~Figure out how to overlay one png on static map~~
~~Figure out how to overlay another png when map is recentered~~

Find good shapefiles
Create PNG overlay from one known polygon extracted from shapefile; overlay on Google Maps
Create PNG overlay from several known polygons extracted from shapefile; overlay on Google Maps
Create PNG overlay from several known polygons, shaded with data from dBASE file; overlay on Google Maps

Given zoom level and map lat/long boundaries, determine which polygons are visible
Create PNG overlay from zoom level and lat/long boundaries
Overlay images dynamically on Google Maps