Tuesday, October 20, 2009

ESRI launches Mapping For Everyone website

Today ESRI announced the launch of a new website entitled Mapping for Everyone.  The site features an innovative four step web page for creating (and sharing) demographic maps.  Developers can experiment with the free JavaScript, Flex and Silverlight APIs or browse user samples.  Lastly, try ESRI’s free virtual globe called ArcGIS Explorer.
http://www.esri.com/mapping

Mapping for Everyone

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Tag Map Magnifier for Microsoft Surface

This video demonstrates a new proof-of-concept developed by the Applications Prototype Lab in Redlands, California for the Microsoft Surface.

The application was developed using ESRI’s ArcGIS API for WPF and utilizes Surface-specific tags to act as virtual map magnifiers.  Tags are made up of a collection of domino-like black dots and are uniquely identified by the Surface device.  Developers can retrieve the tag position, identifier code and orientation.

The lab used the tags to add additional Map UIElements to the display.  As the user manipulates the tag, the magnifier map is repositioned and its map extent updated.  The map insets initially have same scale as the base map, a small scrollbar is provided to allow the user to magnify the map (or “zoom in”).

Because tags are uniquely identified, if a user removes a tag and then places it back on the table, we are able to restore previous settings such as the map magnifier’s size and relative scale.