Using AI to Beat TimeGuessr / / No Comments I am currently working on a project which requires me to identify the locations depicted in works of art (more about this, hopefully, very soon). In order to narrow down the exact locations shown in the paintings I have begun to use two AI image identification tools GeoSpy and Bard.The sketch shown at the top of this post is the ‘Tour de Montelban, Amsterdam’ by Maxime Lalanne. I downloaded Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: beat, TimeGuessr, using
Reconstructing the Ancient Trade Routes / / No Comments Voyage with a Tail Wind: Chronicles of Ancient Maritime Journeys uses an ancient 15th Century book to reconstruct the trade routes used by Chinese spice traders during the Ming Dynasty. The Voyage with a Tail Wind or Shun Feng Xiang Song is a Chinese manuscript, dating from around 1403, which documents the maritime routes, coastal landmarks, and navigational hazards encountered by Chinese Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Ancient, Reconstructing, Routes, Trade
Mapping Conflicts Around the World / / No Comments At the beginning of 2024 the specter of military conflicts haunts the world. Israel is engaged in conflict in Gaza, Russia continues its illegal invasion of Ukraine and the Syrian civil war is now in its thirteenth year. In response to the spreading threat of global conflicts a number of organizations have now released interactive maps dedicated to tracking the progress of military action around Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: around, Conflicts, Mapping, World
The Bike Map / / No Comments Biking directions are very difficult. There are a few factors which are important to cyclists which most route planners tend to avoid. When I’m planning a bike route I usually consider the amount of road traffic (e.g. are there bike lanes available), elevation, and road surface (e.g. avoiding cobbles). I actually have a little test route which I use for previewing route planning maps for Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: bike
The Daily Explorer / / No Comments Oison Carroll’s Travle is a fun daily puzzle which requires players to travel between two different countries on an interactive map in the least possible moves. Every day Travle publishes a new map, which is blank except for two highlighted countries. All you have to do is journey from one of the highlighted countries to the other by typing in the names of the countries you could travel Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Daily, Explorer
Real-Time 3D Mapping / / No Comments Kaiwen Song and Juyong Zhang of the University of Science and Technology of China claim to be “the first to achieve real-time rendering of large-scale scenes” through the use of neural rendering. They have presented their findings to the world in their paper City-on-Web: Real-time Neural Rendering of Large-scale Scenes on the Web (the website of which includes three live demos). Neural Radiance Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Mapping, realtime
Subway Specs – Part III / / No Comments Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station is the world’s busiest train station. Its is used by over 3.5 million passengers every day. To cope with that amount of traffic the station has to be very big. It has 35 platforms, while another 17 platforms can be accessed through hallways to 5 directly connected stations without traveling outside. With over 35 million platforms and over 200 station exits it can be Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: part, Specs, Subway
Where Might I Live? / / No Comments There are 3,143 counties in the USA. One of them is probably perfect for you. But which one?What makes a perfect home can depend on a number of factors. Those factors are likely to be different for every single person. Where Might I Live can find your perfect US home based on your own personal criteria. Tell Where Might I Live what factors are important to you in choosing a home and it will Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: live, might