technical mapping challenge

not sure where to start

[httpwebwitch]

posting this to Foo because it wouldn't fit anywhere else.

Here's my situation:
I have a collection of maps - some are hand-drawn, others are like old etchings and lithographs. On them are markers for historic buildings, landmarks, "something important happened here" spots, etc. The task at hand is to figure out the latitude & longitude coordinates for places on the maps.

I was dreaming that I could somehow overlay these scans on the NASA Worldwind globe, stretch and warp them to fit terrestrial guidelines (coasts, lakes, rivers) until they fit snugly over the real earth. Then by clicking the dots on the map overlay, WorldWind would tell me the Lat&Long.

Has anyone here tried anything like this before?

[pmkpmk]

You need a Geographical Information System, like ArcGIS, ESRI or Autocad MAP to do this. Hope your credit card has several thousands of dollars left over...

You can do it with Google Earth too, yet not as precise.

[httpwebwitch]

thanks for the tip. Google Earth does it, albeit roughly. For my purposes a lat/long within 10" is sufficient, since the places being mapped are large and vaguely centered.

Now I have about 250 of these maps covering over 7000 places, for which I need to overlay, stretch to fit, and plot the coordinates to put into a database.

Anyone know a student who needs a job?

[pmkpmk]

If you need better accuracy, you can try NASA's "Earth Wind" (or World Wind?) instead. It's more or less the same as Google Earth, only that it exists longer and suffices scientific purposes. It's much slower though and demands higher ressources.

I can give you an address in Germany of someone who might be interested in doing it as a service, but I guess even in a globalized age that would be overkill.

[iamlost]

Contact a local university Geography department.

I expect that such re-mapping will become more common as archives and individuals put historical records to use.

The process might make a good term paper/project or even thesis. That in turm could drastically lower cost.

[httpwebwitch]

One thing sold me utterly on the GoogleEarth/Keyhole tool - the ability to export placeholders as an XML file. When I opened the placeholder KML and found a nicely formed XML structure, I couldn't help but smile. Someone made this for me!

As for the geography students, really I just want some extra-cheap labour on a project which has an almost-zero budget but future commercial intent. If some kid spent days overlaying and plotting placeholders as a school project, I'd feel guilty buying the data from them unless I could afford to give them minimum wage for the effort. Which I can't right now.

So obviously the problem isn't the student who may be willing to do it, it's me and my exploitation guilt. I need to overcome that guilt. :)

[pmkpmk]

I just re-read some things. If accuracy is of some iportance, NASA's "World Wind" is the better choice for you. They also have an XML-like import/export feature.

[httpwebwitch]

The concern over accuracy is misleading. The maps I'm working from are old etchings, drawings, and "old school" cartography. Some are hand-drawn and look like pirate maps with cross-hatched shores. We're talking about large-scale positioning, like "Spanish wrecks off the coast of Florida". These things do have precise locations, but my source maps do not aspire to fine accuracy. Edges are approximate, measurements are rough.

When I place a spot on the globe, it's mapping the lat/long with a few dozen decimal places. There's no way my source material is that accurate, so I fear it may be misleading giving a latitutde of 38.82883726348N, when my margin of error is so immense.

My data will be nice for making tourism maps with big icons. But if someone uses my data with a personal GPS trying to find the spot down to the closest meter, they'll probably be WAY off.

The difference between Keyhole/GE and NASA/WW? Is it so great that my spots will be off by more than 0.5km? I hope not! Errors in accuracy are going to be put off by my source material more than the globing tool I use.

This can all be summed up by a disclaimer... my data is useful for approximate positioning only...

[rocknbil]

http, 7000 places? That would make for some SERIOUS content. I would justify the guilt with a percentage of future profits for the student or volunteer, a site like that would make a killing. I'd jump in myself if I had the time. :-)

[httpwebwitch]

This conversation is leading in a new direction, one that poses new questions. What is a fair rate for non-written content development? Data compilation, for want of a better term? The greedy me says giving away a percentage is bad... the finanically modest me says it's all I really have to offer. The ambitious me says I should scrape together some savings and offer a commissioned rate, $1 for every 10 items entered in the database, to any student willing to take on the task. 7000 records for $700? It's no secret around here that those 7000 tourism-related items easily become 7000 pages with a handsome potential for ad income.

[pmkpmk]

As someone who outsources tasks, I always prefer a flat one-time payment, so all the extra revenue goes into my pocket. As someone accepting outsourced tasks, I prefer a socket payment with a percentage on top of it. So my work is more or less covered, PLUS I have the opportunity to make more if it takes off.

On A sidenote: now that you are determined to go with Google Earth, you should consider publishing an add-on, so your content can be explored "offline" (offline is not quite the correct word when dealing with Google Earth, but I think you know what I mean). The new National Geographic overlay is a very nice example of what I mean (and funny enough they display YPN ads in there).

[httpwebwitch]

a good idea worth considering, pmkpmk.

YPN ads in the Natl Geo layer? I don't see them. What do you mean?

~hww

[pmkpmk]

Click on one of the yellow rectangles. Google Earth zooms in. Then click it again: the lower part raises and shows a page from the National Geographic webpage. And almost the first thing you see on that are YPN ads.

They might have changed it though in the meantime. Our esteemed member JenStar has a screenshot: [jensense.com...]

[httpwebwitch]

LOL! that's brilliant. Way to go, National Geographic!
Ok I see, one can create a point on the globe with a link in its description, then have ads at the *very top* so they show above that miniscule fold.