Recently I became aware of Microsoft Live Labs Pivot. From their website: “Pivot is a really ambitious project that makes it easier to interact with massive amounts of data in ways that are powerful, informative, and fun.” Well in the latest Bing Maps imagery update we had updates
from
with
for
A total of
That appears to be enough to give Pivot a first crack. To set up a Pivot-Collection proved to be amazingly simple and it was indeed fun to work with it. My first result is available here:
Check out the various dimensions…
…select a data point to look at the details and get more information from Bing…
…and then click on “Open” to explore the area directly in Bing Maps:
Unfortunately Pivot is currently available by invitation only. So if you are interested visit the website and request an invitation.
Many ways lead to Rome or in this case to a connection between your spatial data in SQL Server 2008 and the visualization in Bing Maps.
Dim extRing As New GraphicsPath extRing.AddPolygon({ _ New Point(10, 10), _ New Point(10, 490), _ New Point(490, 490), _ New Point(490, 10), _ New Point(10, 10)}) Dim myRegion As New Region(extRing) Dim intRings As New GraphicsPath intRings.AddPolygon({ _ New Point(50, 50), _ New Point(100, 50), _ New Point(100, 100), _ New Point(50, 100), _ New Point(50, 50)}) intRings.AddPolygon({ _ New Point(150, 150), _ New Point(200, 150), _ New Point(200, 200), _ New Point(150, 200), _ New Point(150, 150)}) intRings.AddPolygon({ _ New Point(50, 250), _ New Point(50, 200), _ New Point(100, 200), _ New Point(100, 250), _ New Point(50, 250)}) myRegion.Exclude(intRings)
Dim img As Image = New Bitmap(PictureBox1.Width, PictureBox1.Height) Dim g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(img) g.FillRegion(Brushes.Blue, myRegion)
Based on Ricky’s concept I have now created a dynamic tile rendering service that is using the SQL Server 2008 spatial library in the middleware. This library is installed along with SQL Server 2008 but can also be downloaded separately from the Microsoft SQL Server System CLR Types in the Feature Pack. There is certainly room for improvement but all libraries are fully supported and the code is just a start :-)
You will find a sample database here…
…and the sample code here
A great resource to find out about the latest imagery updates is of course Chris Pendleton’s blog. A fancy tour through the highlights of the latest updates is available in the Bing Maps World Tour. Sometimes people are however interested in the geographic extend of these updates. If you are one of those you might find this little Bing Maps Silverlight application helpful that I have put together.
Do you work with geospatial datasets in a database? Are you interested in thematic mapping? Do you consider to add a spatial component to your risk analysis application? If any of this sounds interesting to you than you should join us for a full day of technical training in the the Microsoft office in Reading.
I have 6 and a half hours on the 21st of January to torture the attendees and dive really deep into SQL Server 2008’s spatial capabilities and the data visualization with Bing Maps.
After an introduction into the spatial data types, spatial indexing and spatial functions in SQL Server 2008 we will look into the complete spatial ETL process including nasty things like coordinate system conversions or re-projections. Once we have the data in SQL Server we can already start with interesting analysis but more often we would want to get them out and display the data on our Bing Maps. We will of course do that as well and throughout the day we will look at the do’s and don’ts.
If you are interested register here.
A big thanks to Brian Norman, Alastair Aitchison and Ricky Brundritt who founded the Bing Maps UK User Group. The inaugural meeting will be on Wednesday the 13th of January 2010 from 18:00 to 21:00 in the Microsoft Office at…
There will be 2 ‘formal’ sessions:
If you get a chance join us for the evening. I’m sure it’ll be fun.
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