[OSM-dev] Variable scale maps

[Stefan Baebler]

I  believe Kelly was interested in static maps (eg paper maps) that
cannot be re-rendered every second.
Instead of providing map insets with higher detail it would be
interesting to have a "fisheye" style map, which would cover large
areas, but still provide high details in the centre or some other
area(s) of interest.

Google has some examples to illustrate the idea:
http://images.google.si/images?q=fisheye+map

"3d map" view on navigation devices is similarly showing detailed map
of immediate surroundings, but showing low scale map only in the
direction of travel.

Maybe areas of interest could be determined by node density instead of
having to define them manually, which brings me to an idea of
elastically joining nodes with springs of equal length and see how
they settle. This might be computationally very demanding and yielding
strange results if an unconnected straight way traverses highly and
densely connected area (eg underground under a city centre, straight
administrative borders...). Some average node density would probably
be simpler and giving smoother maps.

Stefan

On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 4:43 AM, Marcus Wolschon<Marcus at wolschon.biz> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 4:30 AM, Kelly Jones<kelly.terry.jones at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Most maps of small areas have a constant scale: eg: 100 pixels = 1 mile.
>>
>> Has anyone created maps w/ variable scales?
>
> Yes, all the time.
> That's interactive rendering in the client.
> Every satnav does that.
>
> Marcus
>
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