Google Image Maps

This week I've come across two interesting Google Maps that have been created with the GMap Image Cutter. The GMap Image Cutter is an application that can take any image or digital photo and cut it into map tiles which can then be displayed using the Google Maps API.


Folketinget og Regeringen uses an image of all members of the Danish parliament. The map of the image was created by microformats.dk.

The image shows all 179 representatives of the Danish parliament, 175 from Denmark, 2 from Greenland and a further 2 from the Faroe Islands. The image also portrays the current members of the Danish government.


The London DataStore - Picture Viewer displays a series of thumbnail maps for every field in the first hundred datasets on the London Datastore. The thumbnail maps were combined into one 10,000 pixel image and then turned into map tiles with the GMap Image Cutter.

Using the Picture Viewer Google Map users can zoom in on individual maps that visualise various data sets from the London DataStore. This map was created by GeoTalisman.


The Danish Parliament map and the London DataStore map are both nice examples of how the Google Maps API can be used with digital images. Cognitive Consilience is another map that uses an image with the Google Maps API and takes the concept a little further by using some of the API's functions to make a more interactive visualisation.