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UsingMapsInMediascapes
Using maps in mediascapes
Mscape maps include co-ordinates
A mediascape consists of media objects spread about on a map. A map for a mediascape is no ordinary map. It is based on an image of a map, but that is not all; when you use the mediascape with your mobile device, it knows where it is in terms of GPS co-ordinates, but it needs to know where it is on your map. Thus you need to have co-ordinates associated with your map. In this way the device can say; ‘Right, I’m at GPS co-ordinates XYZ, so where’s that on the mediascape map? Right, I’m in the region with the dog barking sound so I had better play it...’.
This special sort of map is the map that needs to be used when you create a mediascape with the mscape maker. There are different ways of getting one.
(Sometimes, this type of map with co-ordinates may be referred to as a ‘maplib’)
Using the mscape map service
Click on the map icon in the top bar of mscape maker to import a map, you will be asked if you want to import a map from the mscape map service or from a file. Creating a map file to import is dealt with in the sub-section below.
The mscape map service is a customised map making service. It is easy to use, the controls are similar to many mapping/satellite-photography services already online. You can switch between maps and satellite photographs, you navigate across a map to the area you require, and then click a button to import the map of that area into mscape maker. The co-ordinates are automatically incorporated into the map.
This service is continually being improved and we are working to overcome any drawbacks that you may experience in speed, scope or image quality.
Creating your own map
Mscape maker also allows you to create your own ‘home made’ mscape map, you will need an image of a map and then you have to do a bit of work to find the co-ordinates and associate them with the map.
Getting a map image
To start with you need an image of a map. You could use a scan of an old map, or of a sketch that some children have made. Trace an existing map either on a computer on with tracing paper. Or you could request a copy of a map from a more conventional mapping company.
In order for it to be used in the mscape tools, the image of the map has to be in one of these formats; BMP, JPG, GIF, (The BMP format is a common Microsoft format and JPG and GIF are formats often used for images on wed pages, you can usually tell what an images format is by the letters after the dot in the file name. Note that JPG is also called JPEG).
Once you have the image of your map you have to get co-ordinates for it and then use mscape maker to associate the two things. There are two approaches to gathering the co-ordinates to give to mscape maker.
Either you can get them from a second party and then key them in ‘by hand’, or you capture the co-ordinates by going outside to the area of the map with your mobile device and using a special tool to gather the co-ordinates as you walk around and the co-ordinates can then be transferred to your computer ready for use in the mscape maker.
Gathering the co-ordinates from a second party
Co-ordinate systems
It is not much good just having some co-ordinates. The information; ‘The treasure is buried at 44 32’ is useless if you do not know what co-ordinate system is being used. Is this latitude and longitude? Is it number of paces from the old oak tree on Skull Island?
You need to have both the co-ordinates and the information about the co-ordinate system being used. The co-ordinate system will depend on which county you are mapping. Different countries have different systems and there are some international systems as well. The key items of information about the co-ordinate system are: The country, the co-ordinate system being used, and the zone of that co-ordinate system. (some of these co-ordinate systems need to know which zone you are talking about, but not all of them). Once you have all that information you can give the co-ordinates and know that they will be correctly interpreted.
There are several ways of getting co-ordinates to attach to your map.
Contact whoever provided the map
If you got your map from an official source, or someone who is knowledgeable about maps then they are the best point of contact for finding out about what the co-ordinates are.
In order to pin down the map precisely you need to have the co-ordinates of the four corners of the map (in actual fact three corners is enough but having four will help to cross check the information for mistakes).
Once again do not forget to get the details of the co-ordinate system being used from them as well as the actual co-ordinates.
Get them from www.streetmap.co.uk
This site is UK specific.
It lets you click around on a huge map and zoom in and out until you find the bit of landscape you are interested in.
When you click anywhere on the map it draws an arrow pointing to where you clicked and the co-ordinates of that point appear in the text area below the map. Unfortunately it also puts the square you clicked in at the centre of the screen so things do get a bit confusing and you have to re-center the map by clicking in one of the other squares to make it the centre. It is not too complex and after a bit of clicking and watching you will quickly get the hang of it.
You have to click in all four corners to get the co-ordinates for whatever map you are planning on using. Write them down or cut and paste them into a text file (keeping track of which is which).
The other thing you always need to know is which country and co-ordinate system it is. There may be similar services for other countries, let us know if you find one particularly useful.
Capturing the co-ordinates outside with the map-aligner
When you use the map-aligner you will be taking the map outside on a mobile device and you will click on the map to say, ‘This bit of the map here is the place where I am now standing...’.
The mscape map-aligner is part of the mscape toolkit and is installed on the mobile device when you install the mscape player included in the toolkit. To capture the co-ordinates for your map image you must also transfer the map to the mobile device as well.
When you are outside you run the map-aligner and use it to open your map image. The map-aligner will then guide you through the process of capturing co-ordinates until there are enough points for it to have a good idea about how the two relate.
The advantage of this method is that you don’t have to spend too much time worrying about co-ordinate systems and you don’t have to write down and check lots of numbers. The disadvantage is that you have to do a fair bit of wandering around outside in the exact location that you are designing your mediascape for.
Here's how you can find the map-aligner on your mobile device:
- Tap Start / Programs / File Explorer
- Navigate to My Device / Program Files / mscape
- Map-aligner is there in the list.
Entering the co-ordinates into mscape maker
Once you have the co-ordinates from either of these two methods you can combine them with the map image using the mscape maker. You go to the ‘Tools’ menu and select ‘Create map from image’. You are then led through a dialogue that prompts you to import the image and then provide the co-ordinates either by importing the file you made with your mobile device or by typing them in by hand.
