TimeMapper a WMS for vector animation of spatio-temporal data

Welcome to the homepage of TimeMapper, a proof-of-concept for online dissemination of spatial-temporal information in the form of animated and interactive vector maps.

TimeMapper is the result of an MSc research project by Timothée Becker and his supervisors Barend Köbben and Dr Connie Blok. It extends RIMapper, a WMS developed by Köbben using SVG to deliver online interactive maps from a database backend.

NOTE that the server-side code generating the animations has now been branched back into the main code body of RIMapperWMS, the SVG Web Map Service that TimeMapper was based on. This was combined with a (simplified ) animation GUI, so that TimeMapper now is part of RIMapperWMS. For more info (and code) visit the RIMapperWMS website.

The novelty and interest of the TimeMapper project is that it generates interactive and animated vector maps for the internet from spatio-temporal data stored according to OGC's standards (WMS Time Dimension).

The functionalities designed and the technologies used to implement the prototype were chosen to be as generic as possible. In effect, while the prototype is specific for the exploration of moving objects dynamics, the same principles could be used to visualize a wide variety of real-world spatio-temporal phenomena (political sensus, health issues, climate change, ...) as well as to build simulations.

The generic functionalities provided comprise:

• a time-slider,
• linear and cyclic temporal legends,
• a looping function,
• play and pause buttons,
• a speed control slider,
•  and the original functionalities of RIMapper to interact with the spatial dimension (pan and zoom) that has been additioned with a layer toggler. Layers from external WMSes can be loaded and TimeMapper automatically queries these when the user pans or zooms the map.

All examples have (for now) a fixed time-extent.

A moving object visualization prototype

The present prototype was developed for the exploration of moving object dynamics and the dataset chosen for testing is the National Ice Center (NIC) "Antarctic Icebergs" dataset. A user requirement analysis was done taking into account actors interested in icebergs from different scientific and industrial fields (navigation, oceanography, glaciology, climatology and iceberg multi-disciplinary studies).

Two main visualization tasks are now possible: studying iceberg distributions and studying iceberg movement dynamics. More features have been designed and only lack implementation.

The TimeMapper testcases

Three testcases are now available which vary primarily in the number of icebergs shown as this number is the main factor influencing the responsiveness of the system. Solutions to improve this responsiveness have been identified and shall be tested.

For the animated maps, SVG SMIL support is required: The prototype has been tested with Opera [download here]

1. An animated map of 3 icebergs (A22A, A22B, A22C) in the Weddel Sea: This example shows all functionalities of the protoype and good responsiveness.
2. An animated map of 19 icebergs in the Weddel Sea: This example shows all functionalities of the protoype, and has full interactivity as above. It shows the limits of the responsiveness and performance of our current implementation (due to the scripted DOM manipulation methods).
3. An animated map of all 99 icebergs in the whole Antarctic region. This example starts with pre-loaded and fixed Time-Scale. Further interactivity has been limited because the current DOM manipulation methods are not responsive with this amount of data.

One can also examine the OGC GetCapabilities response of the TimeMapperWMS by clicking the link and saving/viewing the resulting XML.

What to try out?

In addition to changing visualization modes, adjusting the speed of the animations and navigating the temporal extent with the time-slider, try panning the map with the spatial GUI. This automatically generates a new GetMap request by querying both the local and the remote WMSes.

The ITC MSc Thesis [13 Mb PDF] by Timothée Becker, for which the prototype examples were developed is available. It describes the theory behind the TimeMapper concept as well as the technology used to create it.

A chapter in a book [422 Kb PDF]  that discusses the TimeMapper prototype:
Köbben, B., Becker, T. & Blok, C. (2012), Webservices for Animated Mapping: The TimeMapper prototype, in M. P. Peterson, ed., ‘Online Maps with APIs and WebServices’, Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, chapter 14, pp. 205–217.

For technical background, setup information and downloadable examples and code of RIMapper (on which TimeMapper is based), visit the RIMapper homepage.