Paper maps are a pain. They’re clunky, get torn easily, and never seem to fold back the way they’re supposed to. Sure, you can always turn to a laptop or iPhone to get a digital copy, but most transit websites are painfully slow and difficult to navigate. What’s a wandering traveler to do?
Urban Mapping, a San Francisco based company founded in 2001, may have developed the next generation of maps. At least, they’ve made some maps that look cool and fold up nicely, which is enough for me. Each map consists of a layered plastic material, which comes together to form three (or more) maps in one. Each map appears depending on the angle that you view the sheet – it looks a lot like those toys you used to find in Cracker Jack Boxes, and uses the same (albeit improved) printing technique.
The two maps currently in production display the street view, neighborhood layout, and subway routes of Chicago and Manhattan, and retail for around $20. Depending on their reception, Urban Mapping say it can create simialr maps for any number of cities or other applications.
Urban Mapping actually released similar maps years ago, but the idea never took hold and the company wound up going bankrupt. It then switched gears and now licenses extensive mapping data related to neighborhoods and transit to big players like Yahoo, along with a number of smaller companies. Now that he’s got a sustainable company, founder Ian White is giving the dynamic maps another shot.
This is so old. Europe has had this for years.
This is so old. Europe has had this for years.
20 bucks lol
Let me guess….one of your old college mates started the company? Your neighbour? Someone your friend knows….? You own the company. ….Techcrunch, you need to start writing about Gary Glitter…pfffft
why are you clowns so negative? i bet you piss on everything that comes your way. even a bar of gold. Trolls!!! Enjoy:
http://www.jous...rames;read=1705
This is going to replace my cellphone.
Can’t wait.
i have been looking for these whenever i’m in nyc since the originals disappeared, very cool to hear they’re back, nice bit of information design.
Cool concept. Would like to see this available in more cities.
Nice maps, on an old idea… Not bad really…
Cool idea. How much do paper maps usually go for?
Like the BustedTee
I LOVE lenticular anything, so yay.
That said, I believe there’s a French company that’s done these for a while. The Paris one is crazy with all those metro lines.
Wouldnt this make it difficult to read a map with someone lol. When ever i read a map with my GF I swear she is seeing something else to me, but with these maps that really would be the case.
i remember when these things came out in nyc a few years ago–i thought it was sorta hokey until i bought one and LOVED the thing. so glad they are back on the scene. they’re huge with ‘regular’ (ie non TC’d) people
How scalable is that model and how you going to get it on your IPhone?
UMapper – http://www.umapper.com
How thick is your skull and how are you going to get those flash maps on the iPhone, umapper?
who cares about the iphone. less than 0.000001% of the population owns one. a lot more people know how to open a book than turn on an iphone
What a great solution to a common problem – one of the few practical applications of lenticular printing I’ve seen.
all that patent pending stuff, he sounds nervous, i wouldn’t put my money on him.
The patent isn’t pending — it was awarded.
I think it’s pretty nice. It’s smaller and lighter than current maps, and probably a lot easier to read into (you don’t have to torn pages and pages to find exactly what you want).
Nice, large maps. Handy for walking around a new city and exploring.
But really, this is a niche product…and one with a limited shelf life. (Because of constant physical changes to cities and because technology is steamrolling down the same corridor (iPhone, Nokia, Amazon Kindle)
Love it. It’s a great way to show layers of info. I suspect I could spill my coffee on it safely too.
CG
oh no, my battery in my iphone is dead! i’m screwed!!! wait–i can take out my Panamap and all will be ok!!
Nifty.
But eco-friendly? Biodegradable?
Museums = better market
This works like the well-known (and “60 years old” old) postcards which show several images at once – depending of your viewing angle. So this is nothing new because it’s not a display.
For me there are 3 main-questions:
- Where do I get the data from?
– I license it for money – e.g. TeleAtlas
– I load and remix it for free based on CC license – OpenStreetMap
- Which metadata and which details do I get?
– political areas
– streets, ways
– POIs
– images
- How do I display the data?
– Hardware: 2D / 3D display or like this ne above
– Which software do I use (browser based, native)?
– How do I display the data (Google Earth vs 2D map)?
UrbanMapping is a good idea I think and if the card you see in the video would be a device, it would be really innovative
The last 2 question belong to the 3rd.
Just received mine for Chicago, it’s great! (I just wish it included more of town.)