Skip to main content

Bing Destination Maps creates cool hand sketched directions

Microsoft Bing Map has an awesome set of ‘Map Apps’ that offers more conventional functionality to simple driving directions. Among these include a Gas Prices App that shows how much gas costs at nearby stations, a Parking Finder App that shows where parking spots are available, traffic on streets and even a Roadside Sculptures and Urban Graffiti App that shows weird things you can see on roadside along your way.

bing_destination_map

A recent addition to Bing Maps is the Bing Destination Maps App from Microsoft Research. This Silverlight powered app renders map routes into easy to follow and aesthetically appealing hand sketches. Bing Destination Maps sketches a driver's route and removes any streets, avenues or roads that aren't necessary to get where he or she's going. Think of it as driving directions for dummies.

To use Destination Maps go to Bing Maps and click on ‘Map Apps’ on the bottom left as shown below. You might have to change your preferred location to United States in order to see the button.

bing-map-apps

Select the Destination Maps App, choose a location, drag a box around the area of interest, give the map a name and Bing renders the route.

There are 4 types of alternative look for the map:

  1. Sketchy Style that looks just like a map sketched out on a napkin
  2. European Style looks like the regular Bing Maps but a lot of the streets that won’t aid someone in getting to the destination have been removed
  3. American Style is a cross between the traditional Bing Maps and the sketch view
  4. Treasure Map Style is like Sketchy Style but drawn on paper that looks ages old and folded

bing_destination_map2

bing_destination_map3

bing_destination_map4

It is possible to save the map to your computer as a JPEG or PDF and easily print it or share the map by sending a link to people.

Destination Maps is currently in beta and available for locations only in the US, Canada and Mexico.

[via Infosthetics]

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Record CPU and Memory Usage Over Time in Windows?

Whenever the computer is lagging or some application is taking too long to respond, we usually fire up task manager and look under the Performance tab or under Processes to check on processor utilization or the amount of free memory available. The task manager is ideal for real-time analysis of CPU and memory utilization. It even displays a short history of CPU utilization in the form of a graph. You get a small time-window, about 30 seconds or so, depending on how large the viewing area is.
17 comments
Read more

How to Schedule Changes to Your Facebook Page Cover Photo

Facebook’s current layout, the so called Timeline, features a prominent, large cover photo that some people are using in a lot of different creative ways. Timeline is also available for Facebook Pages that people can use to promote their website or business or event. Although you can change the cover photo as often as you like, it’s meant to be static – something which you design and leave it for at least a few weeks or months like a redesigned website. However, there are times when you may want to change the cover photo frequently and periodically to match event dates or some special promotion that you are running or plan to run. So, here is how you can do that.
1 comment
Read more

Diagram 101: Different Types of Diagrams and When To Use Them

Diagrams are a great way to visualize information and convey meaning. The problem is that there’s too many different types of diagrams, so it can be hard to know which ones you should use in any given situation. To help you out, we’ve created this diagram that lays out the 7 most common types of diagrams and when they’re best used:
Post a Comment
Read more