Mapmaker, An Interactive Map System
Professor Dusinberre - Classics

Professor Dusinberre proposed this project but any faculty member who uses maps as a teaching aid should be able to make use of the completed software. ETH members Neal Meier, Gaurav Raje and Ryan King are designing the mapmaker software so that it will work with any set of maps and locations. Also, they will build it to run in browsers on both PCs and Macs. The mapmaker software will accept digital images of a set of maps and a list of place names with their longitudes and latitudes. This software will have the capability to plot the locations correctly on any of the maps. System users will be able to zoom in on regions in order to see more detail.

Professor Dusinberre identified two tasks that her students should be able to perform with the interactive map. To identify a location, a student will type a site, region or geographical feature name into a text box and the program will draw a dot on the location or highlight the region and print the name next to it. Switching modes, students may quiz themselves by typing a location name into the text box and then clicking where the site or feature should be. The program will show the correct location in red.