Boosting fun in countryside with 3D maps
The winter in Hong Kong is cool and pleasant, ideal for outings in the countryside. Apart from visiting popular scenic spots such as Tai Tong and Reservoir Islands, Ngong Ping on Lantau Island is also a good choice.
People like me who are less familiar with hiking trails in outlying islands may not know how to arrange the itinerary. Fortunately, there is an interactive exhibit in the recently reopened Ngong Ping Nature Centre, which uses a three-dimensional (3D) model with projection images and simulated navigation to introduce the three nearby trails. They are the one-star (five stars being the highest) Village Section, the two-star Nei Lak Shan Section and the four-star Lantau Peak Section.
There is an impressive video featuring these hiking trails, incorporating 3D maps, satellite images, and topographical information to display the hiking routes, topographical changes and scenic spots. For example, the shortest and easiest Village Section trail which can be completed in just an hour covers the Po Lin Monastery, Wisdom Path, and the scenery overlooking Ngong Ping and the Hong Kong- Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
Compared with the previous 2D maps of hiking trails, the 3D maps are clearer and more vivid. The driving force behind the 3D maps is the geographic information system (GIS) which integrates various information to facilitate visitors. These 3D maps are currently only available at the Ngong Ping Nature Centre, I hope to see them on the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) website or mobile app in the future.
Maps are an indispensable part of mountain activities. If there is more widespread use of maps, they will become a new industry.
In the Netherlands, three cycling enthusiasts who are also application designers and data scientists found that the mobile apps in the market could only record simple data such as distance, altitude, and personal health (eg. Heartbeat), but failed to record interesting things throughout their trip in Spain. As a result, they developed an app called Relive in 2016.
Relive is a mobile app that lets cyclists, runners and hikers visualise their accomplishments. The route of the app user will be displayed as a moving line through 3D streets and mountains in an animation, while static photos or videos can be inserted together with additional information such as the length of the trip, the highest altitude and duration, etc. making it convenient for sharing on social media. Watching one’s videos of outdoor activities is very memorable, whether it is hiking, running, biking, driving or skiing.
The application is also enabled by the GIS platform which links numerous data. Relive has attracted over a million users in the first year of its launch, and has currently reached more than 13 million people worldwide. The founders hope that the number of users will increase to over 100 million in the future.
The new year has just begun. I hope that more people will discover the infinite possibilities of GIS which makes life more exciting.
-- Contact us at [email protected]
-
Energising HK's creative industries through cultural big data Dr. Winnie Tang
The government has planned to allocate nearly HK$300 million for the development of Art Tech. How can the funding effectively improve the level of local culture and arts, and further consolidate Hong
-
How to well spend the HK$300 million allocated to art tech? Dr. Winnie Tang
Local movie director Chu Yuan passed away earlier. In a lament, film critic Ka Ming recalled Chu's five masterpieces in the 1960s and 1970s. In his remark, Ka criticised that like most old Hong Kong
-
A cross-border ‘yellow cow’ story Ben Kwok
Almost all overseas fellows of my age that I know came to Hong Kong during the pandemic only for one reason: to meet their parents as much as possible. But in order to see their parents in person,
-
Advancing responsible business conduct Hanscom Smith
We need only look at the front-page news to see that companies are reassessing their business practices in areas ranging from preventing and addressing forced labor in their supply chains,
-
Re-opening Hong Kong a must Brian YS Wong
Hong Kong’s value to its country remains its openness, cosmopolitanism, and fundamental willingness to embrace and take on the unknown. It is its internationalism, as opposed to inward-looking
