TransitVis - Urban Data Challenge

TransitVis is live on the Apple app store for iPad.  It's a free download.  Watch the video to learn how to use it.

Don't forget to go get some data.  That's sold separately (also free).

The Urban Data Challenge awards were today and we took 3rd.  Thanks to everyone involved in that.  Lots of great projects.

What's next for TransitVis, you might ask?  All the interesting technology is in WhirlyGlobe-Maply so that'll be popping up in client projects.  For the app itself... we'll wait to see if anyone uses TransitVis for anything and go from there.

TransitVis - How to Load Data

This post is about loading data into TransitVis.  I cover this in the announcement post for TransitVis, but it can't hurt to be even more explicit.  Plus I need something to link to from the app.

What does it mean?  Dunno.  Pretty!

How to Get Some Data

Once you've got the app, you'll need to load some data.  We processed all three of the data sets for use.  A data set consists of two geojson files and a sqlite database for each data set.  Be sure to download all three files and then upload them to the app via iTunes.

• Geneva
• Transit db
• geojson stops
• geojson routes
• San Francisco
• Transit db
• geojson stops
• geojson routes
• Zurich
• Transit db
• geojson stops
• geojson routes

Getting Data Into TransitVis

Getting data into an app once you've installed is actually pretty easy.  Install the app first and then follow Apple's instructions for file sharing via iTunes.  Look for the app "TransitVis" in that window.

Here's what that looks like on my MacBook Pro.  Bring up iTunes.

Next page is all Hello Kitty apps

Select your iPad, like mine in the upper right there.  That should look like so.

That's right, rename your iPad 'mousebird'. [Don't do that]

Select the Apps tab up there along the top.  Then you should see something like this.

Only you're not trying to hide the name of client apps.

Select TransitVis and upload those files.

If you already ran the app, you'll need to kill it and rerun it as TransitVis looks for its data files on startup.  It should load the first data set it finds and make the others available for selection.

Urban Data Challenge Entry

This is our entry into the 2013 Urban Data Challenge.  For those of you who have no idea what that is, don't worry about it.  Here's a pretty video.

The Team

Michael Dougherty and myself (Steve Gifford) beat the data into submission and built the app.  Thanks also to Dianna Fisk for testing.

The Entry

Technically, our entry is that video up there.  Not everyone is going to have an iPad (yes, it's true).  But if you do, you can get the app one of two ways.

• You can get it for free on the app store.
• You can go to github and compile it.  It's all distributed freely.

If you do get a copy, you'll need some data.

The Data

If you do get your hands on the app, you'll need to load some data.  We processed all three of the data sets for use.  A data set consists of two geojson files and a sqlite database for each data set.  Be sure to download all three files and then upload them to the app via iTunes.

• Geneva
• Transit db
• geojson stops
• geojson routes
• San Francisco
• Transit db
• geojson stops
• geojson routes
• Zurich
• Transit db
• geojson stops
• geojson routes

Getting data into an app once you've installed is actually pretty easy.  Install the app first and then follow Apple's instructions for file sharing via iTunes.  Look for the app "TransitVis" in that window.

If you already ran the app, you'll need to kill it and rerun it as TransitVis looks for its data files on startup.  It should load the first data set it finds and make the others available for selection.

The Future

The app is submitted, the entry for the competition sent, and the code published.  All that remains is to describe the format we're using for the data.  We'll do that in a follow up blog post.

There were a number of interesting improvements to the WhirlyGlobe-Maply toolkit to support this work.  Those will appear in version 2.2, coming to a develop branch near you.

Urban Data Challenge - Second Cut

The deadline for the Urban Data Challenge is on Sunday and that leaves very little time for a very interesting project.  So I'll keep this brief.

How's it going?  It's going well.

All data looks better in 3D.  It's Science.

I'll be covering this is much more detail when I submit it to the challenge web site.  For now, we're well on track and it's just a matter of what other features we can squeeze in.

Urban Data Challenge - First Cut

Apologies to my regular readers (both of you, Hi Mom!).  I'm linking this post from other places, so a little background is in order.

I make an open source toolkit for iOS called WhirlyGlobe-Maply.  The WhirlyGlobe part is a 3D interactive globe.  The Maply bit is a flat map based on the same technology.

On to the point.

Urban Data Challenge: The Team

Occasionally I'll do a hackathon, challenge, or whatever you want to call them.  They're kind of cool, but tiring.  It's apparently been long enough to do another one.

This data challenge is kind of cool.  They've got simple transit data sets for three cities: San Francisco, Zurich, and Geneva covering the same week.  The idea is to analyze, display, animate, whatever.  You can build an app, put up a web site, make an animation, whatever.  Very open ended.

So obviously my focus is going to be on an app, but it's no fun to do this stuff alone.

I hooked up with an old colleague for this one, Michael Dougherty.  A man of mystery, Michael has no web presence to speak of.  He has made this awesome, if under advertised iPhone app.  It involves some decent math, so there's some, as you would say, synergy.

First Cut

The first thing to do is parse a data set and get something up on the screen.  That dictates what we do next.  We tossed the data into a sqlite database and started querying.  On the device.  Cause that's what we're doing.  A native app for the iPad.

Monday morning commute.  Feel the surliness.

So yay, it worked!  Well, it didn't at first, but we fixed it and then it worked.  Yay!

The red is passengers getting off at particular stops and the blue is passengers getting on.  We're seeing buses (no trains) here, and not BART or Caltrain, but you can kinda see where they are.  Oh, and this is San Francisco.

Great, so it's working, now it's time to play.  What does the evening commute look like?

Monday evening commute.  Less hungover, but still surly.

The traffic moves around in interesting ways.  Ways that suggest more analysis.  Which is good, since this is just the first cut.  How's the weekend look?

Woo!  Party at Fort Mason.  Which is over.  So go home.

And that looks good.  It basically makes sense, so our errors are more subtle and insidious.  An excellent first start.