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HyperCities is a collaborative research and educational platform for traveling back in time to explore the historical layers of city spaces in an interactive, hypermedia environment.
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About Hypercities
Built on the idea that every past is a place, HyperCities is a digital research and educational platform for exploring, learning about, and interacting with the layered histories of city and global spaces. Developed though collaboration between UCLA and USC, the fundamental idea behind HyperCities is that all stories take place somewhere and sometime; they become meaningful when they interact and intersect with other stories. Using Google Maps and Google Earth, HyperCities essentially allows users to go back in time to create and explore the historical layers of city spaces in an interactive, hypermedia environment.
A HyperCity is a real city overlaid with a rich array of geo-temporal information, ranging from urban cartographies and media representations to family genealogies and the stories of the people and diverse communities who live and lived there. We are currently developing content for: Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Rome, Lima, Ollantaytambo, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Tehran, Saigon, Toyko, Shanghai, Seoul, with many more (big and small) to come.
The project asks a seemingly simple—but deeply fraught and often contested—question that is fundamental to identity: Where are you from? The answers, of course, are far from simple or straightforward.
As a globally-oriented platform that reaches deeply into archival collections and aggregates a wide range of media content (including broadcast news, photograph archives, 3D reconstructions, user-created maps, oral histories, GIS data, and community stories), HyperCities not only transforms how digital information is produced, stored, retrieved, and shared but also transforms how human beings interact with media and how we experience places. Born out of Web 2.0 social technologies, HyperCities represents a new digital media environment that links together cultures, languages, generations, and knowledge communities, mobilizing an array of technologies (from GPS-enabled cell phones to GIS mapping tools and geo-temporal databases) to pioneer a truly participatory, open-ended learning ecology grounded in real places and real times.
By connecting digital archives, maps, and stories with the physical world, HyperCities aims to become the first media platform for supporting the revolution of Web 3.0, the birth of the geo-temporal human web.
How To
A guide to using Hypercities.
Hypercities maps can be navigated using both a mouse and/or keyboard. Functions in 2D mode (Map, Satellite, Hybrid, & Terrain modes) include zooming in/out, moving up/down/left/right, and resetting the view. Functions in 3D mode (GoogleEarth mode) include zooming in/out, moving up/down/left/right, tilting camera angle, turn camera direction, and resetting the view. Map views can be changed using the controls overlaid on the upper left corner of the map or by using the following mouse/keyboard functions:
| Functions | Mouse | Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Zoom In | Scroll Wheel Down | ( + ) |
| Zoom Out | Scroll Wheel Up | ( - ) |
| Move Up | Hold Left Mouse Click + Drag Down | ( ↑ ) |
| Move Down | Hold Left Mouse Click + Drag Up | ( ↓ ) |
| Move Right | Hold Left Mouse Click + Drag Left | ( → ) |
| Move Left | Hold Left Mouse Click + Drag Right | ( ← ) |
| Additional 3D Mode Functions | ||
| Tilt Camera Angle Up/Down | Hold Left & Right Mouse Clicks + Drag Down/Up | KEYBOARD CONTROL |
| Turn Camera Direction Right/Left | Hold Left & Right Mouse Clicks + Drag Left/Right | KEYBOARD CONTROL |
Search Locations
To search for a location or address, click on the green "SEARCH" button located at the upper right of the Hypercities interface. To use the search function, type the location or address of interest in the search bar and click "GO" or press "Enter." A pinpoint will be placed at the location that was searched.
Change Map Modes
Hypercities allows you to change between several different map modes by selecting the mode of interest from the drop-down menu located at the upper right corner of the map.
2D Map Modes
Satellite - Satellite imagery
Map - Stylized street maps
Hybrid - Street names and borders superimposed on satellite imagery
Terrain - Street names and borders superimposed on terrain maps
Google Earth (3D) Mode
Enable 3D Models & Buildings
View a Collection
Login
Logging in is required to add collections and objects to Hypercities.
Add a Collection
Add an Object
All objects added in Hypercities are bound to a set base map, narrative, and map view determined by its creator. Objects that can be added in Hypercities include pinpoints, lines, polygons, and KML Files. Every object is stored within a Collection.
