ion and translates this into a map that is read by the map user and transferred to the user’s mind. Choosing a crime map Chapter 1 characterized thematic maps as falling into the following broad categories: statistical, point, choropleth, isoline, surface, and linear. How do we choose the most appropriate type for mapping crime and crime-related phenomena? Some decisions jump out at us while others are open to interpretation. For example, if we want to see the precise locations of burglaries for the last month, then we use a point map of addresses of incidents. Or perhaps a city council member has asked the police department for a map summarizing the number of incidents of graffiti per structure by city neighborhoods. This calls for a choropleth map, with neighborhood boundaries making up the geographic units. Links between victim and offender residences demand a linear representation. A generalized picture of crime risk or incidents is seen best with an isoline or surface map, and census information depicting the relationship between poverty and race can be shown using either a statistical or choropleth map. Because of the infinite potential combinations of crime-related conditions that can be depicted on maps, we can combine map types to put more information on the same map. For example, we can combine nominal and ratio data, such as a choropleth map of drug-related crime by patrol beats and add the locations of drug markets on the same map. Crime mappers should be aware of the potential for combining thematic map types, provided that the result is not overloaded with information—or just plain incomprehensible. An overloaded map will have so much information that the eye is unable to take it all in. It will prevent the reader from discriminating between what is important and what is not. Examples of thematic maps Perhaps the best way to get a feel for the kinds of maps used to display crime data is to look at examples and to think about why each type of map was selected. A good place to start is the Web site of the National Institute of Justice Crime Mapping Research Center (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/cmrc), which provides links to police departments across the United States. Another useful Web site is maintained by Hunter College in New York (http://everest.hunter.cuny.edu/ capse/projects/nij/crime.html). (See the appendix for additional information.) Thematic maps using point symbols: The dot map When should point symbols be used? The first prerequisite is that you have locational detail—information specific to your points, such as street addresses or coordinates in latitude/longitude or some other system, such as State Plane (explained in chapter 1). The second prerequisite is that the audience needs locational detail. If you have point data, but the audience wants information summarized by patrol areas or neighborhoods, then the point data can be added up, or aggregated, to the areas of interest. Examples of point, or dot, maps are shown in figures 2.3 and 2.4.

Mapping crime: principle and practice

Systems and methods for providing a user with increased flexibility and control over the appearance and behavior of objects on a user interface are described. Sets of objects can be grouped into themes to provide a user with a distinct overall impression of the interface. These themes can be switched dynamically by switching pointers to drawing procedures or switching data being supplied to these procedures. To buffer applications from the switchable nature of graphical user interfaces according to the present invention, colors and patterns used to implement the interface objects are abstracted from the interface by, for example, pattern look-up tables.

A system and method for customizing appearance and behavior of graphical user interfaces

Switching between appearance/behavior themes in graphical user interfaces

Systems and methods for drawing objects on a display and, in particular, on a graphical user interface are described. Arbitrarily sized objects having straight sides and arbitrarily shaped corners can be drawn using one or more concentric rings which enclose an optional face. Each ring is specified as part of a data structure in terms of position, fill pattern and bits to be turned on. As a result, changes to the object's appearance attributes, such as, size, shape and color, can be made without requiring new program code.

Data-driven method and system for drawing user interface objects

Systems and methods for providing a user with increased flexibility and control over the appearance and behavior of objects on a user interface are described. Sets of objects can be grouped into themes to provide a user with a distinct overall impression of the interface. These themes can be invoked by calling a corresponding theme engine. Theme engines can be hard-coded or data-driven.

Multiple theme engine graphical user interface architecture

The display of shaded polygons by line, cross-hatch, and dot patterns on vector devices is a task frequently used in computer graphics and computer cartography. In applications such as the production of shaded maps polygon shading turns out to be critical with respect to time requirements, and the development of efficient algorithms is of importance.Given an arbitrary polygon in the plane without self-crossing edges (simply-connected polygon), the task at hand is to shade this polygon with one or two sets of parallel lines where for each set a shading angle and a line distance are given. The basic concept of this new algorithm is to decompose the polygon into a set of mutually exclusive trapezoids (in special cases triangles) where the parallel edges of the trapezoids are parallel to the desired shading lines. These trapezoids and triangles are then shaded in a fast procedure. In its present form the algorithm handles regions with up to 300 islands. Possible extensions include the construction of dash and cross patterns.

An algorithm for shading of regions on vector display devices

Conventional choropleth maps are constructed with class intervals whereby a given map symbol represents a range of data values in a distribution. Tobler recently has introduced a computer-assisted method to produce choropleth maps without class intervals by means of continuous-tone map symbol variation. Three design modifications for such continuous-tone choropleth maps include an improved legend, an alternative data-value map symbol allocation, and area symbols with pattern variation complementing cross-hatch line symbolism.

Design Strategies for Continuous-tone Area Mapping

This paper presents the design strategy for a crime information system with vast capabilities for production of and experimentationwith maps. Detailed disaggregated crime information from the city of Buffalo, New York forms the primary data base for the system. This series of crime files, together with socio-economic data from the Census, are integrated into a geographic information system denoted as the Crime Analysis and Research Package (CARP). The Buffalo Crime Mapping System as a part of CARP is a collection of data files and routines designed for versatile display and analysis of spatially referenced crime data. It deals with three types of information: crime, census, and spatial reference information containing various geometrical indices such as block group boundaries and centroids of statistical units. The boundary information is provided by a flexible arc structure. The three major data files are stored as random access files and are interfaced with various display procedures such as choropleth, graduated circle, and dot mapping programs. The user provides the system with a set of instructions as to the desired map type and its display parameters. A-driver routine then reads the map type instruction and calls the appropriate mapping routine. This mapping program then proceeds by reading the user parameters, accesses the necessary base files, and produces the final map. At its present stage, the system is batch oriented and does not provide for interactive and/or real-time communication features.

The buffalo crime mapping system: a design strategy for the display and analysis of spatially referenced crime data

Introduction Pen-and ink vector plotters have recently become standard equipment in most computer installations. These drum or flatbed hardware devices are driven most often by a standard plotting software package supported by the hardware vendor (see Dunn and Herzog, 1977). Such software provides for the usual array of point symbol and vector mode line drawing but contains only a single type font for graphic character display. This lettering style is generally a standard, regimented one (usually a hybrid of Simplex Roman) and is appropriate for crude work graphs of minor graphical quality. Browsing through scientific journals or observing messages and labels generated from these standard plotting packages testifies to the inadequacy of using this restrictive type font for effective text communication. The graphic and communicative quality of a plot rests heavily on its annotation. The recognition of the attribute(s) to which the text applies, the ease with which the lettering can be read and interpreted, and the 'balance' it renders to the rest of the plot are all essential aspects of graph/map design (Robinson and Sale, 1969). Since the standard plotting systems provide only a letter size variation capability and do not furnish pen-stroke width and intercharacter spacing features, they are not adequate software media for generating the proper text-to-plot relationship that is necessary for effective reader communication. On the other hand, sophisticated lettering packages are currently on the market that offer a menu of lettering styles (see, Hershey, 1969; DISSPLA, 1970). The lettering system designed by A.V. Hershey, for example, is based on an extensive font collection where the characters are constructed by a succession of pen-strokes. Though the various styles are of superior quality for small font sizes, the Hershey package degenerates for plotting graphic characters of

Font variations in vector plotter lettering

This paper outlines recent developments in computer mapping and points out its importance for visualizing contents of geographic information systems. The authors present an integrated system of mapping packages and spatial-data files. Map examoles generated with this system are used to illustrate characteristics of various computer-mapping methods. The diversity of displays created from a single set of data demonstrates that mapping from automated display systems requires the user to take some decisions which have to be based on an understanding of the phenomena displayed, of cartographic communication, and of technical aspects of automated map processing.

Mapping from an automated display system

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