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| ## Academic Computing's Spotlight This purpose of the Spotlight page is to acknowledge pedagogical projects at MIT that use technology in innovative and creative ways. The spotlight this time falls on the MIT & MassGIS Digital Orthophoto Browser Project, which came out of the Computer Resource Lab (CRL) of the MIT Department of Urban Studies & Planning (DUSP). ### Browsing Boston The goal of the project was to offer easy Web-based access to digital orthophotos of the Boston area. Orthophotos are aerial photographs or satellite images that have been processed to remove any perspective effect. This is accomplished by stretching, squeezing, rotating, and twisting so that locations on the photo correspond to a geographic coordinate grid. The Web browser developed by project members lets you maneuver around in an orthophotographic overview of Boston. You can zoom in on selected sections and zero in on specific locations down to the point where you can identify individual buildings. The orthophotos used are grayscale images with a resolution of one half-meter per pixel. They were produced by the Massachusetts Geographic Information System (MassGIS), under the auspices of the State Office of Environmental Affairs. The orthos are valuable tools for urban planning projects since they provide detailed imagery with known and consistent coordinates. They are used in DUSP for course assignments such as urban spacial analysis or land use studies. For example, orthos can be juxtaposed with other graphical information such as census data to help explain gaps in residential density. This sort of data gathering was an arduous and time-consuming task in the past when orthophotos were only available in hard copy. ### Project Links The Principal Investigator for the project is MIT's Prof. Joseph Ferreira, Jr. Post doctoral associate John D. Evans played an integral role in the development of the software behind the browser. For more information about the project, see http://ortho.mit.edu/nsdi/summary.html To try out the browser for yourself, go to http://ortho.mit.edu/nsdi/ ### More Information about the CRL The mission of the Computer Resource Lab is to investigate how information technologies can influence the way people think and communicate about urban and regional places and to support related investigations in an educational and research context. The CRL's computing facilities include a mix of geographic information systems, multimedia representational aids, spatial data access tools, and urban modeling software. It's designed to help individuals who wish to better understand how communities work, how they don't work, and how they can be made to work better. You can learn more about related teaching and research projects by visiting the CRL's Web site at: http://gis.mit.edu/ Contact Academic Computing at f_l@mit.edu.or x3-0115 Last modified 4/2/98