News

National Geographic moves forward with Map Machine kiosks

December 26, 2002

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A National Geographic Map Machine kiosk which contains 65,000 U.S. Geological Survey maps was installed at the Alaska Public Lands Information Center in downtown Anchorage in early November, according to a report in the Anchorage Daily News.

The kiosk, which prints out customized topographic maps on tear-resistant waterproof paper, was installed in Anchorage thanks to the Alaska Natural History Association, which received the machine free from National Geographic for being a good customer of its maps. National Geographic has been in the cartography business for 110 years.

The machine contains topographical maps of all 50 states, one of only three in the U.S. that include the entire country. Users can customize their maps to zero in on the area they want, whether it is their back yard or Alaska's backcountry. Maps sell for $7.95 each.

"If a guy is planning a fly-fishing trip in Montana and lives in Chicago he could come in and find the exact stream he was planning his trip on," Mike Dyer, operations manager for National Geographic Map Technologies in Evergreen, Colo., told the Daily News. "The maps are in this really gorgeous shaded relief which makes them nice and easy to read."

One of the key advantages of maps made in the machine is that they can be designed from more than one map quadrant. The center point of the map is established by sliding a finger across the screen, which moves a large red X.

"In the past it always seemed that no matter what your destination was, its location on a quad map would be in a corner, making it necessary to buy and carry four maps," said Moira Paddock, director of operations for the Alaska Natural History Association.

The National Geographic Society has 80 map kiosks installed throughout the U.S., twice as many as last year. Plans call for updating the machines so they carry all 50 states in the next two months.

About 95 percent of the machines are in retail stores. The first map machine was installed in an REI outdoor equipment store in Berkeley, Calif., in September 1999. It held about 2,500 USGS maps, all of California. The machines cost between $400 and $500 per month to lease from National Geographic.

Dyer said the society sold about 40,000 maps through the machines last year, mostly to outdoor recreationists and professional groups such as environmentalists, miners, foresters, oil men and real estate agents.

National Geographic plans to expand the map service to attract the general travel market by providing, for instance, hiking maps of Nepal or a city map of Prague. Plans also call for introducing customized travel maps from front door to destination.

"The data will be added to the existing machines," Dyer said. "The technology is designed to be very expandable."