Glossary

Android
Android

Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google, based on the Linux kernel and designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android has the largest installed base of all operating systems (OS) of any kind. Android has a growing selection of third-party applications, which can be acquired by users by downloading and installing the application’s APK (Android application package) file, or by downloading them using an Google Play Store that allows users to install, update, and remove applications from their devices.

Cloud
Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a type of Internet-based computing that provides shared computer processing resources and data to computers and other devices on demand. It is a model for enabling ubiquitous, on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., computer networks, servers, storage, applications and services), which can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort. Cloud computing and storage solutions provide users and enterprises with various capabilities to store and process their data in third-party data centers, that may be located far from the user–ranging in distance from across a city to across the world.

Coordinate System
Geographic Coordinate System

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position, and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation.

Geodata
Geodata

Geodata is collection of geographic features & asociated information about them, also known as spacial information.

GeoJSON
GeoJSON

GeoJSON is an open standard format designed for representing simple geographical features, along with their non-spatial attributes, based on JavaScript Object Notation. The features include points, linestrings & polygons and multi-part collection of these types.

GIS
Geographic Information System

A Geographic Information System is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present spatial or geographical data. In general, the term describes any information system that integrates, stores, edits, analyzes, shares, and displays geographic information. GIS applications are tools that allow users to create interactive queries (user-created searches), analyze spatial information, edit data in maps, and present the results of all these operations. GIS is a broad term that can refer to a number of different technologies, processes, and methods. It is attached to many operations and has many applications related to engineering, planning, management, transport/logistics, insurance, telecommunications, and business. For that reason, GIS and location intelligence applications can be the foundation for many location-enabled services that rely on analysis and visualization.

GLONASS
Globalnaya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema

“Global Navigation Satellite System”, is a space-based satellite navigation system operating in the radionavigation-satellite service and used by the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces. It provides an alternative to GPS and is the second alternative navigational system in operation with global coverage and of comparable precision. Manufacturers of GPS devices say that adding GLONASS made more satellites available to them, meaning positions can be fixed more quickly and accurately (location to within 2 meters).

GPS
Global Positioning System

The Global Positioning System (GPS) provides geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. The GPS system operates independently of any telephonic or internet reception, though these technologies can enhance the usefulness of the GPS positioning information. The GPS system provides critical positioning capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. The United States government created the system, maintains it, and makes it freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver.

Raster
Raster

Raster image is a dot matrix data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels or cells. The information is stored in a cell.

Tile
Tile

These are square images sorted by the grid, displaying the map, often with size of 255 X 255 and in PNG format.

TMS
Tile Map Service

Tile Map Service or TMS, is a specification for tiled web maps, developed by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. The definition generally requires a URI structure which attempts to fulfill REST principles. The TMS protocol fills a gap between the very simple standard used by OpenStreetMap (XYZ) and the complexity of the Web Map Service standard, providing simple urls to tiles while also supporting alternate spatial referencing system.

URL
Uniform Resource Locator

A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), commonly informally termed a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network, like Internet, and a mechanism for retrieving it.

Vector
Vector

In a GIS, geographical features are often expressed as vectors, by considering those features as geometrical shapes. Different geographical features are expressed by different types of geometry as, Points, Lines & Polygons. The information about these features is stored in an attribute table.

XYZ
Raster Tile Map

Slippy map (in OpenStreetMap terminology) or Tiled Web Map is a map displayed by seamlessly joining dozens of individually requested image files over the internet. It is currently the most popular way to display and navigate maps, replacing other methods such as WMS which typically display a single large image, with arrow buttons to navigate to nearby areas. X, Y & Z denotes the numbering scheme to serve the images. The images are commonly of the size 256 X 256 in PNG format.