Microsoft announces Bing Maps V8 SDK September 2016 Update with new data visualization features

Microsoft today announced an update to the Bing Maps Version 8 developer control (V8) with two new data visualization features. They have added support for Data binning and Contour Lines.

Data binning, is the process of grouping point data into a symmetric grid of geometric shapes. An aggregate value can then be calculated from the pins in a bin and used to set the color or scale of that bin to provide a visual representation of a data metric that the bin contains. The two most common shapes used in data binning are squares and hexagons. The data binning module makes it easy to create data bins from thousands of pushpins.

Contour Lines, also known as isolines, are lines that connect points that share a characteristic of equal value. These are often used for visualizing data such as elevations, temperatures, and earthquake intensities on a flat 2D map.

In addition to these new features, Microsoft has included many small feautres such as double click event support for shapes and several bug fixes.