Authagraph is a kind of equal-area globe map projection designed in 1999 by Japanese architect Hajime Narukawa. The map maintains the sizes of all continents and seas while eliminating form distortions, like a Dymaxion map does. It has been described as "a perfect map because it displays the entire world without any distortion or overlap". The projection was created to provide a view of the world that is both accurate and attractive. It uses spherical geometry, so the distances between all locations on the surface of Earth are always equal. This means that anywhere you go on Earth, no matter how far you travel, you are always at a constant distance from home. A second advantage of this map projection is its ability to display large areas without distortion or overlapping. Indeed, unlike other projections which enlarge near the poles, the authors of this map design kept areas close to the equator as well as the poles intact in size. This equal-area map projection was adopted by Google in 2005 when they developed their World_Data layer for Google Maps. The name "Authagraph" comes from the fact that the projection was invented by Narukawa Hidetoshi, who is known as an authority on graph theory within his field. The term "authograph" refers to a drawing made with ink on paper, so this map projection would produce identical results to actual trips around the world.