Entries Tagged as 'GEO'
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- Australia, Japan get Street View: Amazing — Australia is now smothered in blue Street View lines in Google Maps — including some of the most out-of-the-way places you can imagine:
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The Australian’s take: “Privacy advocates say Google’s gone too far,” though not, it turns out, Australia’s Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner, which thinks Google’s approach is fair dinkum enough. Japan too gets some of its main cities covered. Thanks to Claudia Carvalho for the tip.
- Olym-pics not for the Chinese: Google’s recently updated satellite imagery of the brand-new Olympic stadiums in Beijing — which would provide ample opportunity for the Chinese to feel proud — is alas not available to ordinary Chinese, as inside the Great Chinese Firewall Google’s Chinese-language Ditu Maps service does not have a satellite imagery layer. Because, you know, all those domestic terrorists would never dream of using a proxy server to maps.google.com.
- OneGeology outputs to KML: It turns out that OneGeology, previously flagged on Ogle Earth but not tested due to browser limitations, outputs to KML, as Hypocentre points out Now that I’ve had access to IE7 for a bit, I can confirm that the exported view-based network link works great in Google Earth. All Points Blog also lauds the data, but comments that the site’s technical underpinnings is a bit dated. As far as I’m concerned, the KML links for the regional layers serve all my needs — it would be great to offer them as a list of options that don’t depend on a small subset of browsers or the map view — I know where Africa is:-) Oh and a KML layer with the key would make it perfect.
- 3DXplorer - new Java-based virtual world: Serendipitously, just a few days after Avi Bar-Zeev clarifies the difference between two different kind of “browser-based” 3D virtual worlds/globes (one kind requires a plugin be installed, the other relies on the browser’s own resources — which is a much harder feat to pull off) an avatar-driven virtual world of the second kind is announced: 3DXplorer. Tantalizingly, it supports COLLADA models of the kind made by SketchUp and found in Google 3D Warehouse. In other words, you can create your own virtual worlds on your own website, populate it with existing 3D content, and let anyone with a free 3DXplorer account visit. That could well be a winning formula, with a free hosting option for low-traffic sites and paid options that are competitive with Second Life, depending on usage patterns. It runs in java 1.6, which alas Apple has been tardy shipping as a default with OS X (it’s still at 1.5). The main constraint, I suspect: It doesn’t look as slick as Second Life.
- Mapufacture + GeoCommons: Geoweb pioneer Mapufacture, with its early support for syndicated georeferenced content via GeoRSS, is being acquired by FortiusOne, which is democratizing access to complex GIS databases via its GeoCommons platform. As Mapufacture’s Mikel Maron, Andrew Turner and FortiusOne’s Sean Gorman explain it, the two services are complementary and hence a perfect fit — Sean Gorman:
The long term vision has been to eventually fuse the personal and dynamic data of the GeoWeb (long tail) [Mapufacture] with the static and statistical data of GIS (short tail) [Geocommons].
I think it’s wonderful that there is consolidation afoot among the social geoentrepreneurs — there are some very big fish in the geospatial pond.
- Earthmine update: O’Reilly Radar updates us on progress with Earthmine, which is working on an API to integrate its “Street View on steroids” into third party web sites. Don’t know about Earthmine yet? You need to check out this video.
- Landsat to go free: Announced today: 35 years of archived Landsat imagery will be made freely available on the web by the end of 2008. The U.S. Geological Survey will be hosting the data, which is good news — the USGS is an enthusiastic adopter of KML for many of its other projects. Depending on how comprehensively this dataset is integrated with Google Earth et. al., we’ll soon be able to browse the Earth in time as well as in space.
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Tags: 3DXplorer·Amazing·Australia·Chinese·Earthmine·GeoCommons·KML·Street View
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Heli Tours (GTA IV) from VIP3Rz on Vimeo.
Grand Theft Auto IV (abbreviated to GTA IV) is a sandbox-style action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Typical of the franchise it features some of the best free roaming city visualisations around, creating a believable sense of location and place thanks to interactive traffic models and pedestrian movement.
The game is set in ‘Liberty City’, a fictional city that is based heavily on modern day New York City. The movie above provides an insight into both the architecture of the city and the ability to freely visualize the urban skyline.
Below provides a further look at the city:
Freefall (GTA IV) from VIP3Rz on Vimeo.
In a report last year in the New York Daily News City Councilman Peter Vallone, chairman of the Council’s Public Safety Committee, stated that “Setting Grand Theft Auto in the safest big city in America would be like setting Halo in Disneyland”. The article continues that “The mayor does not support any video game where you earn points for injuring or killing police officers,” said Jason Post, a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg.
The city map for GTA IV is pictured below, you can view an interactive ‘Google Maps’ style version here.
Now we are not going to get into the debate about violence and games based on real locations.. suffice to say the Mayor of London didn’t pass comment on The Getaway (see our movie) which allows you, amongst other things, to hijack a bus at gun point and attack passers by, but these are changing times.
With games increasingly leading the way in the creation of digital cities, and the move towards photorealism, it looks like this is the first shot across the bows of game creators in what looks like a long running debate.
We can’t help wondering how different it is however to film, how many violent films have been set in New York and depicted it in a negative way? From the Lights of New York in 1928 (the first Gangster film to feature sound) to the latest blockbuster - New York is often portrayed as a crime ridden city due to its gritty urban environment and architecture. GTA IV is simply following a similar path.
GT4.Net has a great write up showing comparisons between in-game images and the architecture of New York.
Also see the 86 page thread on GTAForums.com
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Tags: Games·GTA IV
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A few quick map and map-related gems to share with you:
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Tags: Links
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Michael Jones discusses geographical context and Google’s objectives in this fascinating presentation:
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Tags: GEO Video·Google Earth
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MAPme.com - A Community Based Mapping Project
MAPme.com a social mapping site which allows everyone from travelers to special interest groups to create and contribute locations by suggesting ‘Hotspots’ and other information that other members of a map might be interested in.
Filters include ‘weirdness’ - in this case the ‘Dancing Elvis Troupe‘ in Tokyo
These travel guides are community maps where other members can leave comments or photos or even submit their own locations. Usually, these suggestions will either be added directly to each map, or they go into a moderation queue assigned to the map owner (depending on the type of map).
“Each map is like a new post in a geographic forum”, says John McCann, who managed the development of the site. “We have given the map owners as much flexibility as they could ever need in terms of being able to moderate location data, but we’ve also allowed for options for public and personal maps – public maps are generally a free for all, and personal maps are for mostly private use”.
Global Development
The development of the MAPME project took around 6 months, and was achieved on a shoestring budget by outsourcing work to all corners of the globe. Programmers working in the UK, Philippines, The Russian Federation and Australia patched together the MAPME application using open source software including the CAKE rapid development framework and of course the Google Maps API
Complexness
According to Robin Metcalfe- the lead developer of the project, the most complex undertaking was getting the permissions system right, and working out how to allow users to effectively explore a map that might have 500 or 500,000 markers. “We don’t have a map with 500, or even 5000 Hotspots on it yet, but I think our system can handle it”.
Community Mapping
While community mapping is relatively new concept and something that hasn’t really taken the online world by storm (yet), MAPme.com is also excellent for creating travel or city guides that are useful in their own right. Take for example this guide to Cebu, in the Philippines;
http://www.mapme.com/map/cebu
Future Applications
Apparently a Facebook Application, and Map Widget (built in Flash) are on the way, but for the time being map in can be exported in GPX format (easily transferable to portable GPS devices) or by KML. You can even keep an eye on any map activity by subscribing to the RSS channel for each guide.
MAPme is a great looking new site in the ilk of Flagr.com and Platial.com but on a global scale which is easier to use and better to look at. With the addition of an exportable map widget, this could easily be the best web 2.0 community mapping site on the net.
Map your World at http://www.mapme.com
Overall there is a lot of content already and subject matter that might call for some over 18’s certification but on the whole the site works well with the sense of being part of a geo-community mapping project.
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Tags: Google Maps API News·MAPme·WEB2.0
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Google Geo Mashup Montage
The following video played on the monitors of the Geo booth at the recent Google I/O event. It features a montage of things that can be done with various geo products like Earth, Sketchup, and of course Maps. Skip ahead to 0:50 to see a smattering of cool mashups and My Maps:
(Video link)
Related: YouTube Playlist: All Google Geo Videos
New and updated mashups:
Aaron has also added his 5000th panorama to nearly cover all of Australia. Watch for him at next weeks’s Google Developer Day. Here is his panorama of last year’s event.
More stuff:
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Tags: GEO Video·Links
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My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World by Julian Dibbell is one of our favorite books of all time. Part memoir and part ethnography, My Tiny Life is about the social life of the online, text-based virtual world LambdaMOO and his own brief encounter with it in the early ’90s.
We first read it just as we were starting out with our ‘30 Days in ActiveWorlds‘ work, its influence can be seen in our paper 30 Days in ActiveWorlds - Community, Design and Terrorism in a Virtual World (.pdf download).
My Tiny Life has been republished via lulu and is available as a free download, if you haven’t read it before then enjoy…
Picked up via http://kuehleborn.org/
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Every now and again work comes to your attention that makes you think ‘wow’ - Daden Ltd have imported Google Maps into Second Life and it has just eaten up most of our morning.
The movie below illustrates the highlights of their work and our exploration:
Music by Destri.
Second Life is still a hard sell to local councils or local authorities, Daden’s work with Birmingham City Council is certainly interesting and we applaud the progress so far.
As for issues of copyright with regards Google Maps/Imagery in Second Life, that raises a whole different issue between cross platform usage. We cant see Google sending a cease and desist unlike the Ordnance Survey with our Second Life work…
See Daden Ltd for more info, thanks to Mal Burns and his excellent Twitter feed for the heads up.
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Tags: 3D·GEO Game·GEO Social·Google Maps·Imagery
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360cities.net is a virtual reality network with panoramas from all around the world. They bring us fantastic depictions of the world’s beauty and human creativity.
They also happen to take advantage of almost every Geo API that we have! We were fortunate enough to have them at Google I/O last week, so we could sit with them and discuss how they do what they do.
To cut to the chase, you can watch the entire set of interviews and demos in one go, or you can jump around using the playlist custom viewer below. I happen to be a huge fan of their use of the new Flash API as they “flip things inside out”:
We talked about a really varied set of topics. Not only did we discuss their usage of the APIs, but we got into how they manage to deal with these huge images, how they stitch them together, and how they even manage to get so many of them.
You will see the process, how their data center started in a closet in Boston, how Lurch from the Adams family is one of their photographers, and the importance of the BBC Model B.
Thanks so much to Jeffrey and David Martin for joining us. A real pleasure.
Posted by Dion Almaer, Google Developer Programs
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Tags: GEO Travel·Google Maps
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Posted by Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist
Back in March we announced the Google Cities in 3D Program, which invites local governments to share their 3D data with the public by adding a model of their city to Google Earth. The good news is that we are now extending this program with localised websites to encourage governments in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands to share their data with us. The Cities in 3D Program provides local governments, community groups, and educational institutions with tools and information for uploading their data to Google Earth.
We have developed tools to make it as easy as possible for local governments to share information with their citizens, who will be able to view and explore the their local environment in a very realistic way. Travelers will be able to understand what it is like to visit a city, providing a “sense of place” not possible with conventional 2D maps.
One city that has already taken advantage of the program is Westport, Ireland where they produced a 3D city model to promote their town as a world class tourist destination and business location and to help preserve its heritage.
The Cities in 3D Program launching in Europe extends our efforts to engage with content providers, especially government agencies, to help them make the information they produce more accessible and useful. Take a look at the video below to learn more about the power of 3D or explore some great existing 3D cities here.
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Tags: 3D·Cities·Europe·GEO 3D·Google Maps
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Posted by Mano Marks, Geo APIs team
By now, many of you have heard about the new Google Earth API that we announced Wednesday during Google I/O. It’s exciting that you can now enjoy the 3D Google Earth experience in the browser, and you can create your own custom interactive apps on top of it. This new API lets you use JavaScript to programmatically interact with the Earth browser, changing camera views, loading KML or 3D models, or even creating KML objects from scratch.
Here’s your basic “Hello Earth” app:
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><head><title>Hello Google Earth!</title><!-- *** Replace the key below below with your own API key, available at http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html *** --><script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi?key=abcd"></script><script>google.load("earth", "1");
var ge = null;
function init() { google.earth.createInstance("map3d", initCallback, failureCallback);}
function initCallback(object) { ge = object; ge.getWindow().setVisibility(true);}
function failureCallback(object) { // Gracefully handle failure.}</script></head>
<body onload='init()' id='body'><center> <div> Hello, Earth! </div>
<div id='map3d_container' style='border: 1px solid silver; height: 600px; width: 800px;'> <div id='map3d' style='height: 100%;'></div> </div></center>
</body></html>
And, if you’re already a Google Maps API developer, adding Google Earth to your mashup is really easy. Just add the following line:
map.addMapType(G_SATELLITE_3D_MAP);
To view apps written in the Earth API, you will have to download a browser plug-in. Currently, the plug-in is Windows only, and works on Mozilla and Internet Explorer based browsers, including Firefox. We are working to expand the number of browsers, and have announced Mac and Linux plug-ins will be released in August.
Check out the cool sample apps. If you have any questions or come across any problems, post them in our Earth API developer group.
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Tags: GEO 3D·Google Earth·Google Earth API·KML
The prolific Virender Ajmani from the Mibazaar blog has produced two Google Maps showing the life journeys of Barack Obama and John McCain from birth to … well probably the White House for one of them.
Both maps can be set to autoplay or manual. When set on autoplay the map automatically animates from one stage of a candidate’s biography on the map to the next. Both Obama and McCain are better travelled than many past presidential candidates so this geographical biography of the candidates works very well.
Both life journeys are also available as Google Gadgets. Download the gadgets to your iGoogle page here:
Related:
For more Google Maps elections mashups, click the label below..
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Tags: Barack Obama·John McCain·Links·White House
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Yesterday, Peter Batty announced a new social-networking application that operates within Facebook: whereyougonnabe? In beta (naturally), this app lets you map your current and future activities and see what (and where) your friends are doing at the same time. The idea, apparently, is to see when you and your friends are in the [...]
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We are pleased to announce the availability of our booklet: Digital Geography - Geographic Visualisation for Urban Environments. Printed in full colour the 10 x 8 inch booklet runs to 64 pages of insights and tutorials on Virtual Earth, Google Earth, Google Maps, Panoramas and Second Life.
With a focus on Neogeography, Web 2.0 [...]
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Our last weeks series of posts on 3D Agent Based Models using 3D Max has been interesting (at least we have found it interesting). It is easy to set up any number of agents to swarm or wander within a set radius but adding behaviours beyond swarming is more difficult.
It seem to be [...]
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