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January 27, 2012

An amazing 3D tour of the Costa Concordia

Last week we showed you the fresh satellite imagery and tour of the wreck of the Costa Concordia. It was a great file that helped to show what happened, but now Peter Olsen (who just days ago unveiled the excellent Terra Nova models) has built an incredible 3D tour of the wreck, with the entire journey animated!

The speed has been increased to save time, so you don't have to wait 2-1/2 hours for it to finish, but it's otherwise as accurate as possible. To see it for yourself, simply visit the Costa Concordia Disaster Animation page in the Google 3D Warehouse and choose the "View in Google Earth" link.

If you're not familiar with using Tour files in Google Earth, simply click the "Double-click me!" text on the left to get it started, then click the play button at the bottom to step through the introductory slides, as seen here:

Fully animated tours like this are a great way to recreate events, and Peter is one of the best around at creating them. A similar example you might want to check out is his recreation of the 1977 Tenerife Airport disaster from a few years ago. Great job, Peter!

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Posted by mickmel at 7:09 AM | Comments (4)

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January 26, 2012

Google Earth 6.2 Released with Google+

Google not only released all new more beautiful imagery of the Earth today, but they also released a whole new version of Google Earth - version 6.2. You can download it here. The biggest news is the integration with Google+:

Here is a quick list of the new features:

• Integration with Google+ - you can now sign into your Google+ account and you can Share your current view with Google+. This feature could have meant that your "My Places" content would be shared on different machines, but apparently they have not implemented that capability yet.
• New Search Interface - Google has made substantial changes to the way searching is done in Google Earth. The results look more like Google Maps. You can also now get walking and biking directions just like in Google Maps. Search results also happen dynamically. They have put a lot of effort to updating the search capabilities in Google Earth to bring it in line with Google Maps. The font is much bigger - actually, it seems a bit too big. You may need to increase the width of your sidebar to be able to read the results better. See screenshot below.
• New graphic rendering - Google has made changes including turning on anisotropic filtering by default.
• New Imagery in Google Earth Mobile version - The new version of the imagery of the Earth also appears in the mobile version of Google Earth.
• Improvements to Network Links - better handling of parallel loading of network links.

We will keep adding to this list as we find significant new features. More details from Google are available in the release notes.

Here is a screenshot of the new search results:

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Posted by FrankTaylor at 1:51 PM | Comments (20)

Google Releases Pretty Earth

Google has just this morning released a new, prettier, version of the Earth for Google Earth. The short version is that it now looks much more Earth-like and less like a bunch of satellite and aerial photos patched onto a sphere. And, it really does look MUCH better!

Since Google Earth was first released in 2005, Google has made thousands of changes to their imagery. Changes to how the imagery looks (colors, contrast, lighting) when combined so it has a more pleasant look from space. One of the most frequent comments about Google Earth is "why are these ugly patches of rectangular images on the Earth?". Well, Google has released today a new attempt to address the problem.

Some of the changes Google has attempted to its imagery were not successful. For example when they attempted to cut images that showed away from the coastlines which removed a lot of valuable information. Google later provided access to that valuable imagery in in the historical imagery layer. Or the time they tried changing the colors in a detrimental way, which they quickly removed a few days later.

Today, Google has finally combined many different attempts, and suggestions from the Google Earth user community, and implemented a major change to the imagery that greatly improves the look of Google Earth. The most obvious change is that the "patchwork" of random-looking rectangles of imagery from different sources is no longer obvious. But, Google's new imagery is much more dramatic than is obvious. They have altered nearly all the imagery of the Earth and made major improvements to the contrast, lighting, and consistency of the imagery at all levels. And, they have used features inherent to Google Earth's abilities to transition at different zoom levels to smoothly move between imagery that is very pleasing to the eye.

These changes are subtle if you don't have access to the way things looked before.
Here are some comparison shots showing the dramatic change before and after in just a few places:

Before/After USA

Before/After Africa

Before/After China

As you can see, the improvement is dramatic when you compare the old to the new. But, once most people start using this, they'll probably quickly forget how it used to be and just accept the new look. However, we should really appreciate the huge effort Google has made to pretty up the Earth, and thank them for a job well done!

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Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:01 AM | Comments (16)

January 25, 2012

Google Earth 6 now required for Street View

When Google Earth 6.0 was released, it completely changed the way that Street View worked. However, Google kept the older layer active for previous versions of Google Earth so that those users could continue to use Street View. Not anymore.

Sometime in the past few weeks, Google has turned off that old layer. If you're wanting to use Street View in Google Earth, you're now required to be using version 6.0 or higher.

Here's a quick look at how to use Street View in Google Earth 6:

In addition to that video, I've built a few other Google Earth tutorials to help explain some features, including how to use historical imagery, elevation profiles and a few more.

Beyond that, Google has just released Street View imagery in South Korea, primarily in Seoul and Busan. As you can see from the screen shot below, the imagery in those is very sharp.

You can read more about the new South Korean Street View imagery on the Google Lat Long Blog.

If you still need to upgrade to Google Earth 6 to get the new Street View features, you can always download it (for free!) from earth.google.com.

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Posted by mickmel at 8:28 AM | Comments (5)

January 24, 2012

100 years since the Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica

100 years ago saw two very ill-fated attempts to explore Antarctica; Robert Scott's 1912 expedition to the South Pole and Sir Douglas Mawson's 1912 Eastern Expedition.

In honor of those events, Peter Olsen has built a handful of 3D models in Antarctica and they look amazing. You may remember Peter from his excellent models of the MLK National Memorial and Stone Mountain, among many others.

Here is a look at Robert Scott's hut at Cape Evans on Ross Island in Antarctica:

Peter has a a total of nine models available in his 3D Warehouse collection, with more on the way.

To learn more about these expeditions, you can check out this Wikipedia entry about Robert's Scotts "Terra Nova" Expedition or visit MawsonsHuts.aq for the story of Sir Douglas Mawson and his crew.

Great work, Peter!

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Posted by mickmel at 7:57 AM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2012

Many improvements to Breadcrumbs

We first told you about Breadcrumbs in late 2010. They're a GPS track management site that offers a lot of great features through a nice interface. They've just gone through a major redesign and are now an even more compelling option to consider using.

In addition to the redesign, there are a handful of other great things that Breadcrumbs has done since we last mentioned them:

50,000 Tracks: Over 50,000 tracks are now in their database, including quite a few from GEB readers.

Integration with mobile apps: Breadcrumbs now can integrate with mobile apps on Garmin devices, Android, iPhone, Nokia and others.

WordPress plugin: They now have an official WordPress plugin to easily embed your tracks onto your WordPress-powered site.

Other new features: The redesign includes a handful of other features that you can read about on their blog.

All in all, it's quite a nice update. If you gather GPS tracks from anything (exercise, travel, etc), what product do you prefer to use to store and view them?

Posted by mickmel at 8:10 AM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2012

Traffic congestion visualization in Google Earth

We all know that Google Earth is great for visualizing an amazing array of information. However, sometimes it won't support a need that you have and a creative solution must be found. Such is the case today with Skycomp and their "traffic flow visualization" tool. It's no surprise to us that Paul van Dinther from PlanetInAction.com is the guy that made it happen -- he's built some amazing applications over the years, including the focus of yesterday's post on the cruise ship Costa Concordia. His solution to help Skycomp is quite innovative.

There are two main components that come together to make this happen.

First you have Skycomp, who have found a cost effective way to collect aerial footage of the same location over a sustained period. This involves maintaining an accurate position of the helicopter and complex image alignment and correction.

Secondly you have the Google Earth component. The imagery produced by Skycomp typically is taken at a 1 or 2 second interval and turned into a video. Unfortunately, Google Earth is not equipped to render video on the ground. So instead, Paul uses a sequence of ground overlays and individually turns them on and off using javascript and the Google Earth API. The application is designed to play back several minutes of footage of a busy intersection so a traffic flow analysis can be done. In order to produce a smooth looking playback the application actually fades the next image on top of the previous image. The amount of cross-fade can be reduced for more detailed frame by frame analysis. It's quite an impressive result.

You can try it for yourself by visiting www.planetinaction.com/skycomp/.

If you'd prefer, here's a video that shows off how the system works:

For more info, check out the latest edition of the Skycomp newsletter.

The next stage of the application will introduce the capability to export the animation as a KMZ file for playback on Google Earth Desktop using the tour mechanism, which would be quite impressive and very useful for people in this field.

Posted by mickmel at 8:56 AM | Comments (1)

January 19, 2012

Satellite imagery and 3D model of the cruise ship Costa Concordia

By now you've likely heard all about the wreck of the Costa Concordia, the cruise liner crashed off the Tuscan coast last Friday, killing at least 11 passengers.

DigitalGlobe has since captured aerial imagery of the site of the wreck, which can be found in their gallery or viewed below.

I've added that image to Google Earth as an image overlay, which you can view by downloading this KML file.

Another great way to view the ship is thanks to Paul van Dinther from PlanetInAction.com. A few years ago we showed you the amazing collection of cruise ships that Paul created for CleanCruising.com.au. One of the ships that Paul created for that project happened to be the Costa Concordia.

Since he had a 3D model of the ship and the skills to make some great tours, Paul put together this short video showing a bit about what happened.

Thanks to the generosity of the folks at CleanCruising.com.au, they've allowed Paul and PlanetInAction.com to release a full KMZ file of the stricken ship, which you can download in this KMZ file. Paul's model is amazingly accurate, and he includes various notes in the file to show the path of the ship.

Great work, Paul!

Posted by mickmel at 8:05 AM | Comments (2)

January 18, 2012

3D Android statues at Google headquarters

As you may have noticed over the years, we're big fans of Google Android. Google Earth is phenomenal on recent devices (3D buildings on the tablets and on the Galaxy Nexus). Each release of Android is given the name of a tasty treat -- Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich. As each version is released, Google erects a statue in front of their headquarters of the most recent treat.

GEB reader 'Arek' felt that those statues deserved to be shown in Google Earth, so he modeled all of them and they've just been accepted into the main [3D Buildings] layer in Google Earth. They look great!

To see them for yourself, simply fly over there by using this KML file. Be sure you have the [3D Buildings] layer enabled. You can also view the collection that Arek created in the Google 3D Warehouse.

Of course, even better is viewing the 3D Android statues on an Android device, so here you go!

Great work, Arek!

Posted by mickmel at 9:20 AM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2012

Where 2.0 2012 coming in April

This spring, for the seventh year in a row, we'll be heading to the Where 2.0 conference in California. This year's event will be held at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis from April 2-4.

As they've done in past years, O'Reilly is offering a discount for GEB readers. If you register on their site and use the code 'WHR12GEB', you'll receive 15% off!

Leading up to the event, O'Reilly has quite a few mobile-themed webcasts they'll be showing. You can few them all right here:

We'll certainly be sharing more information about the conference as it approaches, but in the meantime you can visit the conference site at whereconf.com/where2012 or read below for more:

Now in its 8th year, the O'Reilly Where Conference is where the grassroots and leading-edge developers building location-aware technology intersect with the businesses and entrepreneurs seeking out location apps, platforms, and hardware to gain a competitive edge. Where Conference presents leading trends rather than chasing them. Immerse yourself in three full days of hands-on training, information-rich sessions, and an Expo Hall filled with the key players and products. Where's topics and programs include: Mobile Development, Location Development, Business & Strategy, and Marketing, including an all day Location Marketing Boot Camp.

Join with hundreds of experts and practitioners in the mobile and location ecosystems and get a handle on what's happening now and what's lurking just below the radar - and how you can leverage location for your business.

Do you plan on attending Where 2.0 2012?

Posted by mickmel at 8:31 AM | Comments (1)

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