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July 2, 2009

North Shore City, New Zealand in Google Earth

In response to yesterday's post on 3D terrain a GEB reader in New Zealand, Paul van Dinther, forwarded me an article in a local paper which describes how North Shore City shared high resolution imagery and 3D terrain data with Google for Google Earth. The data was released back in April, and is quite impressive. I spent some time this morning flying around this nice looking suburb area north of Auckland. The aerial imagery is clear and sharp at about 6cm resolution, and the terrain is very well done. You can see shoreline cliffs, roads, and even footpaths in the sides of hills in the terrain.

I've made a brief GE 5 tour of the North Shore City area showing some of the high resolution aerial imagery, 3D terrain, the navy base, and views of Auckland. Here's a screenshot from North Head (a park on a hill) with an impressive view of Auckland and Mount Victoria on the right:

Many cities around the world have started promoting themselves by giving more accurate imagery, terrain, 3D models and other data to Google for use in their mapping tools. This is an excellent example of how Google Earth is getting better in a way that is mutually beneficial to users of Google Earth, and providing economic benefit to those living there.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:01 AM | Comments (0)

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July 1, 2009

NASA/Japan Release Terrain Data - Google Earth's is Better

One of the top stories yesterday was how NASA and Japan have released the data from their ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) satellite on the Internet - for free. What is significant about this is that the data covers 99% of the entire Earth's landmass terrain - verses 80% from the SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) - which was the best previously available free public terrain data. ASTER's data is also higher resolution than SRTM which had a base resolution of 90m and at best 30m. ASTER's resolution has a base resolution of 30m, and can be higher under certain conditions (up to 7-10m - see documentation). The data released comes from over 1.3 million photos taken by the Aster satellite.

So, will Google Earth make use of this new ASTER data? The answer is: only a portion of the data. Google Earth already has terrain data in many areas that has higher resolution than the data provided by Aster (see below). However, ASTER provides data for remote locations (particularly high latitude regions) which previously wasn't readily available in these resolutions. And, Google Earth still has regions (such as remote pacific islands) which are using SRTM data (90m resolution). So, I'm sure Google will consider using the new data to improve the resolution in some regions. IF, they don't already have another source with better resolution. By the way, I asked Google about ASTER, and got the standard reply that they don't have anything to announce at this time (i.e. "no comment").

As far back as the February 2007, Google started introducing significantly higher resolution terrain. At that time they introduced 10m resolution terrain for the Swiss Alps, followed a few months later by 10m resolution terrain for the US and Canary Islands (read GEB review). In the more than two years since, Google has added millions of square kilometers of higher resolution terrain. Some of the terrain is much higher resolution. For example, the state of West Virginia has 3m resolution. Back in April of 2008, the city of Bergen, Norway got very high resolution data - which appeared to be based on LiDAR. Recently, Oslo, Norway also got very high resolution terrain data (also seemingly LiDAR) as well as 3D Buildings.

In recent months, Google has been regularly adding cities and countries with higher resolution terrain with nearly every imagery update (see for example the May 2009 update - new terrain is listed at the bottom). Google is no longer releasing details on the resolution of the data. Probably because the terrain resolution varies for each city. One drawback to higher resolution terrain is the data starts capturing things like buildings - not just the land - and it gets to be harder to tell the difference between good data and noise. But, the ability to see the terrain more accurately is well worth this risk in my opinion.

An important tip if you're interested in Google Earth's terrain data: Under the Google Earth Options is a slider called "Terrain Quality". If you push that slider to the right, you can see higher resolution terrain. A word of caution: higher quality terrain means more 3D data - which can slow down your update speeds in Google Earth. After viewing higher resolution terrain, I recommend putting the slider back to closer to the middle for every day use. If you have a faster computer with a powerful video card, you might be able to get away with a higher setting. (Read more tips about optimizing GE performance).

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:55 AM | Comments (5)

June 30, 2009

NASA Doing Robotic Recon with Google Earth

NASA is conducting research from their Ames Research Center in California with a robot called "K10", located in northern Arizona, to simulate tele-operations for exploring the moon. They are using Google Earth extensively for both planning, visualization, and operations. In other words, Google Earth is a visualization tool for telepresence. NASA uses a black and white higher res image of their target area overlayed in GE (maybe the black and white makes it look more like the moon?). They look at the imagery to determine reconnaissance objectives and plan routes. They have developed a planning tool that works interactively with Google Earth (using network links and overlays) to develop and assign tasks for the robot and put placemarks and routes on the map. Then the task plans are sent to the robot. The robot sends back photos to NASA which are also placed in placemarks in Google Earth, and a track of the robots path is also updated continously. You can read more details and see more screenshots at the Robotic Recon web site. I'd like to get my hands on a sample KML file to see what it looks like. There is a large team of engineers involved in the Robotic Recon project, including folks from different NASA centers and several universities. And, the Robotic Recon blog shows lots of screenshots of Google Earth in use.

By the way, this story is particularly interesting to me because more than 15 years ago I developed similar tele-presence simulation software at NASA Johnson Space Center to visualize remote-operations over the Internet using a Silicon Graphics workstations. I developed the 3D software for the visualization parts, and the Internet client/server communications. In 1992, while at International Space University in Japan, I used a workstation to control a robot arm NASA had back in Houston over an Internet connection using a crude frame-grab camera (single-frame webcam) to verify position. This is so déjà vu! Part of the reason I was instantly attracted to Google Earth when it first came out, was its similarity to the software I had written. Full circle.

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

June 29, 2009

Tour de France 2009 in Google Earth

Once again, Thomas Vergouwen is the first to send GEB the complete tracks for the 2009 Tour de France for viewing in Google Earth. The organizers did not release the full details on the routes of the stages until recently, so it took longer then usual for maps to be created. The race begins this Saturday - July 4th. Thomas describes the situation and provides lots of details on each stage of the race at his web site, and he provides both Google Maps and the Google Earth file on the routes.

Viewing the Tour de France routes in Google Earth is one of my favorite examples of the power of Google Earth. With GE's 3D terrain, you can tilt your view and truly get a feeling of how challenging this race really is - even if you have never been to see it in person. Just load Thomas' file for the 2009 Tour de France in GE . Then, make sure you tilt your view I'm hoping there will be some more real-time tracking this year that will let you watch the position of some of the racers in Google Earth as they go along.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:25 AM | Comments (3)

June 26, 2009

Links: Michael Jackson Neverland, Amnesty International, New Placenames, GE Outreach

• Michael Jackson Neverland - Yesterday the King of Pop passed away. People will remember him in many ways, but mostly for his amazing musical and performance talents. Google Sightseeing recalled their post about Michael's Neverland Ranch and updated it with new information. You can see the Neverland Ranch in Google Earth here .

• Amnesty International - Sri Lanka War - Thanks to some help from Stefan Geens of OgleEarth, Amnesty International has produced an excellent Google Earth file which highlights the aftermath of the Sri Lankan War. The file includes more updated aerial imagery, and many placemarks providing details to the human and physical costs to the war. Stefan has more details about the project at his blog.

• New Multi-lingual Placenames - Google has proudly announced improvements to their database of populated places names. This way you can see names in the local language for places, or in the language of your choice used by Google Earth. By default, you'll see both local and your language. In the English version of Google Earth, the names are found under the "Borders and Labels" layer folder. The normal placenames in your language are under Populated Places, and the local language placenames are under Alternative Place Names. Part of the data has come from the Google Map Maker project where people anywhere can contribute map information. They even have names in unusual scripts as well - like Chinese, Arabic, etc. I love the new data, but the naming of the layers is a little strange and somewhat confusing. How about: "Local Placenames", "English Placenames" (replacing "English" with your language)? Also, I still really miss the cool feature the placenames used to have that when you clicked on the label it gave your three links to automatically search Google for that place, images from Google Images, and news from Google News. Google: please bring that back!

• GE Outreach Birthday - Today is the second anniversary of Google announcing their Google Earth Outreach program (see GEB post of the 2007 announcement). I'm expecting Google will roll out a few layers today from Outreach.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:00 AM | Comments (1)

June 25, 2009

New 3D Cities in Google Earth: Warsaw, Prague, Oslo, Toronto, Indianapolis

Google has pushed out another big update to the 3D Buildings layer for Google Earth today. The new layer includes thousands of new buildings in five cities and user models from the 3D Warehouse for many other cities around the world. The five cities with new greatly expanded coverage include: Warsaw, Prague, Oslo, Toronto, and Indianapolis. These cities have models made by techniques Google has yet to share: but is at least a semi-automated method which includes aerial photography for photo-realistic textures on the models. NOTE: Google continues to show user models for buildings which were already in the 3D Warehouse in favor of their own semi-automated system. Here's an example of the new coverage for Toronto:

And here's a YouTube video showing three of the new cities:

Google just released a similar big update to 3D Buildings about two weeks ago! Read more.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 6:35 PM | Comments (5)

Hurricane/Cyclone Tracking with Google Earth

One of Google Earth's most powerful features is the ability to pull in real-time information from other sites and overlay the information for visualization (thanks to the network link). Weather data is one of my favorite applications in Google Earth of this ability. Imagine pulling in the latest satellite photos, radar animations, hurricane tracking, live web cams on the ground, sea surface temperature analysis, etc. Well, you can do all that with the set of the very best weather tools for Google Earth which GEB has bundled together into this: the weather and storm tracking tools collection . Simply drag this network link into your Places folder to keep it handy. It won't take up space until you turn it on. It first loads several folders of weather tools you can explore. You may want to turn only one layer on at a time - these layers weren't designed to all be turned on at once. Although, some of the layers are complimentary (like current lightning strikes with clouds or storms turned on). Read more about the storm tracking tools.

Google has added a new Hurricane Season 2009 layer in the Weather layer folder. It also will automatically highlight current named storms. But, the tools in the collection above will take you much further if you have an interest in weather. Check out this GEB video of storm tracking (from 2007) in Google Earth:

NOTE: Many of these storm tracking tools have been around for some time. While they are still cool, I'd love to see some weather sites using the Google Earth API to full advantage. Weather data is great stuff when viewed in Google Earth.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:48 AM | Comments (0)

June 24, 2009

Links: Muggers Caught, Tehran Imagery, Ocean Celebration, UNHCR Donation

As mentioned, I've been sailing this week, so posts have been slow coming (see first part of trip at the Tahina Expedition blog). I would have written last night, but the only WIFI near our anchorage went dead after dinner. Then today we sailed 70 miles back to our home base. Don't worrry, we'll be getting some onboard (yes, satellite, but also some other less-expensive options) Internet connectivity in a few weeks.

• Muggers Caught by Street View - Many GEB readers forwarded me this story about two muggers (who happen to be twin brothers) having been caught thanks to Google's Street View imagery. A 14-year old Dutch boy was mugged just moments after a Street View car imaged the two muggers walking close behind him. The boy noticed the image in Street View 6 months after it happened and called police. Police requested and got the original image without face-blurring from Google and they recognized the assailants and arrested them. The AP story has the blurred version of the photo.

• Tehran Imagery - Google released recent imagery of Tehran, Iran for Google Earth after a GeoSat satellite took the picture. This release was made quickly in response to the developing news there last week. You can view the photo here in Google Earth.

• Ocean GE Celebration - Google took an opportunity to celebrate the new wealth of information available about the oceans, since Google Earth 5 was released last February, with a number of their partners recently. Watch this video of awards for the new ocean content. I just had to mention this because I just spent several days sailing on the ocean!

• UNHCR Dontation - Just a follow-up to the post I made last week about the UNHCR and World Refugee Day. As promised, GEB has made a donation (via Frank Taylor) on Monday of over $100 to the UNHCR. If other bloggers accepted my Twitter challenge to do the same, I would appreciate hearing about it.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:24 PM | Comments (2)

June 22, 2009

New Places Site - Record Movie Postcards in Google Earth

Just a month ago, PlanetInAction.com released a really cool Google Earth game called "Ships" - a simulator game for ships completely run with the Google Earth API in the browser plugin (read the GEB review). One of the features I was particularly impressed with was the really innovative camera modes of the simulator.

Now the author of Ships, Paul van Dinther, has just released another cool free application he calls "Places". This application leverages some of his work with cameras to produce the "next generation postcard". Instead of a static postcard photo, how about sending a dynamic 3D postcard using Google Earth? This goes way beyond just sending a placemark, and it leverages new GE technology.

Once you pick a place, you can do more than just send it along with a greeting. You can also record a flying tour of the location. Paul has created a custom "helicopter"-like camera and interface using the mouse and keyboard shortcuts that has to be tried to really appreciate. He has a drop down help card that will explain the shortcuts. You can get cinematic like motions to fly around. Not only that, but you can record your flying tour as a GE 5 Tour - the end result is a simple URL you can send someone to see your movie postcard. This is very cool! Watch a video introduction to Places:

You can also check out a couple of example postcard movies here: Grand Canyon and Mt. St. Helens

The interface has this handy gadget in the upper right that lets you expand the plugin to full "screen" view in your browser. This makes the experience much more immersive. You can easily back out by hitting the ESC key. Google should offer this "full-screen" gadget mode as a standard option for GE plugin apps.

I highly recommend trying out the custom camera/flying interface, and the easy way to generate a movie/Tour with the GE plugin. The flying tool is one of the best interfaces for flying in Google Earth I've seen to date. You could make some cool movies with this. I've already asked Paul, and he says he might be willing to create a custom Google Earth movie camera tool. If you think this would be a cool idea, you should leave him a comment.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 6:50 AM

June 19, 2009

Going Sailing!

Just an FYI that I'll be doing some sailing next week and so GEB may have fewer posts and slower reaction times to news that comes out during the week (although, watch my Monday post as I should be announcing a Google Earth plugin application someone has planned for release). But, I should have some cool photos and GPS tracks to share in a Google Earth file here and at the Tahina Expedition web site (Tahina is our boat).

And, just to avoid having no news today, I noticed the Google Street View Trike has been spotted taking photos on the grounds of UPenn. A Googler confirmed it was theirs, and that they have also taken photos at San Diego State and University of San Diego, and are working with other campuses interested in a different look at their campus via Street View.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:00 PM | Comments (1)

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