« December 2006 | Main | February 2007 »

January 31, 2007

Navigation Tricks with Google Earth 4

The navigation gadget in Google Earth 4 packs a lot of functionality in a small space. In fact, there are some undocumented features which you may not have discovered. The nav gadget lets you control your view of GE in a number of ways. Did you know you can pan, zoom, rotate, and tilt with the nav gadget? You can also make the gadget itself appear and disappear with a wave of the mouse. Not only that, but you can reset your zoom, tilt and rotation very simply once you know the tricks.

Here's some details on the controls (including some tricks):

1. Panning Click and hold your mouse on the center gadget - which acts like a joystick. While holding and dragging the mouse it will pan your view. You can also click the little arrows around the center to pan in a specific direction.
2. Rotating - Click and drag the outer circle or the "N" button to rotate your view about the compass. The "N" is for north - so if it is on top, then north is up. Trick: - Click on the "N" button once and it will automatically reset to north up. Trick 2: You can also click the "n" key on your keyboard to reset.
3. Zoom - The slider on the right controls your zoom. Drag it up or down to zoom in or out. The farther you drag the slider the faster it zooms. Click the "+" or "-" buttons to zoom in or out at a set speed. Trick: DOUBLE-click on the "+" or "-" buttons to zoom all the way in or out to minimum/maximum.
4. Tilting - The slider on the top controls tilting. Drag it right or left to tilt down or up. The further you drag the slider the faster it tilts. The buttons on either slide let you tilt up or down at a set speed. Trick: DOUBLE-click the buttons on the right or left to tilt all the way up or down at once. Trick 2: you can also hit the "u" key on your keyboard to reset tilt all the way up at once. Trick3: you can hit the "r" key on the keyboard to tilt up and north up at the same time.

You can make the nav gadget disappear or appear by using the "View->Show Navigation" menu choices. "Never" makes it stay off, "Always" makes it stay on, "Automatic" is the interesting one. Automatic makes the gadget disappear when not in use. But, there is a trick to make this work: If you have "Automatic" turned on when you first start GE up, you have to move your mouse cursor over the upper right part of the nav gadget and back before it will automatically disappear (I didn't know this myself until recently). Wave the mouse cursor back to the upper right to make it reappear. This same behavior works with the time slider gadget with the same "View" menu choices. You can alternatively show just a compass (smaller than the nav gadget) by choosing the "View->Compass" option.

One final favorite little-known trick: You can zoom part way in by double clicking the left mouse button somewhere on the Earth, if you have two or more mouse buttons you can double click the right mouse button and zoom out part way.

If you want to learn other interesting things about using Google Earth, check out the "GE Basics" page here at GEB. Also, check out the Using Google Earth blog by a Googler named John Gardiner. And, don't forget the Google Earth User Guide.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:08 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

January 30, 2007

Video Tutorials for SketchUp to Google Earth

Two certified SketchUp instructors called Mike Tadros and Alex Oliver have created a number of excellent video tutorials (podcasts) at a web site called go-2-school.com. These videos (Quicktime required) are professional-grade with nice transitions, music, and excellent zooms to show details on user interface sequences. They have chosen broadcast quality resolution (so you can see all the details), which does mean you either need very good broadband or need to be patient during download. Here are some Google Earth relevant tutorials: Google Earth to SketchUp - Part 1, and SketchUp to Google Earth - Part 2. If you are looking to learn more about using SketchUp, these video tutorials are worth watching.

Also available from the "School" guys is a video interview with Google's John Bacus at MacWorld earlier this month where he shows the new 3D buildings in Google Earth 4.

Related: See some of SketchUp's own video tutorials.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:55 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

January 29, 2007

Discovery Sunrise on Google Earth

Google announced today a new layer in Google Earth found under the "Featured Content->Discovery Networks" sub-layer called "Sunrise Earth". This layer displays Discovery Channel placemark icons showing the locations for video clips from the Discover Channel Sunrise Earth program (which I enjoy watching sometimes on the Discovery HD channel). Each placemark contains a photo from the particular sunrise program and a link to a 2 to 3 minute video clip from that episode (see this one from the Dominican Republic for example). Watching these little clips might be a useful way to calm down during stressful moments.

Discovery Networks also has a couple of other sub-layers of placemarks for locations relating to other programs from their network: One from the Discovery Atlas program (another one with lots of HD programming) and Discovery World Tour which provides some good sightseeing around the world. Just turn on the layers under the "Featured Content->Discovery Networks" layers folder in GE.

Related: For real-time day and night sides of Earth, check this out.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 03:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Shape2Earth - GIS Data to Google Earth

One of the more basic outputs of GIS applications is a file type called a shapefile. A shapefile is a geospatial vector data format developed and popularized by GIS software maker ESRI, but used by other GIS software makers as well. For example, it's possible to use free GIS applications like MapWindow to produce shapefiles. There's an inexpensive ($29.99) application called Shape2Earth (Windows only) available which will let you convert shapefiles into KML so you can view your GIS data in Google Earth.

For more sophisticated GIS to Google Earth conversions, there are two other tools to consider. Arc2Earth ($99 - $299) is probably the most sophisticated (mentioned at GEB last year) which provides many tools for converting data and visualizations from ESRI's ArcGIS software. Arc2Earth has been updated substantially since it was first released. Also available is an application called KMLer ($20 - $50) which also has support for ArcGIS (see last year's GEB write-up).

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:35 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

January 28, 2007

Extremes of the Earth

About a year ago, someone at the Google Earth Community called 'satishgsk' did some work collecting placemarks of interesting examples of extremes all over the Earth . Examples: 'deepest canyon', 'tallest bridge', 'shortest river', 'largest crater', etc. His post includes lots of photos, but it's better to just look at the placemarks and see the place in Google Earth. The placemark descriptions include photos and a brief description. Note that the "facts" presented are not exactly documented, so the accuracy of the statements may be in question. But, it's a fun collection to load and do some sightseeing.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 26, 2007

Sydney Aerial Photo Shoot

[UPDATE: 29-January - Photo shoot does not go as planned - see below]

Google announced earlier this week they would be shooting high-resolution aerial photos in the Sydney Harbour area during Australia Day today. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that they saw many people all over town setting up to be in the picture. Many of the people were putting up banners, drawing signs in the sand, or laying people out to spell words hoping their words would be immortalized in Google Earth/Maps in a few weeks after Google processes the images. The article includes photos of several of the signs and groups participating. One guy put out a sign saying he loved his wife (who left him recently), and there are many other tales in another article in the newspaper. The first article pointed out that there are rumors Google did this in response to Microsoft doing an aerial photo shot on the same day. Whether or not this is true, the spontaneous response by people coming out for the Google photos was large. The authors of the article didn't mention anyone having seen the plane flying over. I'm trying to get confirmation from Google that the plane managed to acquire photos. I hope they did, this will be really interesting to see if the photos get published.

As feared, the photo shoot did not go as planned. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the plane Google hired was unable to get approval for the flight plan it had filed and it did not fly in all the locations or at the times Google had announced. So, many of the people who had arrived did not get their photos taken as planned. As mentioned last week, holding an aerial photograph as a PR event is very risky. Maybe backup plans such as aerial drones and kite aerial photography could be used to help increase the probability of success for events like this.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 12:10 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

High Res Photos from an Aerial Drone in Google Earth

In early January, a very cool video was released showing a guy assemble a remote controlled aerial drone with a digital camera and then fly it using virtual reality goggles. A company called Pict'Earth is selling the technology. Shortly after the video was published, an innovative member of the GE Community by the name of Valery Hrosunov joined forces with Pict'Earth to demonstrate the aerial photo data using his SuperOverlay tool. The SuperOverlay tool lets you take large images and break them up into regions so they can be viewed elegantly in Google Earth. As an example, they have flown the drone over a gravel pit near Gardanne, France and you can view the imagery with Google Earth. The resulting image is less than a foot in resolution, so it will take a while to load all the layers of images. You can see how a low-flying drone can capture so much more detail. They have purposely outlined the images in GE so you can see how it tiles the images as you get closer. Once the imagery is loaded you can zoom in and out smoothly. You can read the Pict'Earth blog to follow their progress as they commercialize this technology. Great work guys, but I really need to fly one of these myself to do a proper review! *hint* *hint* :-)

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:56 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 25, 2007

Build Your Campus in 3D for Google Earth Contest

As previously mentioned (in my article last week about the University of Colorado/Boulder in 3D blog entry) Google is holding a contest for the best 3D model of a college campus created with SketchUp and posted for viewing in Google Earth. Google has just announced the contest on the Official Google Blog, and there are more details than when I first discovered the contest. Entries need to be submitted before 1-June-2007. The contest will be judged by a panel of experts from places like Disney, Electronic Arts, and even architects. See the contest web page for details and registration instructions. Follow the link to my earlier story to see a video showing the Boulder campus already completed by some Googlers at SketchUp, or you can just go to Boulder with GE 4 and turn on the "Buildings -> Best of Google Warehouse" layer to see it in full detail. By the way, some of the teams with the best entries will win a 3-day trip to the Googleplex for a work shop on 3D modeling.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 01:17 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Third Life - Google Earth's Next Step?

TechCrunch has just published about some rumors that Google is working on using Google Earth-related technology to create an application similar to Second Life or There. These ventures are some of the more successful attempts to build an alternative 3D "universe" (called a Metaverse) where you can interact with other people through the net by building avatars who represent your self in that other world. The concept of the metaverse was popularized by a science fiction book called "Snow Crash" by Neal Stepheson (a good read by the way). In fact, according to John Hanke - Director of Google Earth - scenes from that book were part of the inspiration which led to Google Earth.

TechCrunch points to a blog entry by one of the investors of Second Life that they believe "Google is working on turning Google Earth into a virtual world a la SecondLife." TechCrunch also pointed to a Business 2.0 article last month (not sure how I missed this one) which discusses in more detail speculation that Google may move in the direction of creating a metaverse. That article correctly points out that between Google Earth and SketchUp, Google has a lot of the right technology to make this possible. One blogger has speculated Google would just buy Second Life.

There is certainly a lot of merit to the speculation Google might create a metaverse. In the 1980s, I worked on virtual reality technologies at NASA, and I've been a big fan of Snow Crash and the concept of a metaverse since the book was first published. There have been many attempts (I made a couple attempts myself) since the early 90s to make metaverses - and the concept is finally starting to catch on (mostly because the standard desktop can finally handle the 3D graphics required). Google Earth has already demonstrated many innovative ways to pull in diverse dynamic information from the Internet and share that in a visually appealing way. And Google has barely tapped the possibilities even with GE 4 which just came out. There are many possibilities for improving Google Earth and how we interact with it.

But, Google Earth is not a metaverse. It's a virtual globe on steroids. However, thanks in part to GE and SketchUp, Google has the right technologies, and experience with data scalability and interfaces to make a metaverse work. For Google there could be big money (even more advertising possibilities) by providing better ways to interact with Internet information rather than just using a standard browser. Buying SecondLife? There could be some merit to that strategy, but Google could certainly develop their own platform if they chose to go this route - and marketing would not be a problem.

I'm eagerly awaiting further developments for both Google Earth/virtual globes, and what happens in the rapidly developing Metaverse market. We live in exciting times!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:31 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Super Touch Screen for Google Earth

Last fall, Jeff Han demonstrated a multi-touch large screen interface, to allow you to interface to a computer through touch, at TED Talks (check out last year's video of his presentation). Now, Jeff has formed a company called Perceptive Pixel to bring this idea to market. He was interviewed by Fast Company and they have released this really awesome video demonstrating even more applications including Google Earth being used with a wall-sized touch screen:

This is a truly inspiring demonstration. It quickly captivates the mind about the opportunities, but if you watch closely you realize Jeff has truly come up with some innovative human-computer interaction concepts. via OgleEarth who, like me, can't wait to try this out!

Related: Another touch/gesture/speech interface from a year ago using Google Earth and demonstrated by Edward Tse.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:00 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 24, 2007

Google Earth Data Error Compendium

One of the Google Earth Community members called 'PriceCollins', has spent many hours carefully compiling, organizing, collecting, and explaining data errors in Google Earth. These errors are comprised of anything from image placement errors, photo blemishes, alignment errors, flashes (due to reflection of the sun), and even image processing errors (like the tiny bug in one photo - which is now gone, but you can see the screenshot here). PriceCollins has made a concerted effort to make Google aware of these errors and get them to fix as many as possible. He has organized his information in a thread of posts and created a comprehensive data error compendium of nested network links to let you peruse all the errors organized by type and location.

The thread of posts includes a table of contents to help you understand the different types of errors. For example, look at "Camera Artifacts", or some may find the one on "Censorship" of particular interest. There are also errors from the data layers as well (such as misplaced water bodies).

Some "errors" are debatable. For example, "Contrails" from jets may be an error from the perspective of someone wanting to look at the data below the contrail. But, those of us who like finding airplanes in flight find the contrails a handy way to find them. :-)

You should note that Google buys (or is given) their data from dozens of providers and the amount of data is huge. I'm sure with this much data (and new data every few weeks), that it is virtually impossible to remove all "errors". In fact, I think some of the errors make for fun discovery and sightseeing in themselves. But, it is a good idea to make Google aware of the errors so they can improve the experience for everyone. I've heard Google is actively working with PriceCollins to improve their data error handling processes. Way to go PriceCollins!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 01:28 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack

Dutch KLM Releases Air Fare Finder in Google Earth

A GEB reader from GlobeAssistant.com contacted me today to let me know Dutch KLM airlines has released a Google Earth network link showing airfares for flights from Amsterdam to destinations around the world. You have to zoom in close enough for the placemarks to destinations to appear. Each placemark shows the price in Euros, and provides a link to make a reservation and/or change your from/to parameters. There are instructions in Dutch on the main page at KLM. There is also a Dutch news item about this at Emerce in the Netherlands. Currently the network link only shows flights from Amsterdam.

British Airways released something similar last summer. This is KLM's response. KLM hired GlobeAssistant.com which provides professional services to implement Google Earth business applications.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 23, 2007

Google Earth Save Image Option

From GE 4 Screenshots

Google Earth has features for saving or printing your current view in GE. The free GE can only save out up to 1000x1000 pixels (or up to your screen size), but GE Pro can save up to 4800x4800 pixels which is good enough for high quality large prints. I've been experimenting with this feature in GE 4 Pro, and the results are stunning. For example, I took this panorama-like screenshot of the 3D buildings of Denver (see the blog entry I wrote about these models). Which you can see by clicking on the picture above through a Picasa Web Album. Once there you select "Download Photo" to see the full resolution (4800x1199 pixels) of this image. The quality of these 3D models with photo textures when zoomed in at full resolution is amazing.

The method GE Pro uses for creating these images is kind of cool. You select the menu choice "File->Print..." or "File->Save ->Save Image..." to initiate the process, then select what resolution you want. With the "Save" option you will get a requester letting you save the results to a JPG file. GE Pro basically uses the same method some photographers use to create "gigapixel" digital camera photos by taking a series of photos in a tile-like fashion of a scene and stitching them together using a panorama-style stitching algorithm. Each "shot" is "exposed" long enough to load the detail of the scene. It's fun to watch - the first few times. I found you can't get too close to a scene with 3D models because the tile-shoot method will actually miss parts of the models when it "zooms" in for each shot.

Take note that you should read the license for GE and GE Pro (search "license" on the GE help page) with regards to prints which says they can be used for "personal use only". You also can not get permission to sell the prints - I asked Google about this.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 12:41 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

News roundup: Google vs. Microsoft, 3D San Jose, Endurance, Weather, Off the Map

• Google Vs. Microsoft Aerial Dogfight - Yesterday I reported that Google announced plans to shoot aerial photos on Friday for Australia Day in Sydney. Today, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Microsoft has also announced to do the same thing. Gee, I wonder if they both plan to take photos of the Superbowl?
• 3D San Jose - The GIS folks in San Jose have released the 3D buildings which I mentioned they were developing last November. The San Jose 3D Buildings (8.3 Mbytes) require GE 4, but they don't have textures. They are also rather complex - so they may effect performance in GE.
• HMS Endurance - An excellent GE documentary of this year's expedition to Antartica by the Royal Navy's Ice Patrol Vessel HMS Endurance has been posted at the GEC by 'saellis'. The HMS Endurance file includes tracks and placemarks with photos, links to stories, and even video. This reminds me of the excellent Shackleton GE historical documentary.
• Weather - DestinSharks.com has taken the same methodology they used for their ship weather reporting system and collected similar data from the NOAA airport weather called METAR. Now you can get a visual impression of winds, wind direction, and visibility for the entire US based on the placemark icons (read the post for details). Download the NOAA METAR network link here . DestinSharks also has put together several weather resources into a single combined network link.
• Off the Map - GoogleSightseeing's new book "Off the Map" got a write-up in the New York Post.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:20 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 22, 2007

Google Announces Aerial Photo Shoot for Australia Day - January 26

This is pretty interesting. I read about this at Ionut Alex. Chitu's blog. In honor of the celebration of the national holiday Australia Day 2007 on January 26, Google has announced it will be taking new aerial photos of Sydney. The announcement includes a Google Maps mashup where you can drag a placemark around to find out approximately what time the plane is expected to fly over. Google also added a custom URL/sub-domain for Australia last week at maps.google.com.au. See the Sydney Morning Herald story about this which has more details about the aerial photo shoot.

This is a bit of a risky move from a PR perspective. Quality aerial photography is dependent on perfect weather conditions. If its a cloudy day - the day will be a disappointment. Other things can go wrong as well such as airplane maintenance issues, photography equipment failures, air traffic control issues, and imagery processing problems (most aerial photographers still use traditional film systems). But, if its a beautiful day, and all goes well, in a couple of months from now we could see some really interesting photos in Google Maps/Earth where people actually had a chance to know about an aerial photo shoot. I wonder if we'll see some interesting banner ads laid out on roofs?

[Update 1:35PM ET: I just noticed Google at least put a disclaimer in small print at the bottom of their announcement page about the risks involved.]

Posted by FrankTaylor at 01:21 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Track Cruise Ships in 3D in Google Earth

Over a year ago, some folks at web design company Glooton in France released a cool network link that let you track cruise ships around the world from Costa Cruise Ships. Clicking on the placemarks for the ship location also shows you updated web cam photos from the ships. A couple of weeks ago, a Google Earth Community member called 'svens' posted a new version of the cruise ship tracking network link which includes 3D models to show the position of the ships, and new network links to let you track the ships as they move. He's also recently added 3D name labels on the backs of the ships (using the new 3D text capability with SketchUp 6). See the instructions in the "Cruises" folder under the network link in your "Temporary Places". And, if you click on the folder for each cruise ship you can see the web cam photos and other information (like weather, speed, position, heading, etc.). These 3D models are a little complex - so they look good. But, they also might slow down your Google Earth viewing (due to memory and graphics complexity). So, turn them off when you are done looking - you can selectively turn off the 3D models and still view the other data.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:37 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Imagery Update: Google Earth Using Spot Image Satellite Photos in Europe

[UPDATE 2:30PM ET: Spot Image has released a press release about their multi-year agreement with Google to provide new imagery such as the new data described below.]

Google has updated imagery for Belgium, France, Portugal, and France to use CNES/Spot Image satellite imagery at 2.5 meter resolution imagery instead of the old Terrametrics/NASA 15 meter resolution base imagery. So, in other words the low resolution areas are 6X better resolution. Stefan Geens at OgleEarth got the details from Spot Image:

It covers France, Spain, Portugal and Belgium. It is made of imagery from our SPOT5 satellite : 2.5m in resolution. The images are selected from our existing catalog (most recent and cloudfree). They are then combined to make one single uniform image. To cover France, we need roughly 500 SPOT5 images which are of course taken at various date, sunlight, angles, etc...

Stefan also says some new high resolution DigitalGlobe strips are in Belgium. I am quickly researching to see if other areas have been updated in high resolution. Please drop a comment here if you find new imagery.

By the way, this is the first Spot Image satellite imagery in GE I've seen. It's interesting to see Google is expanding it's source of imagery data to another commercial satellite provider. A few days ago DigitalGlobe's newly acquired GlobeXplorer announced it was selling data to Microsoft. And now this happens. Probably just a coincidence, since I'm sure it took more than a few days to implement this imagery.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:10 AM | Comments (19) | TrackBack

January 20, 2007

Daily NASA MODIS Satellite Imagery for Google Earth

The power of WMS (Web Mapping Service) is really showing with several new imagery layers coming out from NASA. Someone called 'OnEarthWMS' at the GEC just yesterday posted some really cool links showing the hi-resolution color satellite photos from the MODIS (Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Terra and Aqua satellites. These network links show all the photos from the previous 24 hours updated daily, and show more detail as you zoom in:

• TERRA MODIS daily
• AQUA MODIS daily

Note: You should only turn on one of these layers at a time or they may interfere.

Implementing transparency on the blank spots in the MODIS satellite would allow the rest of the Earth to show through. He also shows an example of what this would look like with a Blue Marble underlayed with the MODIS data.

These links are definitely network links worth saving in your "My Places". These are powerful examples of how GE can be used to show large dataset updated frequently and more useful as you zoom in closer. Not only that, but this is yet another step towards near real-time satellite photography being made available for GE. This is the kind of work I would expect the new NASA/Google relationship to produce.

Related:

• NASA Mars Imagery
• New Blue Marble Imagery
• Global Clouds - updated every three hours
• Blue Marble Add-On for GE

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:38 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

NASA Mars Imagery for Google Earth

Yesterday I mentioned a new network link to a WMS (Web Mapping Service) for showing the Blue Marble Next Generation imagery from NASA which was posted by 'OnEarthWMS'. The same guy has also posted several network links for different imagery datasets for the entire surface of Mars. These are overlayed over the Earth (I recommend turning off the "View->Atmosphere" when you load them). Some of the layers have strips of very high resolution data from Mars Global Surveyor. Check these out (make sure you zoom in to see more detail):

• The USGS Mars Digital Image Model (MDIM)
• Mars Global Surveyor MOC Narrow Angle composite (very sparse and very high resolution)
• A combined view of the two layers above, with the high resolution insets on top of the global MDIM
• The Mars Odyssey Mission THEMIS mosaic

Note: you should turn off these layers before loading the next one.

Here's the OnMars web site at NASA which hosts these GE KML files. This is great stuff to look at! Thanks OnEarthWMS and NASA.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:09 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 19, 2007

News Roundup - KML 2.1 Docs, New Blue Marble from NASA, more Panoramas

• KML 2.1 Docs - Google has substantially updated the KML documentation. This includes new KML samples, KML tutorials, and KML reference docs.
• New Blue Marble - Someone at NASA has put out a GE 4 network link allowing you to view the Blue Marble Next Generation from a WMS (Web Mapping Service). This means you get pretty smooth updates of higher resolution versions as you get closer. It also time stamps the data and lets you view all 12 versions for each month of the year. You can animate the results as in my Blue Marble Time Animation. One thing I don't like is that the NASA BM images are dark and need a color saturation boost. But, I'm glad to see this regardless. Posted at the GEC by 'OnEarthWMS'.
• More Panoramas - The new innovative approach for viewing panorama photos from DigitalUrban has resulted in several new examples. It involves placing the photos inside a 3D sphere - which you can read about here. Here are some stories highlighting new samples: Trafalgar Square, Snowdon in Wales, Andy Warhol, and someone has done kite aerial photos with it as well.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:24 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

January 18, 2007

Boulder, Colorado 3D Buildings in Google Earth, and a Google 3D Contest

It probably will not surprise many of you that if you go to Google Earth 4 now with the new "Best of 3DWarehouse" building layer turned on that Google has modeled much of Boulder with photo-textured 3D buildings. After all, Boulder is where @Last Software, makers of SketchUp - and now part of Google, was founded and is still operating. SketchUp is a free 3D modeling software package that allows you to build and upload your own 3D models into Google Earth. I've created a YouTube video of the buildings in Boulder and you will see they have modeled the entire University of Colorado at Boulder campus. I also noticed the Google/SketchUp office building is not rendered, but the SketchUp guys posted some models of Boulder last year so I show it in the video.

Google is holding a contest right now to whoever builds the best 3D campus for Google Earth. Models must be submitted by June 1, 2007. From the contest site:

The top 5-7 teams (max 50 people) will win a 3 day trip to Google's Mountain View headquarters to participate in a workshop with 3D modeling experts from Google, get free airfare and hotel, food in our world-famous cafes, and a guided tour of our incredible campus. Oh yeah, and lasting online glory!

The 3DWarehouse now has a new mini-video tutorial showing how to use the 3DWarehouse network link in Google Earth. The network link is a great way to find thousands of other 3D models posted for viewing in GE.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:05 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 17, 2007

Sundance Film Festival Map in Google Earth

Last year someone at the Google Earth Community put together an excellent guide to the 2006 Sundance Film Festival for viewing with Google Earth. I wrote about the map, and suggested that the organizers should use this as a model and do something for the 2007 event. Unfortunately, they apparently are not savvy enough to either read GEB, or to even take advantage of a basic Google Maps mashup - much less GE. Here's the 2007 map from the official Sundance Film Festival site as a simple image. Fortunately, it appears most of the location details for this year's event are the same - so, you can view last year's GE map and most of the shuttle routes, HQ locations, and theaters haven't changed. This is a very well done map with colorful tracks, custom icons, and good information on the theaters. Check it out!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 01:21 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Hamburg 3D Buildings Coming to Google Earth

Spiegel Online in Germany has posted a story (in German) [Here's an English summary of the story.] about an awesome collection of phototextured 3d buildings for Google Earth. According to the article the collection will be published soon by Google, but the models were not created by Google. Apparently the models were developed by the "city and private sector". Spiegel Online released a gallery of screenshots and a video (Flash required) which show the building models - and they do indeed look beautiful. Hopefully the collection will be published in the 3D buildings layer soon (the article indicates in a few days or weeks). I'll let you know as soon as its published. Thanks to German GEB readers Volker Kinkelin, and Boris Friedrichs for the tip.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:36 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Bouncing Google Earth

Ok, you have to see this one - so, to make it easy I made a video. It made me laugh this morning. This bouncing Google Earth (from within Google Earth) was created by 'barnabu' and posted at the Google Earth Community (GEC). You can easily view this in GE 4 by loading the bouncing GE file , then click on the little clock icon on the left side of the time slider gadget. This brings up the time options requester, and you need to select the "Repeat mode" to "Bounce" option on the lower right. Click "Ok", and then select the "Play" button (a little right arrow on the right side of the time slider). You will then see the bounce animation. 'barnabu' created this as an example of how to do an animated shadow. He does that, but I think its just hilarious! You can just watch this little YouTube video (but, it looks a lot better in GE):

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:24 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 16, 2007

Setting Up Google Earth Options

This blog entry describes some tips on how to set up your Google Earth 4 options ("Preferences" on the Mac). If you are still using GE 3 this earlier blog entry covers the same topic, but I recommend you upgrade to GE 4. If you click on the "Google Earth Tips" category of this blog you'll find many other tips for improving your experience with GE. Or, check out the "Basics" page for a list of stories covering the basics for using GE.

To get to the GE options, select the menu "Tools -> Options" (or "Google Earth -> Preferences" on the Mac). This opens a window of options with the following panes: 3D View, Cache, Touring, Navigation, General.

Here are my recommendations for each pane of the options:

• 3D View
  • Set Detail Area->Large if you have a decent graphics card, and run your screen at higher resolutions, this will improve visual detail as more of your window will be in full detail. Better for taking screenshots as well.
  • Try adjusting your fonts so the labels are readable, but not too distracting while browsing in GE.
  • If you use Google Earth to look at mountains, try setting Elevation Exaggeration to 1.5 or higher. This makes the 3D terrain have exaggerated heights. A setting of 2.0 would be twice as high. NOTE: the "Terrain" layer must be selected to see 3D terrain. Also, it is best to return the exaggeration to 1 if you are loading 3D buildings as they are sometimes set up with the default terrain setting.
  • I suggest you adjust the Overview Map size to what works for your screen size (tip: use Control-M (or Apple-M on the Mac) to bring up Overview Map in GE)
  • For other graphics performance tips:see this blog entry.
• Cache
  • GE 4 automatically optimizes this setting. You can adjust it, but I recommend leaving it alone unless you change the amount of memory on your system.
  • If you can afford the disk space, set your disk space cache to 2000 MB (2GB) - the maximum you can use - this will mean less downloading when viewing the same locations. Also, you can use GE offline better.
• Touring
  • Set the Fly-to/Tour Speed to a faster speed if you use GE a lot. This means you will fly more quickly when you double click or search for a location.
  • The Driving Directions Tour Options allow you to change the default camera view, speed, range, and angle while doing a flying tour of your driving directions.
• Navigation
  • Mouse Wheel Settings - I recommend adjusting the speed of the mouse wheel setting which will increase your control for zooming up and down in GE.
  • You can also invert the mouse wheel direction so it makes sense for you whether forward or backward zooms you down/up.
• General
  • Click "Show web results in external broswer" if you want (or don't want) to use an external browser when clicking on a link in a placemark description.

Now, go enjoy an improved experience with Google Earth 4!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:54 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Google Earth Blog World Headquarters

Google Earth Blog World HQ

After working several years from my home office, I started off 2007 by leasing an office in a building with other business people. It seems I reached my limit in working in solitude, and needed some business oriented social interaction. Since I've been an entrepreneur all my life, I naturally checked out the First Flight Venture Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. You can use the map above, or see the location here in Google Earth . This facility specializes in incubating new businesses by providing high class office space, office equipment, conference rooms, business advice, and other resources to help entrepreneurs increase their chances of success. And, I think the name is highly appropriate (North Carolina being the home to the first flight of the Wright Brother's). The Research Triangle Park (RTP) is a pretty great area to work. You can see there are lots of trees in the area, there are lots of places to walk or bike nearby, and a park right behind my office! So, if you're in the area and want to visit the GEB World Headquarters, you know where to go. :-)

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:37 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 15, 2007

China Garden Maps in Google Earth

Someone at the Google Earth Community called 'maiky1974' posted a placemark showing a garden in China which has a map of the world when viewed from above. Just to the south there are ponds in the shape of China and another in the shape of the province (see comments in the GEC post). The satellite photo of the area has a bluish tinge to it (probably due to haze and lack of color enhancement). If you click on my thumbnail here you will see a larger photo of the area. I color enhanced the photo using Picasa. Thanks to Joe for the tip!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

PanoViewer - Viewing Panorama Photos in Google Earth

For a while now, DigitalUrban - a blog focused on visualizing urban areas with visualization tools like Google Earth - has been tantalizing us with talk and video about a new way to view panorama photographs using GE. They have finally released their method. What they have done is released a basic spherical 3D model, and showed you how to add a panoramic photo as a texture to the inside of the sphere. They made it really easy - you simply add the file name of your photo to one place with a text editor, and you are basically done. DigitalUrban has a step-by-step tutorial with example. The one catch to this tool is that you really need the 3D mouse device called SpaceNavigator to view the panorama's properly. The SpaceNavigator lets you fly yourself inside the sphere and spin yourself about in place. Actually, some other controllers could be set up to do the same thing, but SN is the easiest. Here is the result from the tutorial which you can view in GE. If you don't have a SpaceNavigator, you will find it difficult to really view the panorama this way. I've added a couple of views you can double-click on in the KMZ to see views within the sphere. Here is a video DigitalUrban made which shows what it looks like using a SpaceNavigator:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:13 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

January 13, 2007

News Roundup - KML indexing, GPS tools, SketchUp PhotoMatch Tutorial, GE Blogs

It seems everyone wants to start off the new year with new Google Earth stuff. Which is great! I've had a virtual flood of people wanting me to write about their new interesting GE content. I really appreciate the input, but I'm starting to fall behind in reporting all of them. This week, you regular GEB readers probably noticed about double the normal number of posts at GEB. This roundup is an attempt to start catching up with more.

• KML indexing - Google Maps API blog posted a tip for web/blog owners on how to get KML files indexed by Google so people can search and find your interesting GE files.
• GPS tools - DestinSharks.com has posted an excellent write-up on using GE with a GPS to show real-time position. He talks about several applications you can use. This is a nice complement to my blog entry on the same topic.
• SketchUp PhotoMatch - SketchUp 6 was released this week, and one of the biggest new features is Photo Match. Photo Match lets you create 3D models from photos. This is particularly useful for creating photo-textured 3D buildings for GE. There are a few video tutorials available on the new features. Watch this double-speed 5 minute video to see a building created by a SketchUp staffer with Photo Match in only 10 minutes.
• GE blogs - there are new blogs with a focus on Google Earth cropping up in other parts of the world. Check out SinGeo.sg, a blog with a focus on Google Earth content for Singapore. Also, in Denmark there's Boliga.dk (which is clearly about GE, but I don't read/speak the language). It's a real estate site which uses GE, thanks Bent!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

NOAA Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) Weather Feed for Google Earth

DestinSharks.com has become a real powerhouse in the realm of unique and powerful Google Earth application development. During the last couple of weeks he's been sharing with me his development of a nifty tool based on data from NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration). NOAA has encouraged commercial ships around the world to report weather conditions as they travel the seas. The program is called the Voluntary Observation Ship (VOS) Project. NOAA collects this data to supplement satellite and computer models with real-world surface conditions to improve weather reporting and predictions. DestinSharks could have just put up a network link with placemarks showing the weather data, but they went a bit further with it. If you download the VOS network link , you will immediately see circular icons with: arrows indicating wind direction, color indicating surface visibility, hovering your mouse over an icon shows basic weather data, and clicking on an icon shows you all the weather data. More importantly, the data is time stamped so you can drag the slider to see reports for each of the last 24 hours (some ships only report once a day, others report every hour). This is an excellent example of using the power of GE KML to portray a lot of information without flooding your eyes with too much information. See the blog entry for more details.

By the way, the NOAA estuarine bathymetry data I wrote about yesterday, has already been added to DestinSharks huge marine charts project. And, if you join the beta test, you will see they now have about 500 marine charts available in Google Earth now!

Other DestinSharks projects at GEB:

• Mars Sucks Game for GE
• Innovative Time Animation (Death Valley driving video)
• Tide Prediction in GE

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 12, 2007

Better Looking Earth From Space and a New FlashEarth

Those of you who are regular readers of Google Earth Blog (GEB) know that I have been campaigning Google to create a better view of Earth from space. I really don't like Google Earth's default ugly-looking view of the Earth from space. Google could easily offer an option in the layers to allow a prettier view of the Earth to those of us who would prefer it. So, a few weeks ago I published an add-on called the Blue Marble (for GE 4) which is based on the beautiful NASA Blue Marble Next Generationa data - except, I brightened the NASA photo and increased its color saturation. My add-on lets you view the Blue Marble from space (it shows a view based on the current month), and when you get closer it will fade out letting you see the normal GE imagery. Ideally, higher-resolution versions of the Blue Marble would transition as you get closer, but I haven't had the time to set up and process the imagery and KML.

Anyway, I just found out this week that Yahoo Maps now has an awesome high-quality aerial view of Earth, and they also use the Blue Marble NG. They transition to higher resolution data as you get closer and have a very high quality, carefully color balanced, dataset using another imagery set (I believe it is Landsat) when you zoom even closer. The work was done by i-cubed. Kudo's to i-cubed for a great job! By the way, NASA's free WorldWind virtual globe also uses Blue Marble data and looks better as a result.

I highly recommend checking out FlashEarth.com to compare the aerial photography of the top mapping tools out there (currently it allows you to compare: Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Yahoo Maps, Ask.com, OpenLayers, and NASA Terra). FlashEarth has a very smooth interface allowing you to use your mousewheel to zoom, and it also allows you to rotate the view by using the compass in the upper right (a feature most of the mapping tools don't provide themselves for their data). Using FlashEarth, I think you will quickly agree that Yahoo Maps now has the best looking views of the Earth from space (from higher altitudes) verses all the other major players (Microsoft, Google, and Ask). And, unfortunately, Google Maps has the worst high altitude view IMHO. Of course, zoomed in close on a comparative basis world-wide, Google Maps/Earth will win 9 times out of 10 over any of the other players. Anyway, whoever has done FlashEarth - Great work!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 01:47 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

NOAA Releases Estuarine Bathymetric Data for Google Earth

I was contacted recently by NOAA regarding their release of bathymetry data for estuaries around the US. These colorful datasets "...are an interpolated data set representing the most up-to-date depth sounding information that was available at the time of publication (1998)." Read more about the data. You can view the page providing access to the GE files here, where you select a region and then select which estuary you want to view. Then look for a link to "Google Earth Visualization files". Here's a sample of the Pamlico Sound in North Carolina. Thanks NOAA!

Related: new shaded relief map of the terrain of the US from NASA SRTM data.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Shaded Relief Map of US Terrain in Google Earth

A GEB reader wrote me to tell me of his project over the holidays to create a dynamic KML which shows Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model in a shaded relief format for North America (NOTE: GE 4 is required). Jiro implemented this using KML 2.1 region tags so you get more detail as you zoom in, and it works very quickly. He also has used Google Picasa web servers and managed to parse the resulting location of all the images which really helps since the images end up being on many servers. The entire database is just under 1 GBtyes. But, you don't need the technical stuff. Just go download this shaded relief map and check it out. Jiro points out it is possible to do the whole world since the SRTM mission data is available for the whole Earth. Great job Jiro, this is amazing!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:04 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 11, 2007

Google Earth Layers

Google Earth is probably best known for its huge collection of freely available satellite and aerial photos for places all around the world. Almost everyone who has access to a computer has given it a try - usually to look for their house, or to find out about a place where they want to take a vacation. The imagery database is really huge - millions of square kilometers - the equivalent of millions of 8 megapixel digital camera photos. Google hasn't released the numbers, but we're talking terabytes of images. But, what more people should take note of is the Google Earth "Layers". Layers are available through an interface on the lower left of the Google Earth application. And there may be almost as much information in the layers as there are in the imagery!

Layers provide a wealth of information about our planet on a variety of subjects, and the layers are also a way for Google to share valuable contributions of information from many individuals, and organizations. The "Layers" are organized using a folder-like structure with categories at the high level, and you can open each folder to selectively view sub-layers. There is so much information here, it really just takes some time to explore and learn what is available. One thing you probably don't want to do is turn on too many layers at once. I recommend turning a few layers on at a time at most, and turn them off when you are done. When you see a placemark icon for some information, make sure you try clicking on some of them. Some of these layers provide a lot of information in the descriptions of the placemarks.

For basic geographic information, I suggest you try the following:

• Terrain - I pretty much always keep this on. It is the 3D terrain you seen when you "tilt" your view and allows you to see things like mountain, valleys, and canyons.
• Roads - Google has detailed roads and streets for many countries including the US, Canada, much of Europe, Japan, and Brazil. More countries are becoming available every few months. As you zoom in you get more detail. From higher altitudes you'll see fewer (or no) roads with this layer turned on.
• Borders and labels - this lets you see the outlines of countries, island names, coastlines, and administrative orders (states, counties, provinces, etc.). It even includes details on some disputed border regions. Again, as you zoom you may see more or less border information.
• Populated places - this is what shows the labels and locations for towns and cities world-wide - This layer is now found under the Borders and labels layer.
• Geographic features - this category contains sub-layers for things like locations of volcanoes, names of mountains, and water bodies. This layer folder is now found under the Places of Interest layer folder near the bottom of the list.

Another selection of the layers serve the purpose of highlighting points of interest if you are traveling. This is the same kind of information you get with a modern car navigation device (or GPS) for finding hotels, restaurants, etc. Examples of these kinds of layers in GE are: Dining, Lodging, Shopping and Services, Transportation, Travel and Tourism, Parks and Recreation, and Community Services. Like with the roads, Google has been steadily deploying this kind of information for more countries during the past several months.

All of the layers mentioned above are useful and important, but the really interesting layers are coming from a variety of sources not originally maintained or created by Google. Google recently released the "Geographic Web" layers which consist of a careful selection of useful information and pictures and references to web-based information on places all over the Earth. And, when that isn't enough, you can turn to the Google Earth Community layers which show placemarks from posts made by hundreds of thousands of contributors about virtually everywhere on the Earth.

And finally, GE has "Featured Content" layers which highlight content from a variety of organizations. Here you will find information from Rumsey Historical Maps, National Geographic Magazine, Discovery Channel, European Space Agency, and even the United Nations. These layers highlight information of human interest, science, history, the environment, and even restaurant reviews.

If you haven't explored the Layers in Google Earth, you are missing out on a world of information. And Google is continually adding and updating the layers. New and updated layer information comes out nearly every month.

Related:

• New 3D Building Layer
• New Layers Added January 7, 2007
• Categorized African Animals
• Geographic Web Layers Added
• Four New Featured Content Layers
• UNEP Environment Layer
• US National Parks Layer - NOTE: now found under the Parks and Recreation layer
• Transportation Layer Improvements

Posted by FrankTaylor at 12:38 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

January 10, 2007

Upper Green Valley Environmental Issues Illustrated with Google Earth

Skytruth.org is a web site which promotes environmental awareness and protection with digital mapping technology. They have organized geospatial information on an issue in the Upper Green Valley region of Wyoming which has resulted from the US Bureau of Land Management granting licenses to mine oil and gas in the region. Skytruth then crafted the information in a Google Earth file (5 Mbytes) which illustrates the region, illustrates the migration paths of animals, shows the locations of mining, and even has a time animation (GE 4 required) showing the explosion of new wells planted over the last 10 years. They also posted the collection at th