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October 31, 2008

Location of Steve Fossett Remains Reportedly Found

[UPDATE 3-November: The bones found at the location shown below have been DNA tested and confirmed to be those of Steve Fossett. See CNN story.]

Following up on the story of the location of Steve Fossett's plane wreck, today Sheriff's in California have reported they believe they have found Steve Fossett's remains. The adventurer Steve Fossett was reported missing after leaving in a small plane on Labor Day in 2007, but no sign was found of him until over a year later. Today they reported they found his driver's license, another 100 dollar bill, shoes, and some bones. The shoes had signs of animal bites which leads them to suspect the body was dragged to the new location about 1/2 mile from the crash site. The sheriff showed the location on a topographical map which I saw at CNN here. I had already overlayed a similar topo map when first locating the crash site a month ago. Here is a view in Google Earth of all the reported finds including the new items and remains. You will see the location of the plane crash site, other items found a month ago, topo map overlays showing the terrain (which you can also see by tilting your view in Google Earth), and the location of the new items and remains found.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:58 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Google Earth as Giant 3D Pumpkin

Happy Halloween! I still get a kick out of building the world's largest 3D pumpkin. To turn your Google Earth into a pumpkin download here . Make sure you turn off the "View->Atmosphere" menu toggle and zoom out for the full effect. Look at the bottom of the pumpkin for some credits. To get your Earth back, simply turn off the PumpkinEarth placemark.

Here are a few tips on how to do this kind of thing yourself. Start by creating an image with a 2 to 1 ratio (2048 x 1024 in this case) and paint the pumpkin using a paint program (Gimp is what I used). Then select "Add->Image Overlay" in GE and give it the location of the image. Select the "Location" tab and set North, South, East, West to 90, -90, 180, -180 respectively (this overlays the image so it covers the Earth). The finishing touch in this case was to create a 3D model of the stem - the free Google SketchUp is the quickest way to do that.

Happy Halloween!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:32 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

October 30, 2008

Google Street View Italy Released - October 29th

I've been traveling this evening, or I would have reported sooner: Quick on the heels of France and Spain, now Italy gets some Street View coverage as well. Included locations are: Milan, Florence, Rome and Lake Como. That's essentially three new countries to get notable Street View coverage in two weeks. Reports came in from Google Maps Mania, Digital Earth Blog and Google Blogoscoped, and I got an E-mail from GEB reader 'Munden' as well.

Here's a shot of the Colliseum to start you on your tour of Italy:

View Larger Map

Don't forget, you can see full 3D panoramas of each Street View image inside Google Earth. Here are some tips on using Street View in Google Earth.

So, which country do you think will be next? Already we have: US, Japan, Australia, France, Italy, and Spain. The UK is a highly anticipated one, but other countries have reported seeing the Google cars which take the pictures...

Posted by FrankTaylor at 12:42 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

October 29, 2008

WikiSailing - Flying/Sailing Sightseeing Tours in Google Earth

Google Maps Mania pointed me to WikiSailing - the english/french wiki has lots of interesting sailing information. They have information about anchorages, dive sites, windsurfing locations, parks, and more. They also have a section to be devoted to showing sailing trips. But, what is really interesting is that they have started developing a Google Earth Plugin application to give tours of sailing destinations. These tours simulate an airplane or sailboat moving along a track around the destination you select. There are a few sightseeing examples with the simulated tours on their main page. Check out the Sydney Tour for example. You start out with an airplane, select the "Run/Pause" button in the lower left and you will immediately start flying around Sydney (assuming you have the GE plugin installed). You can adjust the speed, zoom level (how close to the plane your view is), and which direction relative to the plane you view.

The application still has some rough edges. The sailboat mode is a little jerky even if you speed up the simulation speed. And, the sailboat follows the same path as the plane - including going over the ground - oops. Also, you can view from behind, left, or right. But, the view from the front doesn't seem to work. But, I think this is an excellent idea which makes viewing locations more dynamic without requiring someone to take control of the flight/tour themselves. Although, it would be nice if you could also fly yourself! A GEB reader pointed out to me you can select "Manual" instead of "Teleport" and then you can fly it yourself using the cursor keys!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:10 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

October 28, 2008

Google Earth-based Virtual Alabama Wins GCN Award

The Virtual Alabama project is a statewide tool designed to provide data and search capability to state officials on a massive scale. They chose Google Earth as the primary visualization tool allowing them to deliver, on an internally maintained server, imagery, emergency responder information, GIS data, and more all on one platform. The Government Computer News publication has awarded 10 government agencies, including Virtual Alabama, with their annual award for the best of 2008 teams. Read the excellent summary of the Virtual Alabama project at the Google Earth case study file.

Related: Governor of Alabama Unveils Google Earth Application

Posted by FrankTaylor at 06:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 27, 2008

Street View for Spain now live in Google Earth/Maps

As expected, after the rumors started last week, Google has pushed out Street View imagery in Spain. The available cities are: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla. Thanks to GEB reader Laurent for being the first to send me the tip that it was live.

Just to whet your appetite, here is a Street View of the Palacio de Comunicaciones in Madrid:

View Larger Map

You can view Street View in either Google Maps, or in Google Earth. Here are some tips on seeing the full 3D Street View imagery in Google Earth. You can now view Street View in the US, Australia, Japan, France, and Spain.

I've been traveling today - and am currently in Key Largo, Florida for a technology demonstration I'll be writing about sometime soon. It's not directly Google Earth related, so don't expect too much in that direction. But, it is related to my sailing trip.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 06:52 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

October 26, 2008

Google Earth for the iPhone Released!

At long last, Google is releasing Google Earth for the iPhone (and iTouch) tonight (Sunday)! I've been expecting this to happen for months. Especially after I saw another Google Earth-like application on the iPhone back in May. Apparently some folks in Australia were first to downloaded Google Earth for the iPhone. CNET has an initial review - and it looks fantastic. I quickly managed to download it - see my updated review below (this app is awesome!). You can click here to download GE for the iPhone from the iTunes app store - it's free of course. Or you can search the app store from your iPhone. Here is Google's announcement video which shows the app in action:

And, here is a screenshot (form CNET):

I've had a while now to play with GE for the iPhone. Here is my initial review (quick summary: I'm really impressed!):

1. Looks just like Google Earth when it first comes up. Zooming in with the usual touch motion on the iPhone works just like expected. And, at least on my home WIFI, the speed loading imagery is quite good. Much closer to the normal GE than I expected. In fact, I estimate on my non-3G iPhone I'm getting about 5-7 frames per second update rates zoomed out, and over 10 fps zoomed in closer. Quite good! You definitely feel like you're using Google Earth.

2. If you enable "Autotilt" by selecting the preference window (the "i" icon in the lower right) when you lift up your phone vertically the horizon will tilt into view. If you go to somewhere with mountains or other terrain you'll see it in 3D just like in the normal GE.

3. Google includes the Panoramio and Wikipedia layers under the "Geographic Web" by default. Click on a blue photo icon when you see one, and it will load the Panoramio photo for that location. hit the "Earth" button at the top of the photo to return back to GE. If you don't want the icons, or want to get a little speed increase, then turn these off in the preference window.

4. You also have layers for borders and labels (city names, country names, etc.) which you can also turn off if you don't need them.

5. AMAZING - they even support off-line mode just like the desktop GE! If you have no connection, GE will prompt you and let you "continue without network" and will work off your cache. So, if you've previously viewed places, you can go back there and still see them with no Internet connection! To test this, you can just put your iPhone in "Airplane" mode (to turn off wireless connections) and then re-start the iPhone GE application.

6. Tilt your iPhone horizontally for a wider view.

7. The upper left "magnifying glass" let's you do a search. This works just like with the normal GE and let's you search for places, airport codes, or you can enter lat/long coordinates. I'm very pleased with how it zooms just like the normal GE to each location.

8. The lower left icon is the "locate me" button which will fly you to your current location (using the iPhone location feature).

9. With this release, there are just the 4 layers mentioned above. You also can not load up other KML files or save your own placemarks at this point. But, I'm sure other features will come in future releases.

10. The "Help" window is found in the preferences window (or here on the web) and gives tips on the interface. If you use two fingers you can do things like twist your view, tilt the horizon (by dragging two fingers up/down), if you double-tap two fingers you zoom out, double-tap one finger zooms in. The finger interfaces are very intuitive.

Overall I'm very impressed with Google Earth for the iPhone. I'm thrilled I'll be able to take it with me wherever I go. However, I'm sure performance will be a much slower when I'm on the Edge network instead of with a WIFI connection. All you GE fans with an iPhone - go out there and download it now!

[UPDATE: Here is Google's announcement of GE for the iPhone.]

Posted by FrankTaylor at 11:13 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack

October 25, 2008

Street View for Spain Arriving by Tuesday

A message sent out last week by E-mail to the press has stirred the anticipation of Street View imagery coming to Spain. The E-mail was posted on a Spanish blog called Blog Urbanismo and says there will be a press announcement on Tuesday, October 28th, about the release of Street View imagery for Spain. I'll be keeping a close eye on both Google Earth and Maps for the impending release (which usually happens several hours before Google makes a press announcement).

While you're waiting, you might want to check out the new Street View imagery in France released on the 14th of October.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 04:41 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

October 24, 2008

MutliTouch Wall Demo - Hilarious

This is only vaguely related to Google Earth (they do show some satellite photos), but I just thought it was too funny. Saturday Night Live last night made fun of how some news stations have gone too far with their big multi-touch wall "tools". You can watch it here (move over to 5:30 to see the start of the wall skit):

via Engadget

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:04 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Links: Bioneers, Science Apps, Ogle Catchup, Google Ocean, GreenPeace, Geocoding

• Bioneers - The Google Earth Outreach team attended the Bioneers Conference (a conference of non-profit and public benefit groups) in San Rafael, California. They recruited many Outreach members to share their story of success in using Google earth to spread their word about their causes. Read more about their experience in this series of blog posts: one, two, and three. And, here's another summary of the Google Earth presentations from TreeHugger.

• Science Apps - The Scientific Applicatioons with Google Earth Conference was held this week at the University of Michigan. I wish I could have attended as it appears several folks I know from AGU conferences were there presenting. Here is a summary of day 1 by 'HayleyM". I haven't seen any other blog postings. If anyone runs across some, let me know.

• Ogle Catchup - Stefan Geens says he's been really busy the last few months, and this is why his blog postings have dropped off at OgleEarth. Yesterday he posted a giant-sized catch up post with lots of interesting links.

• Google Ocean - Last April, a CNET article revealed rumors that Google was working on "Google Ocean" - the by either adding new capabilities to Google Earth to enable it to share ocean data (3D bathymetry and more), or maybe a separate applications. I've heard from many oceanographers that the rumors are true. There are some interesting Google Earth ocean-related KML files listed in this blog post at Discovery Channel, and for a long time Peio Essilades at Magic Instinct has been sharing Ocean related data for Google Earth. There are some great KML files here, so check it out if you have interest in the oceans. He's even been calling his site "Google Ocean" since 2006 (before the rumors). Links via OgleEarth.

• GreenPeace - Got an E-mail from James Woolley who is on a GreenPeace ship touring Indonesia to raise awareness about environmental issues - particularly forest logging - there. Noel Jenkins at Digital Geography also got the E-mail and has posted the whole thing along with photos. You can view the GE KML file from GreenPeace which shows their ship's journey around Indonesia with placemarks and links back to their blog posts.

• Reverse GeoCoding - Google Maps has had an API for sometime allowing you to Geocode - turn addresses into coordinates. Now, Google has released reverse-geocoding (see Pamela Fox's announcement post). This allows you to give coordinates, and Google gives you the nearest address to those coordinates. This opens up lots of possible applications. Mapperz sent me an E-mail about his post on this first. GoogleMapsMania has an excellent summary post of what this means along with nice links to sample applications from Google. My favorite is the Reverse Geocoding Game. I'd like to see this reverse geocoding work inside Google Earth - I'm sure someone could put together a network link to make it work, but it would be even better if there was a function built-in somehow.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:50 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 23, 2008

Paragliding Simulator with Google Earth Plugin

Very cool! GEB reader Dan Hohman was looking to modify the built in Google Earth flight simulator to simulate powered parachute flying. He did some searching and ran across a cool new simulator for paragliding which uses the Google Earth API/plugin. I've been playing around with this for the last day - and I have to say I find it a lot of fun!

The paraglider simulator was built by some folks at ParaglidingEarth.com, who host real life tracks of paragliding experiences at sites around the world. You can click here to start a flight (this is the Boulder, Colorado location). Choose the link "Fly on this site!!!" near the top middle. Then choose the color of your glider, then just hit the "Let's Fly!" button at the bottom to start the simulator (you can play with the settings after you get some practice). NOTE: the simulator only works on Windows and in a few browsers as described in the note at the bottom of the first page.

The simulator has a GPS on the left (which cleverly shows live maps from Google Maps) and a gadget on the right which shows your altitude, temperature, and your vertical rate of speed. And, if you have sound, it beeps as you climb to help you know when you find a thermal. You may have to make your browser quite wide to see both instruments (I think they should offer some different layout options for different screen resolutions). Then select the "Run!" button at the bottom middle to start the simulator. Use the arrow buttons (or the arrow keys on your keyboard) to control your direction. Your objective is to find some thermals before you hit the ground. Tip: get closer to the mountains to find some thermals. When your indicator of the right starts showing a positive climb rate - you're starting to get in a thermal (and you'll hear beeps if your sound is working). A good thermal will climb you at several meters per second. When you fall out of the thermal, turn 90 or more degrees to the right or left quickly to get back in the thermal.

You can choose different locations at the ParaglidingEarth site by searching or clicking on their map. NOTE some locations do not start you off at a high enough altitude and will not properly work (you'll hit the "Run!" button and nothing will happen). Just try another location instead. Hopefully the folks at ParaglidingEarth will add a setting for initial altitude so you can get higher at the start.

This is one of the coolest mashups of both Google Earth and Google Maps technologies I've seen in a while. Definitely worth trying out - especially if you're someone who likes to fly. Kudos to the guys at ParaglidingEarth, and thanks to Dan for bringing it to my attention.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:15 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

October 22, 2008

Terrain of Google Earth - Awesome Tour

Even after three years of frequent use, you would think I would get bored looking at just plain Google Earth imagery and terrain. But, our planet is a really beautiful place. And I'm still amazed at the ability of Google Earth to depict the wonder of some sights around the world. In particular, the 3D terrain and imagery can really capture amazing sights around our beautiful rugged planet. And, Google is constantly improving upon both the 3D resolution of terrain and the imagery. So, it just keeps getting better. Someone called 'pietro30' at EarthSwoop created an excellent tour of Earth terrain features. You can view the tour at EarthSwoop using the GE Plugin (still Windows only until Google adds Mac support). Click on the various locations below the window that pietro30 picked for you to view. While this collection is by no means a complete collection of terrain wonders (it's missing the Grand Canyon, Mount Everest, the Matterhorn, and many other notables), it does show some amazing places. If you turn on the Panoramio layer next to the viewing window, you can also view photos of the various sights. People are always amazed when I show locations like this in Google Earth. Most people still confine themselves to the straight-down views of the Google Earth imagery.

One of the sights, "Ayer's Rock" (now called again by its native name of "Uluru") down under in Australia is particularly interesting. Since Google Earth first came out, Google has updated Uluru several times. First they updated the imagery of Uluru back in 2006 to higher resolution. Google later added higher resolution 3D terrain, and recently even higher resolution imagery for Uluru. In fact, if you look closely at Uluru, you can see people climbing the rock along the white-spotted marked trail. And the terrain much more accurately matches the shape of the real scene. Turn on the Panoramio layer to see photos people have taken of the location, and you can clearly see how accurately Google Earth renders the scene.

When GE version 4 came out, Google added a setting to increase the level of detail in terrain quality. So, if you are using the full application of Google Earth (not the plugin) you can see the terrain even more accurately by adjusting the setting. Google's base layer of 3D terrain comes from Space Shuttle 3D data at 90 meter resolution. But, Google has been updating the terrain in many places in Google Earth to much higher (typically 10 meter resolution). For example, most of the US is at 10 meter resolution (it started with the Western US). And many places such as Uluru, New Zealand, and the Swiss Alps, have much better as well. Two places I know of in the US have 3 meter resolution: Mount St. Helens, and the entire state of West Virginia.

One thing I need to do is write a new "Important Basics" post tied to Google Earth 4.3. The interface for tilting your view has changed substantially from previous versions of Google Earth. Here is the section on navigating from the Google Earth V4.3 User Guide.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:30 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 21, 2008

Links: Planet Search, Interactive KML, FlightSim, iPhone GPS

• Planet Search - Recently Google revealed they had added a new feature to the Sky mode of Google Earth (which lets you see the night sky instead of the Earth). The new feature lets you search for our solar system's planets in the "Fly to" search panel. It then flies you to the location and zooms in so you can see the planet. I like the fact it lets you search for "Pluto" too. Also, if you turn on the "Our Solar System" layer, you can use the time slider to show the position of the solar system planets over the course of the next three months. I wrote a post last year about a KML file which lets you view the locations of planets discovered outside our solarsystem - aka "exoplanets".

• Interactive KML - Google has announced a new tool to help with learning KML. They have an interactive KML sampler which lets you simultaneously view samples of KML with the Earth API plugin. Of course, you can also copy any KML sample text and then paste it right into Google Earth to view them as well. I did notice a few of the KML samples didn't work properly though.

• FlightSim - A GEB reader named Jasper sent me an E-mail to let me know about his new tool for linking Google Earth to MS Flight Simulator (MSFS). His tool is called GPS60 (because it simulates Garmin's GPS 60 handheld GPS). The application is very versatile. It lets you not only simultaneously view your position in MSFS also in Google Earth, but it also logs your track and even functions as a TCAS (showing positions of other planes in the sim). Check it out here along with documentation of the features, screenshots, and a log of the changes. He has released several updates recently. This isn't the first time a link has been created between these two apps. Back in September of 2005, someone did something similar (no longer available). But, Jasper's version is available now and has some cool features.

• iPhone GPS - EveryTrail is a popular site for uploading GPS tracks (and geotagged photos) and viewing them in Google Maps/Earth. They sent me an e-mail a while back letting me know they have released an iPhone application for EveryTrail. Their new app lets you record tracks with your iPhone (I assume this is only practical with iPhone 3G with its GPS ability), and you can also take geotagged photos through their app. Here's the link to their iPhone app page. On another note, EveryTrail's Earth API support disappeared when they started supported Maps Flash API, but they plan to get it back in there soon.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:41 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 20, 2008

Enhancing Presentations with Google Earth

Ever since the Google Earth API and plugin was released last May, I've envisioned there would be a multitude of ways the plugin could be used on a web page to present content. Last week, Googler John Gardiner revealed a 20% time project he has been working on that uses Google Earth as a presentation tool to illustrate an energy proposal for the State of New Mexico. The presentation uses the Google Earth API, KML, and Javascript embedded in web page content. You have "Next" and "Previous" buttons to take you from page to page in the presentation. But, the most important part is the visual presentation of both locations, and data within the Google Earth plugin to illustrate the locations and visual "data" to make his points. Check out his Dreaming New Mexico presentation (Windows only).

John helps write the online Google Earth documentation (like the GE User Guide), and helps communicate how to use the interfaces in Google Earth also through his Using Google Earth blog. So, it doesn't surprise me that he would come out with such an excellent example showing one of the better possible uses of the Google Earth API plugin. I give John big kudos for helping give a better glimpse of what the Google Earth plugin's real potential is for the browsing experience. In his demo John has shown us that Google Earth can be used to provide geospatial context, GIS data presentation, and some 3D perspective to a "presentation". But, this is just a glimpse. I envision the plugin can be used in even more innovative ways to help present online content. And, not just for "presentations", but other forms of content sharing as well.

Unfortunately, the plugin only runs on Windows so far. Google has promised multiple times that a Mac version will be released "real soon". This is critical because many online content creators are very sensitive to wanting to deliver their content broadly and don't want to have to apologize for being tied to one platform (even if it is the largest by far).

There's actually already some presentation tools available using the Google Earth plugin. Check out the EarthSwoop application which was created by Google Earth Hacks and GEB last summer. EarthSwoop lets you create your own "tours presentations" providing the basic geospatial context and 3D perspective on locations along with some basic content descriptions. You don't have to know any HTML or Javascript to create the presentations, and we make it easy for you to save each location view for the plugin. There are also add-on layers that can be shown to provide more context (like Panoramio photos).

And another good example of a tool to help provide web-based Google Earth presentations is the new Earth Atlas. This tool goes even further trying to bring even more power out of the GE plugin to make it more like the real Googel Earth application. I'm pretty sure Google will be enhancing the API's capabilities to add more GE power to the plugin. However, what I hope to see is even more online presentations like John's to leverage Google Earth's visualization capabilities to empower regular web content to be more informative. In fact, I'm working on this for both here on GEB and with the new site I'm working on for our sailing voyage on Tahina.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:50 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 17, 2008

New 3D Cities in Google Earth for LA, San Diego - and more?

At the beginning of the month, Google added 10 new 3D cities to Google. Now, just a couple of weeks later, they've added at least two more cities Google Earth: Los Angeles and San Diego (I'm still checking to see if there are more). I first got a report from GEB reader, and LA resident, Ted Vance about LA. I immediately nade an educated guess and checked San Diego. Sure enough, there were lots of new 3D buildings there as well. The reason I check is that there was just a press announcement by CyberCity 3D about their contributing models to Google Earth. And, I recalled last spring that CyberCity 3D had added non-textured 3D buildings for LA and San Diego. They also did Chicago which probably explains why Chicago got the facelift earlier this month.

There's been no announcement yet about these buildings, so there may be more cities. If you find other new 3D cities (compare with the list in the October 1st post), then leave a comment here and I'll add them to this post. Meanwhile, make sure to fly around these beautiful new 3D models in LA and San Diego. Especially if you want to re-visit somewhere you've been before. Google's 3D models tend to capture lots of detail in the photo-textures including signs and logos on the sides of buildings. This not only helps add realism, but furthers the marketing payoff for the companies paying promote themselves. Thanks again to Ted for the tip, and make sure you tell folks you found out about the new buildings here at GEB first.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:50 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

October 16, 2008

Links: Canadian Elections, 1 Million Geograph, Earth Atlas Update

• Canadian Elections - The best KML file I've seen for the Canadian elections was done by Cedric Sam. He used data from a variety of sources, and some clever uses of KML, and made a very nice looking and functional map. He also made clever use of Google Charts to depict data. You can see the election results with the KML file , or using the Google Earth plugin (nice job that it works well with both). The resulting map was so good that it was used on Canada's state television (see example in French). Google also posted about Canadian election maps, and lists a series of My Maps for the elections. But, make sure you check out Cedric's.

• 1 Million Geograph - Congratulations to Geograph (the web site repository whose mission is to photograph every square km of the UK), has just crossed the 1 million photos level. Barry Hunter makes the announcement.

• Earth Atlas Update - ThematicMapping Blog has released an update to his Earth Atlas plugin (which GEB wrote about 10 days ago). He has made the interface even more Google Earth like in the way it lets you turn on and off layers for the plugin. Earth Atlas also lets you add other KML files by URL. Follow the link to read some technical details on what he did.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:52 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 15, 2008

360Cities.Net - Mapped Panoramas Viewable in Google Earth

360Cities.net has announced an upgrade to their panoramic photo site. I've mentioned them before, but never did a full post. Their site is dedicated to allowing anyone to upload or view geo-tagged 360 degree panoramas from around the world. You can view the available photos on a map. Some of the new features including a better panorama viewer, RSS feeds for locations or photographers, multi-resolution panoramas for higher detailed panoramas, and more. In the past year they've grown by 10X to over 8000 panoramas in 100 cities. Not only that, but they have full support for Google Earth viewing including use of the Google earth 4.2+ Photo Viewer mode. This means you can get the full immersive 3D-like panorama experience inside Google Earth. To illustrate this in action, I've made the following short video (no audio, 1.5 minutes) showing 360Cities panoramas being used in Google Earth:

As seen in the video, you can zoom in to see more detail (depending on the resolution of the original photo) and pan around to get a real sense of a place. As 360Cities amount of content grows, I hope Google will want to include them as a layer as well. I do think 360Cities needs to use the KML regioning tools so they don't show too many placemarks at once (it can slow down GE a bit).

Stefan Geens at OgleEarth has done a full review of the new 360Cities site, and has even started uploading some of his own panoramas for viewing in 360Cities. I recommend reading Stefan's article if you want more insight into what 360Cities offers. You can view all of their available photos in Google Earth through the 360Cities KML file (be patient, it may take a while to load the 8000 placemarks).

There are also two layers available in Google Earth with very high resolution immersive panoramas: Gigapxl and Gigapan both found under the Gallery layer. Read more about Gigapxl here.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 14, 2008

More Street View Imagery for France in Google Earth/Maps

As reported at Google Maps Mania, Google has released new Street View imagery in France. Google had already released Street View imagery in July for the Tour de France route. Now they have more complete coverage for the following cities: Paris, Toulouse, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, and Lille. Most people are aware you can view the Street View imagery in Google Maps, but you can also see these new spherical panoramic photos inside Google Earth with a 3D interface.

To see the images in Google Earth, turn on the Street View layer and zoom in a bit to see the camera icons over France. You can fly to a city covered with the Street View icons to find an interesting site. Then click on a camera icon near your desired location. Click "Show Full Screen" or double click the icon to enter the Photo Viewer mode. This mode lets you look in all directions using the mouse or keyboard arrows. You can also zoom in and out with the mousewheel. See a video demonstration of the Google Earth Street View imagery.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:54 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Fires in California - 2008-October - Google Earth/Maps

[UPDATE November 2008: If you're looking for maps from the November 2008 fires (Sayre Fire, Tea Fire, etc.) read this post for detail and links to view maps in Google Earth for better 3D data.]

The LA Times has posted a Google My Map of the current major fires in the San Fernando Valley. The two primary fires are the 5000 acre Marek fire which at this time is 70% contained, and the Sesnon fire which is nearly 10,000 acres is still burning strongly. The primary concern is the winds at this point which lessened a bit earlier today. You can check the LA Times Fire Map in Google Maps, or you can view it, complete with 3D terrain, in Google Earth here . The LA Times has been updating the fire map as the fire status has changed.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 04:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Using Google Earth at 90 MPH on a Boat

Google Earth has been used at high speeds in airplanes before. And, it's been used in racing sail boats. But, this is the first time I've heard of Google Earth being used on the water, with a laptop, in a racing motor boat at speeds up to 90 mph! Virgil Zetterlind, who produces some amazing Google Earth content for boaters at his EarthNC.com site, managed to talk his way onto a sponsored racing boat during the Sarasota Poker Run last weekend. The boat was a Formula Factory 382 FAS3 Tech Boat. He offered to provide live tracking and web cam photos from the boat during the race and the tracks were uploaded using a cell phone as Google Earth KML. You can see the tracks now (colorized by speed) along with the photos he took. Here is a post with some background information about the story, a map, and slideshow by Virgil. And, for the technically inclined, Virgil has posted a detailed case study describing the software and hardware used to accomplish this feat. A great read for those wondering how to use Google Earth for tracking applications. Only thing I wish is that I could see some video of Virgil trying to hang on to his laptop and GPS while the boat was bouncing at those speeds. Virgil gets 5 globes for most geeky and adventurous application of Google Earth this month!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 13, 2008

New Google Earth Imagery: 13-October-2008

[UPDATED 0645 ET 14-Oct-2008: Make sure you check "View in Google Maps" to confirm the imagery is new before leaving a comment.]

Just started getting reports of places with new or updated high resolution imagery. Keep sending in reports if you find something new. You can tell if an image is new by clicking the "View in Google Maps" link in GE to compare. Google Maps doesn't yet have the new imagery so if the imagery isn't the same - its new. Here's the list of places found so far:

• India - New medium resolution Spot Image background imagery for a big portion of India. Thanks to GEB reader Alok Patel for being the first to report new imagery.

• US - Looks like a big portion of North Carolina has new unattributed aerial imagery - or at least it is color processed differently. Big area around Salt Lake City, Utah has new imagery from the State of Utah. Fairfax County Virginia - thanks to GEB reader Ben. Spotsylvania County, Virginia - new high res. Areas of Beaumont, TX. Thanks to Munden.

• Mexico - An area in northern Mexico has new medium resolution Spot Image imagery - adding to the Spot imagery in a recent update for Mexico. A bunch of the islands around Baja have also been added with better resolution from Spot Image.

• Romania - Looks like the country of Romania has new medium resolution Spot imagery as well.

• Spain - Menorca, Mallorca - Thanks to GEB reader Rene73

• Czech Republic - the entire country has new high resolution imagery from a provider called GEODIS Brno. Very nice! Thanks to GEB reader Rene73

• More Eastern European Countries - New medium resolution Spot Image imagery in the northern part of Albania, most parts of Montenegro, Kosova, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia. Thanks to GEB reader Edi.

• Italy - Capri, Elba, Firenze, Urbino, Verona - Thanks to GEB reader Ezra.

• Australia - Big region in the northeast now has medium resolution Spot Image imagery. Thanks to GEB reader 'toler'. Ayer's Rock has new high res imagery.

• Norway - Trondheim. Thanks to GEB reader Esme Cowles.

• Canary Islands - Futureventura, Tenerife - The SS American Star wreck has has almost disappeared beneath the water now. The imagery date for the Canaries says 2008! Thanks to James at GoogleSightseeing.com for this find. See his post for more details and a link to the ship location.

• South Africa - Areas around Johannesburg

• Guinea Bissau - New highres patch near Bafata. Thanks to Snakeye.

• UK - Lundy Island high res now. Thanks to Munden. Also, Aberdeen, Hampshire, North Lincolnshire, part of Derbyshire. Thanks to James.

• Portugal - New high resolution strip of imagery near Nazaré. Thanks to Snakeye.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 01:23 PM | Comments (44) | TrackBack

Links: Panoramio Heat Maps, See Russia?, 1m LiDAR, Airship

There was no post on Friday because I was attending the Annapolis Boat Show in Maryland. Given all the terrible news about the economy and stock market, I was thinking the boat show attendance would be down. But, people were there in droves. The weather was fantastic for one thing. But, American optimism is just amazing. I heard boats were still selling, and lots of boat accessories were selling as well.

• Panoramio Heat Maps - Alexander Tchaikin sent me an E-mail to share a project he's been working. Using the Panoramio API he has been creating useful statistical maps showing the density of photos from Google's Panoramio photo site. In his blog post, he provides details on what he's been doing, and lots of screenshots and example KML files.

• See Russia? - In response to Palin's comments about her foreign policy experience based on being able to see Russia from Alaska, Michael Koswowsky has set up a special map using his "HeyWhatsThat" tools. Looks like there are only 4 very hard to reach spots where you can see Russia in Alaska.

• 1m LiDAR - The USGS has released a KML file that lets you see very high resolution (1m per pixel) LiDAR terrain imagery for the Norther California mountain ranges. You can download the KML file here , then make sure you zoom into an area outlined in green and wait for the imagery for that area to load. You have to be zoomed in close. The LiDAR data shows the terrain in shades of gray. This will give you an idea of what Google Earth's terrain could look like if they boosted the 3D terrain detail to 1 meter. Wow!

• Airship - A few days ago I got an E-mail from some folks flying a real live Zeppelin Airship from Europe to California. They created a Google Maps airship tracking map so you could watch it travel along. The ship should be leaving Texas soon to travel to California. Even better news: Airship Ventures is setting up for tours at Moffett Field in California (one of the few remaining locations with large airship hangars - and right next door to the Google Headquarters). I actually met the husband and wife team which started this venture at the X Prize Cup last fall. Hopefully they'll be setting up some Google Earth files for tracking their tours as they fly over the San Francisco sights. We should get some excellent Panoramio aerial photos in the coming months.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:30 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Interior 3D Building Tour With Google Earth Plugin

A Singapore-based company called Peekspy has used Google Earth technology in an innovative way. Instead of just showing the normal Earth map or an exterior 3D building, they are instead using Google Earth technology to provide a 3D architectural walkthrough of the inside of a building. Really, its like a 3D tour guide of the interior of a building. They chose to use the new Google Earth plugin to present their building tour which lets you present 3D content in a browser window and put your own interface around the Google Earth window.

The building shown is the National University of Singapore (NUS) library and the 3D model is quite detailed with all kinds of photo textures to add realism. Click here to view the NUS library 3D Tour This application might be a bit slow on older computers (or with slow video cards) because it is 3D intensive. They "blank out" the Earth view in Google Earth and all you see is a 3D model of one level/floor of the library. Give it a moment or two to load. The first view is level 4 of the library, if you click "Level 4" on the list on the right, you'll get a list of places you can view on that floor. Click on one and it will fly you to that part of the floor. This is using Google Earth's built-in touring capabilities to help conduct a "walkthrough". You can also use the Google Earth navigational controls to move around, but it can be awkward with the current setup. I think if they scaled up the building size you could use the controls to "walk around" better.

Google Earth wasn't designed to provide 3D tours of the insides of buildings. One reason it takes a moment to load the library model is that Google Earth is still loading the background 3D terrain and imagery (even though you can't see it). But, Peekspy has shown GE can be used for this. And, I think it works pretty well. Tools like the 3D modeling software Google SketchUp were designed to provide 3D building tours. However, I would guess there are more people familiar with Google Earth than any other 3D mainstream application. I'm always amazed at the multitude of different applications of GE technology. A real 3D tour of the inside of a building is pretty slick!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:38 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 12, 2008

Newly Discovered Buried Peruvian Pyramid Visible in Google Earth

Researchers recently discovered a buried pyramid in the Peruvian desert using satellite imagery and "special algorithms". The buried pyramid is about a mile from the Cahuachi's archeological site. But, if you use the satellite photo released by the researchers you can find the location in Google Earth. You can easily see evidence of the site yourself in GE's imagery. It turns out the structure is underneath a crop field - and the underlying structure has changed the color of the soil such that shapes are visible in the DigitalGlobe satellite photo. GEB reader Markus Mehring told me about this discovery and after seeing the satellite image shown in news reports, he matched the location in Google Earth. See it yourself here . Markus thinks the data the researchers used was possibly the same DigitalGlobe image used in Google Earth (he says it matches very closely). According to the researchers, this is a large pyramid with a base of 300 feet on each side and with seven levels similar to another pyramid they are already excavating.

By the way, the Cahuachi site is just south of the famous Nazca Lines. And, here is a good Google Earth Community post showing a tour of the Nazca lines in Google Earth (with image overlays).

Google Earth imagery is definitely good enough to discover archeological sites - if you have a eye trained to look at the imagery properly. In fact, there have been a number of discoveries made with Google Earth. A long-time friend of mine, by the name of Scott Madry is a professor at the University of North Carolina, and has used Google Earth to discover dozens of sites in France thanks to Google Earth. But, Scott has been using aerial imagery for archeology for decades. Read a National Geographic story about Scott's Google Earth work. About.com has written a nice article about using Google Earth for archeology as well. And, if you're really fascinated about seeing archeological sites in Google Earth, make sure to check out JQ Jacobs ancient monuments site which shows all kinds of locations in Google Earth.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 11, 2008

Budapest 3D Tour in Google Earth

I just noticed a nice 3D Tour of some notable sites in Budapest, Hungary over at EarthSwoop. EarthSwoop lets anyone create tours of places in Google Earth using the Earth API and plugin - which right now only runs on Windows (Google is over due on their promise made in May to deliver a Mac version by August). Click on the different links below the EarthSwoop window to see a flying tour to several locations. A description appears to the right of each site. The Budapest EarthSwoop was created by someone called Greg Rose.

What's interesting about this collection to me is that there are a bunch of really nice 3D models in Budapest I hadn't seen before. Even more interesting is that the models do not have any attributes. Normally, when 3D models come from the Google 3D Warehouse, when you put your mouse over a 3D model in Google Earth it highlights the model in a blue/purple color. When you click with the mouse, a window pops up telling you more about the model from the 3D Warehouse. But, Google has started putting thousands of 3D Models which are coming from some unannounced source. Normally these have appeared in cities where the entire city has been modeled with some new technique. This is the first time I've found just select models in a city without the attribution. [UPDATE: However, this may just be an error in processing which somehow prevented the 3D Warehouse connection/attribution to be made. Some of the models in Budapest appear to match ones in the 3D Warehouse.

Disclaimer: EarthSwoop was created by myself and Mickey Mellen over at Google Earth Hacks as an experiment with the Earth API and to make it easy for people to make 3D sightseeing tours.

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

October 09, 2008

New Satellite Imagery Galore Coming

Those of you regularly reading this blog, already know there is a wave of new satellite imagery coming to Google Earth (and other mapping tools) in the coming months. Both DigitalGlobe and GeoEye have launched new satellites in the last year, and more satellites are going up soon. Google has an exclusive contract for online use from the new GeoEye satellite. And, the first image from the GeoEye satellite has just been released, of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. This image probably won't find its way into Google Earth for several weeks, but they wanted to show off the new image capability. Click on the thumbnail to the right to see a larger version. The new GeoEye satellite can capture up to 0.41 meters per pixel resolution, but because of US laws can only release up to 0.5 m/pixel imagery to Google (the best stuff is for the intelligence agencies and military). The imagery is essentially black and white, but they process the photos with color from other imagery to add color. You can see this imagery is very nice. Story on new GeoEye imagery via CNET.

Google for the past three years had a similar exclusive contract with DigitalGlobe - where only Google could use DigitalGlobe imagery online. However, their renewed contract was no longer exclusive, and Microsoft has announced they will now be using DigitalGlobe imagery on Virtual Earth. This makes it possible for Microsoft to have much more global imagery than they currently have in Virtual Earth (although, nothing Google doesn't already have). While we're talking about Microsoft, I just found out they also added stars in the background of Virtual Earth 3D. Google Earth has had real stars from the beginning, but the new Virtual Earth ones have color and size (based on brightness) - which I think is better looking than Google Earth's stars (and something I've suggested to Google for years).

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:19 AM | Comments (13) | TrackBack

October 08, 2008

Google Looks for More 3D Cities

On October 1, Google quietly added 10 new US cities to the Google Earth 3D Buildings layer. Each of the cities has up to hundreds of new photorealistic buildings. The 10 new cities join another nearly 20 other cities around the world in Google Earth which have a large percentage of the buildings completed with photorealistic textures. There are also a couple of dozen cities which have untextured 3D buildings. There are hundreds of other cities in Google Earth which have notable buildings completed which have been submitted to the Google 3D Warehouse by people around the world. And, you can find 3D renderings of many other notable structures around the world like the Golden Gate Bridge, Stonehenge, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Pyramids of Giza, and much more. I pretty much fly around in Google Earth with the 3D Buildings layer turned on all the time now.

Google has just posted more details about their 3D buildings layers and details on how you can get your city included in Google Earth's 3D layer. There is even a special Cities in 3D program which encourages city planners to share their data with Google so they can help render your city in photorealistic detail.

I was surprised Google didn't mention the ten new cities they added on October 1st. There still not been an official recognition of the new additions. Why are they waiting I wonder?

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:51 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

October 07, 2008

Worldwide Marine Protected Areas in Google Earth

Today, at the 4th World Conservation Congress, IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas launched a plan to help protect planet ocean using Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Over the past year several groups have been working with the teams at Google Earth and Google Earth Outreach to devise a way to change a major gap in knowledge and bring marine protection, and the wonders that our nature reserves in the sea can offer, to internet users worldwide. As part of the celebrations at the 4th World Conservation Congress in Barcelona they have launched a special IUCN WCPA - Marine layer through Google Earth Outreach that not only shows you where we have protected the sea, but which also allows you to get involved by sharing pictures, videos and stories about your local sites in a way not previously possible.

This Google Earth content will presumably be a layer in the Global Awareness folder, but you can see it now as a KML file from the Google Earth Outreach site. You have to zoom in a bit to see the placemarks appear. Included are placemarks marking marine protected areas, and also outlines in many places of sanctuaries, protected areas, fish nurseries, etc. There are detailed outlines of existing areas in the US especially. The placemarks show more information on each location. More importantly, you will see a button allowing you to "Add Photos or Videos" of each location. I think they should also encourage people to turn on the Panoramio layer to show the many photos already available in Google Earth for many of the sites. You can also view the protected areas right on the home page of their new web site Protected Planet Ocean which uses the Earth API plugin. Personally, as someone who is a sailor and very concerned about our world's oceans and marine life, I think this concept and use of Google Earth is really great.

The organizations are working together to provide the first illustrated picture of global ocean protection of wildlife and habitats using Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The MPA layer is an outreach initiative between Google, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and its global commission of scientific experts – the World Commission on Protected Areas. via the Official MPA blog.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 06, 2008

Earth Atlas - Google Earth Plugin Application

Bjorn Sandvik has produced another Google Earth application as a by-product of his Thematic Mapping Engine plugin written about last June. He calls the new plugin application Earth Atlas which is described in his post here. What I like about this interface is that he has combined a friendly "layers" interface on the left which lets you turn on and off a bunch of different layers in the Earth plugin. He even provides a way for you to add your own selection of KML files to the scene (see "Your KML files" and add a URL to a KML file). The Earth Atlas of course shows several of the statistical KML maps Bjorn had previously created. This is definitely one of the better Google Earth plugin applications I've seen and shows the potential of alternative interfaces for Google Earth data.

Other plugin applications written about at GEB:

• Monster Milktruck game
• EarthSwoop - Earth Plugin Touring Site
• Embedding options for Earth plugins
• Bouncing Earth Animation
• Google Earth API Demo Gallery

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 04, 2008

Panoramio Changes

First, some good news: the Panoramio layer, which is the great photos layer found under the Geographic Web layer folder, has new better looking blue icons. This just appeared within the last 24 hours I think. Back in early August, Google changed the Geographic Web layer and icons. As I said then, the Panoramio layers were almost indistinguishable little gray icons that looked too much like the new Places layer. With the new blue icons, they are much easier to see and differentiate. Big improvement!

On another Panoramio note, the excellent new "Look Around" feature which was released on June 3rd seems to have been suddenly removed from the Panoramio site. This feature was very cool because Google was taking any location which had lots of photos and turning them into a simulated "panorama" using a flash application. The feature was somewhat reminiscent to the PhotoSynth application Microsoft has been touting over the last few months. But, Google's Panoramio Look Around had hundreds of places around the world already compiled (maybe thousands). A very useful way to look at a given location from multiple perspectives. I hope the feature comes back soon. I've e-mailed several folks at Google and Panoramio, but no reply yet about the missing Look Around links. [UPDATE 1530 PM ET: Got a message from Google that the missing feature was a temporary bug and it has now been fixed. Just checked and did find it was back on a few photos I checked.]

Posted by FrankTaylor at 01:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 02, 2008

Introducing Our First Sailing Partner: Google

During the past month I announced my grand plan for a five year sailing adventure around the world which will begin next year. My wife Karen and I have already purchased a boat called "Tahina", delivered it from the Bahamas, and are now working on a huge list of preparations. A big part of the plan is to share the experience with people through a "geo-documentary".

My vision is that we will use a combination of a blog, and extensive geo-spatially organized content to share where we go, provide information about our travel locations, and show the sights we see. You will be able to follow our paths on the sea, on land, and possibly even under water all from within Google Earth (and with Google Maps, the Google Earth plugin, and other tools - maybe Google Ocean?). Not only that, but I will be taking aerial photography of some of the destinations using a combination of kite aerial photography, remote controlled aircraft, and by flying regular planes. I figured the resulting high resolution aerial photography would make for some very interesting views in Google Earth of exotic or unusual locations around the world. Places where few high resolution aerial photos are available. My inspiration for this idea was the excellent work by Michael Fay in the MegaFlyover images already in Google Earth for National Geographic.

When I started envisioning the creation of all this content, I naturally was thinking it would be more useful if a larger audience could see the content. So, I approached Google and told them about my circumnavigation plans. The Google geo team has enthusiastically embraced the idea and we have an arrangement where they will be acquiring content from our trip for use in their products. Teaming with Google for our circumnavigation is the realization of a dream which started three years ago when I first started using Google Earth to document our sailing trip back in 2002-2003. It was during that first trip that my wife and I began our plans for the circumnavigation. But, leveraging Google Earth to share our experiences became an integral part of what I wanted to accomplish. We also have plans to help raise awareness about issues facing the world's ocean environment and marine life. All of this is more feasible thanks to the help we will be getting from Google.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 03:30 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

Location of Plane Wreck of Steve Fossett

[UPDATE October 31: See the new post today which includes the location of all items found including the crash site, and today's location where they believe they found Fossett's remains.]

[UPDATE 2-Oct 2010 ET: According to AP, some human remains were found at the crash site today by the NTSB. It's a sad day in the story of a great adventurer. But, its good to know that evidence points to a quick end with little chance of suffering.]

I've been tracking the developing story of the discovery of Steve Fossett's plane wreck, and personal items belonging to him. See earlier GEB story with notations. Now, one GEB reader pointed out the FAA has posted coordinates for a no-fly zone to keep planes from flying over the wreckage area. The coor