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May 29, 2009

Links: New 3D Tours Gallery, Earth API Update

Lots of interesting news buried below. If you're a hard core GE user, make sure you read closely and follow some of the links below. I don't have time today to do a more elaborate review of all the goodies below.

• New 3D Tours Gallery - Yesterday Google announced a new addition to the Google Earth Gallery called "3D Buildings". This gallery shows some cool tours of 3D models around Google Earth for various categories. For example: castles, bridges, museums, baseball stadiums or skyscrapers. Most of these are Google Earth 5 Tours. Tours are a great way to help people see the wealth of 3D data available in Google Earth. I expect Google will be adding many of these 3D tours to the Tours Gallery for viewing them in the browser with the GE plugin. I do have a couple of suggestions for improvement though: 1) I think adding some sound and/or narration would make some of the tours better, and 2) The name "3D Buildings" needs to be changed - I've been saying for some time the layer in Google Earth should be changed because there are all kinds of non-3D Building models in the layer now (bridges, animals, buoys, ships, and more). Maybe the name of the layer (and this new gallery) should be "3D Objects".

• Earth API Update - Yesterday at Google I/O Googler Roman Nurik presented a session called "Building Advanced 3D Geographical Applications for the Web with the Google Earth API". You can see his presentation documentation here. Virgil Zetterlind of EarthNC.com blogged his notes while attending the session at his Maplify blog. Of particular note is that updates to the Maps and Earth APIs have improved integration between the 2D and 3D maps so you can more seamlessly transition between the two modes. Here is a 30 second video demo of the transitions. Roman also has produced a "MyEarth" demo application that uses the Earth API and the Maps Data API to allow you to integrate content from you Google MyMaps to view it in the Earth Plugin. I recommend checking out Roman's presentation for links to other cool demos.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:06 AM | Comments (0)

May 28, 2009

3D Flight Tracking in Netherlands with Google Earth

One of my favorite KML collections from the early days of Google Earth (way back in 2005 - which is a long time in Internet time), was the real-time flight tracker by FBOweb that lets you watch incoming aircraft for several major airports in the US. I am a bit disappointed they haven't enhanced the tracker very much considering all the new features in Google Earth since 2005. But, it still amazes people when I demonstrate live updating positions of planes in 3D approaching a major airport. (See a list of several cities to follow in this post).

Recently I ran across another real-time flight tracker in the Netherlands for Google Earth. The Geluidsnet web site (in Dutch) lets you watch planes arriving and departing from a few airports through this Google Earth network link (once it loads, click on "Schiphol area" to see the tracks for the last 30 minutes). They display a vertical "fence" below each plane to help visualize the altitude and paths. Orange fences are arriving aircraft, green are departing. The visualization gives a better sense of position and the number of planes when viewed from an angle. If you look closely, you will notice every few seconds the positions (and fences) change. Updating data like this is done using the power of the Google Earth "network link".

You would think the data is coming from aircraft transponders. [UPDATE 1530 ET: And they are! In doing a translation of a page on the Dutch-speaking site, I read how they were taking sound measurements for noise pollution purposes related to aircraft - and interpreted this to mean that was how they were getting the data. But, locals have explained to me the data is in fact coming from transponders.] But, using Google Translate, I read that they are using sophisticated sound measurements and algorithms to record data on aircraft and can determine position, speed, and even aircraft types.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:32 AM | Comments (8)

May 27, 2009

New "Businesses" layer for Google Earth and iPhone Google Earth

Google has added a new "Businesses" layer visible in both the desktop Google Earth application and iPhone Google Earth. For the savvy desktop Google Earth user, this isn't exactly "new". You could have (and still can) show most of the same placemarks by turning on the "Places of Interest" layer folder which is hidden near the bottom of the layers list. However, the new "Businesses" layer is found under the top layer folder called "Geographic Web" along with the Panoramio and Wikipedia layers (which are also available in Google Maps and the iPhone Google Earth. This just makes it a tad easier for people to find useful placemarks for businesses in any given area, and makes available all this info to iPhone Google Earth users for the first time. (Just a little nit: I don't like the fact the layer is underneath the "Places" layer folder - it should be right below the "Wikipedia" layer IMHO).

The layer lets you see different placemarks for different types of businesses (fork and knife for restaurants, shopping cart for stores, etc.), and clicking on the icons provides reviews and other details and links to get directions. On the iPhone version you can even click on the business phone number to call them with a single click!

This new layer feature was announced during the Google I/O conference going on right now in California. I hope we get a couple of other announcements for the Google Earth platform today or tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'm envious of the Google I/O attendees who all got a free developer Android phone for attending!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 2:23 PM | Comments (1)

More on Disney Paris, Street View Cave, Data.Gov, Space Imagery Enhancement

• More on 3D Disneyland Paris - GEB reported on the new 3D Disneyland Paris on Sunday (two days before the announcement). Here's some other news: Google's announcement reveals that the collection includes incredible detail - every "...bench, light post, tree, bush, planter box, street sign, fence, street curb, fountain, rock, bridge, table & chair are included." The rides are also very accurate (except for the parts that go inside the buildings - unfortunately. Here are a collection of excellent HD movies at YouTube showing details of some of the rides and parks. Note that the author of these movies is Concept3D, who are a professional 3D modeling shop and probably had a lot to do with the Disney modeling projects.

• Street View Cave - While I was visiting the Googleplex last week, I was shown a very cool "cave" (a room surrounded by computer screens) giving an immersive experience of Street View. What is especially cool about this Street View cave is that the imagery is at full resolution (much sharper than what you see online) AND the cave when put in motion is more like a video with many frames per second instead of the few frames shown online. I was so much in awe, I forgot to pull out my camera and take pictures/video. I could have spent all day playing with it. Thankfully, 360Cities.net creator Jeffrey Martin actually took a panorama of the Street View cave.

• Data.Gov - While at Where 2.0 last week, Googler Ed Parsons brought to my attention that the new Data.Gov site has released an amazing archive of US Government data in KMZ/KML (Google Earth) formats.

• Space Imagery Enhancement - FreeGeographyTools blog talks about a cool app someone uploaded to the GEC which lets you grab satellite imagery from Google Earth and perform image enhancements on it. I've done similar things by grabbing screenshots and processing them with image tools like Picasa (see imagery comparisons of London Eye) to try and improve shots shown in GE.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:03 AM | Comments (0)

May 26, 2009

Google MapMaker - 64 New Countries Google Maps and Google Earth

Google announced today the release of 64 new countries with map data thanks to the efforts of hundreds of people around the world contributing map data for countries which until now had little or no map data online. Last year, Google released Google Map Maker to make it easier for people to contribute, and moderate, the introduction of map data which would ultimately be included in Google Maps and Google Earth. One thing the announcement didn't say is that the new road data is not only visible in Google Maps, but also Google Earth (if you turn on the Roads layer). Other data in the maps (points of interest marks in the new maps such as schools, museums, etc. - don't appear to have been moved to the Google Earth "Places of Interest" layer yet). Here's the list of 64 countries with new roads in Google Earth:

American Samoa, Anguilla, Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guadeloupe, Guinea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Malawi, Martinique, Mauritania, Mongolia, Montserrat, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Nauru, Netherlands Antilles, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Pakistan, Reunion, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Wallis and Futuna, Zambia.

Don't forget to try other cool layers in Google Earth such as Street View, Geographic Web, and really cool stuff under the Gallery layer folder.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:53 PM | Comments (6)

May 25, 2009

Video of New 3D Disneyland Paris for Google Earth

I found the following promotional video by Disney introducing the new 3D Disneyland Resort Paris now available in Google Earth's 3D Buildings layer:

NOTE: Click on the video to view the larger HD version at YouTube.

Read this story for more details.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 2:31 PM | Comments (5)

Memorial Day - Map the Fallen in Google Earth

Back in November of 2005, a Google Earth Community member posted the first version of a map showing US and Coalition soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. He worked with other members of the Google Earth Community to refine the map over time - and worked hard to focus on just providing a memorial to these fallen soldiers - not provide a political statement about the war. Since 2005, Sean Askay worked on his master's thesis involving Google Earth and sensor networks to monitor a protected wilderness, and after landing a job at Google, has been working for the Google Earth Outreach team helping organizations create content to make people aware of environmental and human issues around the world.

Meanwhile, using his 20% time at Google, Sean continued to refine the casualties map, and his knowledge of KML has also advanced. He has produced one of the most sophisticated, yet elegant, and very informative KML files I've seen to date (and I've seen a lot of KML in the last 4 years!). View the map here (Google Earth 5 required) which appears on his Map the Fallen blog. According to Google (which posted this on their Lat Long Blog):

Sean uses over 24,000 placemarks, 6,000 folders, 2,500 screen overlays, and line arcs with over 250,000 vertices, all to create an immersive and compelling user experience. By making extensive use of Google Earth 5.0's new features, including iframes, CSS and JavaScript support in balloons and time-based navigation, you can now fly to a place and time. With a blend of navigation methods, people can look up information about servicemen and women alphabetically, by age, location or chronology.

You should read what Sean himself says about the collection. Sean worked with GEC moderator Warrant Officer Frank McVey, a retired member of the UK's Royal Air Force, who worked many hours to help with the collection.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:02 AM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2009

3D Disneyland Resort Paris in Google Earth

Almost a year after Disney released Walt Disney World in Orlando in 3D for Google Earth, the Disneyland Resort Paris is now also available in amazing 3D detail! The entire park area - including trees, rides, signs, even Mickey Mouse!; and also the Disney Studios - are all in amazing 3D detail for Google Earth. You can simply turn on the "3D Buildings" layer in Google Earth and search for "Disneyland Paris" to see for yourself. For the impatient, here are a couple of screenshots to whet your appetite (video will be forthcoming):

NOTE: Because of the detail of the park, it may take a while (depending on your computer and especially bandwidth) to load all the sights. HINT: Mickey Mouse can be found beneath the tallest building. I also found Captain Hook hanging out.

via 5Kingdoms Blog

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:16 PM | Comments (0)

May 21, 2009

Where 2.0 - Day 2 - Short Summary

The Where 2.0 event is stock full of all kinds of talk about mapping technologies, research, and interesting tales of map development. This time I'm just going to write about highlights:

• Air Force Plea for Help - an intelligence officer from the US Air Force described some of their challenges to incorporate the rapidly advancing mapping technologies into the military. He made an impassioned plea to the developers at the conference to offer their services to the organizations like his who desperately need more modern integrated solutions. He said he would be available throughout the day to talk to developers. It must have worked because I heard many people asking where to find him throughout the day.

• Google Maps Announcements - Googlers Lior Ron and Steve Lee did the Google Keynote. Lior started by showing the rapid pace of growth of both map data and features for the Google Maps platform. He had some great animations showing how people have contributed to create maps of countries all over the world using Map Maker. He also described the new capabilities allowing people to edit map details in Google Maps (which was later mocked by one of the other presenters because of its complexity). And he went on to show Google My Maps, and Google Latitude and the upcoming built-in location feature of Firefox 3.5. Google announced two main things: Google Maps Data API, and Google Adsense Ad Unit for Maps (see my comments on this in my post on monetizing your maps).

• Live Lidar - The guys from Velodyne had a live spinning Lidar unit in the conference hall. This definitely was the biggest crowd-pleaser. Their technology derived from doing the Darpa Challenge - the contest for autonomous cars driving over the desert. Apparently their technology was used by most of the contestants. Since then, one company has been using the technology to help DOT organizations map roads in an amazingly useful way. But, the biggest hit was when they turned it on and mapped the audience live in 3D. They even had us do a crowd "wave" which was captured in a video. Hope to add a link here of the resulting video. Very cool!

• Mobile Augmented Reality - There was a cool panel session on using the mobile platform to offer augmented reality. I think this already happening with maps and Street View. But, these guys were talking about some pretty cool stuff with annotations on Street View like views as you walk down the street. The iPhone Google Earth could do a lot of this if Google would start enabling other layers to be shown. Haven't heard any rumors about this yet, but I figure its been nearly a year since iPhone GE came out...

There was a lot more going on throughout the day. But, I'll leave it to other bloggers to fill in the gaps in my summary. I had some cool discussions with the guys from 360Cities.net, spoke to someone from Gigapan (who I hope to use for the Tahina Expedition), and met lots of interesting folks throughout the day. Had some good feedback on the workshop, and lots of people asking questions about the sailing trip. So, I really enjoyed the day!

I guess this is a not-so-short summary. :-)

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:56 AM | Comments (1)

Links: Geography Bee, Developer Marketplace, Monetize your Maps

• Geography Bee - The National Geographic Society hosted it's 2008/2009 National Geography Bee in Washington DC yesterday. Moderated by Alex Trebek, the winner was 7th-grader Eric Yang from Texas who won $25,000, a lifetime membership to National Geographic Society, and a trip to the Galapagos Islands. Very appropriately, Google Earth was the sponsor of this year's event. Brian McClendon, Director of Engineering for Google Earth and Maps, was on hand to speak at the event and he posted the announcement at the Official Google Blog. You can watch the winning moment here.

• Developer Marketplace - Google Earth Outreach has added a place where developers who are interested in offering their services to non-profits can list themselves at the site.

• Monetize your Maps - Google has finally added a better way to monetize your Google Maps API applications. You can now have an ad unit which appears on the map. The ads turn out to be quite relevant to your location. They not only pick an ad based on your current view (zoom level and coordinates), but also figure out what people are typically searching for in that location to determine the ads that appear. The important part is that you can tag the ad to your Adsense account and derive revenue from clicks to those ads. I'm hopeful they'll do something similar for the Earth API plugin and provide mechanisms to turn on/off the ad on a programmatic basis so you can avoid the ads if something important is going on in the scene.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:23 AM | Comments (0)

May 20, 2009

Where 2.0 - Day 1 - Workshops and Ignite

Yesterday was the first day at O'Reilly's Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, California. This is my fourth year of attending Where 2.0, and I've always enjoyed the opportunity to see interesting mapping related technologies, and meet people from around the world interested in this exciting fast-developing field. O'Reilly runs a fun conference for techies with lots of innovative conference extras such as tech fairs, free public fast-paced tech talks (called Ignite), and open to all kinds of techie speakers (not just big companies).

Workshops

The first day was dedicated to workshops. They actually expanded the number of workshops compared to previous years. The workshops are longer sessions (1 hour and 15 minutes), and are intended to be more interactive discussions. There were actually four parallel workshops sessions, so unfortunately I wasn't able to attend but a few. Not only that, but I was running a workshop on "Extending Google Earth".

The goal of my workshop was to try and raise awareness of the multitude of ways you can leverage Google Earth to create more sophisticated content or visualizations. I focused on three main areas: more sophisticated KML, the Google Earth API, and the new GE Tours mode. I also managed to slip in some talk about my upcoming 5-year sailing circumnavigation - the Tahina Expedition - and how I'll be using Google Earth on the trip. Naturally I talked about many great examples of extending Google Earth which have appeared in GEB over the years. But, I was most excited to demonstrate the new Ships simulator by Paul van Dinther which I posted about on Monday. This Ships sim has been a hit in the blogosphere, and the audience enjoyed seeing it in the workshop. There were lots of questions in the workshop, and I have to thank Googler Mano Marks who helped back me up on some of the trickier Google-related questions.

I attended a few other Workshops including:

• Google Maps workshop which highlighted two case studies of a weather data mapping tool called iMapWeather and the Trulia real estate site's use of Maps. I love weather maps, so I enjoyed that And, I'm selling our house soon, so the Trulia presentation gave me some ideas on how to better promote our house.
• Workshop on Cartography Design by Cartifact's Bruce Daniels. He had a great talk on the design of online maps. This was more about the aesthetics and design of maps as opposed to technological implementation. Richard Treve's would have enjoyed that one. Cartifact also upgraded their own public experiment with online maps to 1.1. They have that cool "map lens" gadget I mentioned before.
• KML Techniques Everyone Should Know - the last workshop I attended was by Mano Marks of Google. This session covered some great subjects on creating better Google Earth content (and was a natural follow-up to my workshop - which I should have pointed out). It covered regioning, network links, Tours, dynamic KML, and more.

After the workshops, and a quick dinner with Googler Ed Parsons, we attended the Ignite sessions. Brady Forrest runs these great public speaking events where techies get only five minutes to give a talk or demo something. Their presentations slides automatically advance every few seconds, so you have to talk fast or be very succinct.

Some notables from last night's Ignite:

• Waze - an effort to leverage location-aware mobile phones, crowd-sourced mapping, and mapping technologies to both map a city and get live updates on traffic conditions. In return, participants get re-routing advice in real-time around bad traffic areas. Currently in Alpha in Israel only.
• TwitterVision update - David Troy - the inventor of TwitterVision, was on hand to discuss his project last fall to leverage his concepts to build an election monitoring process. They monitored crowd experiences with voting and were able to give real-time, and post-analysis of voting conditions around the US. They had open-sourced projects that even produced an iPhone app which let folks make audio annotations of their experiences. The resulting data is now part of the Library of Congress. I spoke to David afterwards and suggested he should look into the GE API for some of his future work - he was receptive.
• Joker Racer - Probably the night's biggest hit. Two guys from Japan came to show their really cool idea. They have a web site - under development - giving tips on how to build your own remote controlled car which is essentially a mobile Linux web server with a WIFI interface to the Internet. You can control the car over the web or with an iPhone application. The cars have built-in video too, so you can watch the cars. See video example.

That's all for now folks!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:22 AM | Comments (1)

Google Earth Outreach Upgrade

Google Earth Outreach is a group within Google dedicated to providing assistance to non-profit organizations wanting to use GE to reach their target audiences with visualizations about their favorite subjects. During the past three years, the Outreach team has created many useful tools and tutorials to help anyone create better Google Earth content, and to understand how to use more advanced features.

Outreach has just upgraded their web site with a new design and lots of interesting new content. They have a new version of their showcase which highlights content from non-profits who have used Outreach. They also have a section to help non-profits find grants and join the community of non-profits working with GE. And Outreach has their own grants program that some organizations may be able to utilize. And finally, GE Outreach has updated their tutorials section with several new tutorials such as this one on "Creating narrated Tours in Google Earth":

via Google Lat Long blog

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

May 18, 2009

Fantastic Free Google Earth Game: Ships

PlanetInAction.com has released the first version of a fantastic free simulation game which leverages the browser-based Google Earth plugin as the primary graphics engine. The game is called "Ships" and lets you take the helm on ships - barges, cargo ships, container ships, and even a cruise ship (the QM 2). Everything is in 3D, you can drive the ships anywhere in the world, there are sound effects, physical modeling, and realistic visual effects that makes this a wonder to behold. Not only that, but the author - Paul van Dinther - has created some great camera tools to make it easier for people to follow the action and see the sights. This is the best example of the Google Earth API I've seen to date.

I was fortunate enough to work with Paul over the past few weeks providing some beta testing before he released Ships. Once you see the application, you'll understand why I was thrilled to get involved. There are some technical notes on the application below the fold. But, watch this video review to see what I'm excited about:

You can try Ships right now - make sure you read the keyboard shortcuts. Everything else is pretty straightforward, although watching the video above may help you learn some tricks - especially with the cameras.

Ships uses the Google Earth API, Flash 8.0, and Javascript. He also used Soundmanager 2 for sound effects, and SketchUp for the 3D models. Not everything is physically modeled (the anchor doesn't stop the boat). Paul wasn't able to implement collision detection (for this release), so the ship doesn't go "aground" when you hit the shore - maybe it will in the "Pro" version. Paul had this to say about working with the Google Earth graphics engine:

"Google Earth proves extremely capable to handle many overlays with alpha transparencies which enables developers to create intricate and graphically rich instruments. Proof of that can be seen in the Compass/rudder instrument which consists of 5 layers of bitmaps. (compass rose, rudder dial, rudder position needle, rudder target needle and instrument bevel). Each layered image uses alpha transparency to create a sense of depth and shadows. There really is no limit what can be achieved in the hands of an experienced graphics artist."

I'm hoping other developers will take a look at Ships and realize the GE platform has a lot to offer. This game really shows what is possible if you take advantage of what the Google Earth platform can do.

There were a couple of other GE plugins before Ships which gave a glimpse at what was possible. See the Paragliding Simulator and Satellite Debris plugin applications. But, today, my hat is off to Paul van Dinther for his Ships simulator/game. Great work Paul!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:38 AM | Comments (19)

May 16, 2009

Headed to California for Where 2.0

Tomorrow I leave early for San Jose to attend the O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference this coming week. I'll be holding a workshop called "Extending Google Earth" on Tuesday at 3 PM. If you're headed to Where 2.0, and you love Google Earth, then make sure to show up. And, if you're a regular GEB reader, make sure to send me an E-mail, or leave a comment on the blog, and let's get together. I will probably attend the WhereCamp also. Hope to see you there...

Posted by FrankTaylor at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

3D Buildings Layer Update - 11 Thousand New Models

[UPDATE 24-May-2009: The false Burj Dubai building appearing in Melbourne has been removed by Google.]

Google pushed out a new update to the 3D Buildings layer. They say over 11,000 new models were added this time. These are models mostly created by SketchUp modelers all over the world and posted to the 3D Warehouse. Google doesn't yet publish a detailed accounting of what's new (although I've asked).

I did find an error in this update though. Someone placed a model of the Burj Dubai (the soon-to-be new tallest building in the world), showing the final step of removing the top crane. The problem is that the 3D building is shown in Melbourne, Australia (see here ). Google doesn't usually let false location buildings show in the layer. Oops!

Although I agree with Google continuing to add all kinds of structures and objects into the layer, I do wish they would change the layer to say "3D Models" or just "3D" instead of "3D Buildings", or add a separate layer. One thing added this time around are more wind farms modeled in 3D - like this one .

NOTE: make sure to turn on the 3D Buildings layer to see the models referred to by the placemarks above.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:08 AM | Comments (5)

May 14, 2009

New Terrain, May Imagery Details, More Ads in Google Earth

Google has released details on the new imagery for Google Earth that was released last weekend. Once again, GEB readers found most of the new imagery on their own. Google Maps is now showing the new imagery as well.

As happens often now with new imagery releases, Google also deployed some new higher resolution 3D terrain. I was initially disappointed to note many of the places are in relatively flat areas. The list of new terrain locations: Contra Costa County, Paris, Copenhagen, Dallas, Houston, Jacksonville, Lisbon, Madrid, Memphis, Mexico City, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, Sevilla, St Louis, Tampa, and Toronto. However, after further examination, the resolution of some of this new terrain is pretty high. This adds even more realism to some cities. In fact, in some places it is even picking up buildings - such as this scene in Madrid showing the shape of a building instead of the terrain:

This can create a problem for some 3D modelers who had to create their own terrain based on older terrain data, now supplanted by new terrain. See a post by Concept3D, which has created thousands of GE 3D models, and is by now used to this issue.

That said, some cities like Miami, Orlando, and Houston really don't have much in the way of 3D terrain to offer.

Forgot to mention that I also spotted more ads in Google Earth if you click on placemarks for the "Places->Places" sub-layer found under the "Geographic Web" (they are the slightly bigger blue squares that look like Panoramio icons. The Places layer shows a combination of Wikipedia, GEC, Panoramio, and other combined data about a given place. They also now have ads in the lower right. I think these ads are useful though because they are usually related to the place.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 2:20 PM | Comments (5)

May 13, 2009

News - Sky makes it to Android, Greece Halts Street View

• Sky Goes Android - the Google Earth Sky application, which started out as an inside-out version of Google Earth to view the night sky, was first ported to Google Maps over a year ago. Now, Google has ported the app and data over to the Android mobile platform. Using position sensing and built-in compass feature of Android phones, the Android version of Sky can tell which part of the sky you're pointing at and show the sky map for that area. Sounds cool! I hope to see one next week when I go to California for Where 2.0.

• Greece Halts Street View - I've had several reports the past few months from excited folks in Greece seeing Google cars shooting Street View. Now their government has decided to halt Street View shooting until they decide whether it is a good thing for their citizens (wow, those guys must be really powerful to stop Google! *snicker*). via Cnet

Posted by FrankTaylor at 6:18 AM | Comments (4)

Earthtwit - Combining Twitter with Google Earth Plugin

Ever felt like just tweeting a location to someone through Twitter? This isn't something that would work on the iPhone (or any other phone for that matter - yet). But, many of us read twitter most of the time through a browser. Hussein Nasser created a little app called Earthtwit that uses the Google Earth plugin so you can view a place and then "Twit" the location (by signing in with your Twitter ID using the API). The resulting tweet includes your short message and a URL which lets the reader see the location with the GE plugin. Very cool idea!

Look for this tweet on my twitter page (complete with typo).

I'm amazed I hadn't thought of Twitter as a vehicle for passing locations around with the GE plugin before. I've passed links to blog posts and even a link to a KML. It was a "duh" moment when I saw this. I have some ideas now for using things like Tagzania with Twitter to view GE locations. The same author who created Earthtwit also created a Google Maps version called Maptwit, and some other cool apps. More details at GoogleMapsMania.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

May 12, 2009

Golden Temple in 3D in Google Earth

Harmandir Sahib, also known as "The Golden Temple", is located in the city of Amritsar in north-central India. The Harmandir Sahib is a holy shrine of the Sikhs because the eternal Guru of Sikhism, the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, is present inside in it. Originally built during 1574 AD, the site of the temple was surrounded by a small lake in a thin forest. The temple was completed in 1604. This is a beautiful temple, and I recently discovered someone has made an excellent 3D model of the Golden Temple for viewing in Google Earth. The model was made by 'pbsukla' who has made many 3D models at the 3D Warehouse. You can also turn on the "Panoramio" layer found under the "Geographic Web" layer and see many photos taken by visitors to the site. Also, you can view this cool Panoramio "look around" collection of photos.

Here is a screenshot of the 3D model:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:55 AM | Comments (1)

May 11, 2009

Google Earth 5 No Longer Beta

Just a follow-up to last Friday's post about the new version of Google Earth 5 now available. This new version (version 5.0.11733.9347) has dropped the "Beta" designation. As you would expect, the main goal of this release was to fix any problems from the beta and improve performance. The release notes for the new version are now available. I'm glad to see a lot of effort was made to improve the most significant new feature in GE 5: Tours.

To get the new version, download Google Earth 5 here. Probably later today you will be able to use the Help menu in GE to "Check for Updates Online", but right now it continues to say no update available.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:45 AM | Comments (11)

May 9, 2009

May 2009 Imagery Update for Google Earth

[UPDATE 14-May: Google released more details on this update.]

Last night Google pushed out an imagery update. The previous update was Easter weekend. First GEB reader to report was 'AKB' followed quickly by 'Rafael S.'. Below are the reported locations so far of new imagery. I'm sure there are many more places yet to find. If you see what you think is new imagery, use the "View in Google Maps" option in Google Earth and compare the imagery. The update has not yet been pushed to Google Maps so you can make comparisons. Leave a comment below if you find a new location. Thanks!

Here's the current list [UPDATED 1345 ET]:

• Scotland - Large percentage covered now. Thanks AKB, Munden
  

• Brazil - Porto Alegre. Thanks Rafael S.
  

• USA - State College, Pennsylvania; Watauga Lake, TN; Savoy and Champagne-Urbana, IL; Newport News and Norfolk, VA; - Thanks Munden. Easter Washington - Palouse, WA; - Thanks David Zuhn. Parts of South Dakota including Hill City; Thanks Munden.
  

• England - Southwest part. Thanks Munden. Isles of Scilly and the Orkney Isles are back. Also, I've found several areas all over England with updated imagery.
  

• Norway - Oslo. Thanks Munden
  

• Spain - Rota and Cadiz. Thanks Munden
  

• France - A "lot" of areas including départements: Yonne,
  Rhône, Saône et Loire, Haute Savoie, Aube...; - Thanks Romain.
  

• French Guyana - Kourou Space Center now high resolution; - Thanks Munden
  

• Martinique - Entire island high res now. Thanks Steven
  

• Paraguay - Areas of western Paraguay now have medium resolution Spot Image imagery.
  

• India - Southern tip of India now has medium resolution Spot Image imagery.
  

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:56 AM | Comments (43)

May 8, 2009

New Google Earth 5.0 Update Version 5.0.11733.9347

[UPDATED] Google has released a bug-fix update to the GE 5.0 (beta) released first on February 2nd. I don't believe this version introduces any significant new features, but most likely addresses bugs and problems with computer configurations and video cards. There are no release notes for this new versionHere are the release notes, and Google hasn't made an announcement yet. Right now you can only get the update if you download Google Earth from their website and install over the current version. You can download GE from here to get this new version. Google may be planning to remove the "(beta)" from this version and make it the official 5.0 release. At some point, you'll be able to just use the GE Menu "Help->Check for Updates Online" to get this latest version. But, not yet.

Thanks to GEB reader Xavier for being the first to let me know of the new download!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 1:46 PM | Comments (9)

Current Positions of 10,000+ Ships World-wide in Google Earth

In the past few years, commercial shipping vessels have been required to broadcast a vessel position "transponder" similar to those used by aircraft. The system used is called AIS (Automatic Identification System) and uses GPS for position data, but also broadcasts other important data such as ship name, course, speed, and more. The system allows vessels at sea to have a much better awareness of other ships and, in particular, helps avoid the potential of collisions as the seas get increasingly more crowded (especially in ports).

Some academic researchers have been running a web site called MarineTraffic.com that shows the positions of ships around many ports around the world. They rely on a community of data collectors who simply need an AIS receiver and an Internet connection to provide data on ship positions for a given port. A number of similar sites have offered such data on the Internet before (for example, I mentioned VesselTracker.com a couple of years ago). Some of the vessel position report sites are only available on a subscription basis. But, MarineTraffic.com is the largest collection of data I've seen and its available for free.

The current MarineTraffic map shows over 10,000 ships. The positions of the ships may be up to 1 hour old, but are otherwise near real-time. Their primary interface is Google Maps which lets you zoom in to see more detail, but only shows a summary of the position data when zoomed out. Clicking on a region zooms you in to show the vessel positions (and headings). Clicking on a ship placemark can give you all kinds of interesting information including a picture of the ship (if they have it), speed, vessel type, size, draft, destination and more (the amount of data varies per ship).

They also have a Google Earth file that lets you view the entire dataset of vessels at once. Google Earth is better able to handle over 10,000 position placemarks at once - so you can actually view the entire data set. Also, with the Google Earth version you will see a link in the placemark that will let you see the recent GPS track of the vessel so you can see part of the route it took to get to its current position.

Even Google Earth can get slowed down some by this many placemarks. The developers could use some KML tools to improve its efficiency. For example, by de-cluttering the number placemarks when zoomed higher. Read the MarineTraffic.com FAQ for more information on their data, research, maps, and AIS.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:14 AM | Comments (10)

May 7, 2009

Links: Non-Profit Resources, Featured Modelers, Poet Recognized, 3D/4D Quake Analysis

• Non-Profit Resources - Google has posted links to a number of geo-resources for non-profits (or anyone) to help create cool Google Earth content (or with other geo-tools). Google also highlights some content developed by MapAction on Humanitarian mapping tips.

• Featured Modelers - The Official Google SketchUp blog has started a series of featured 3D modelers. The first lucky modeler is 'IntoTheWest" who has created a ton of buildings for the city of Calgary.

• Poet Recognized - The poet well-known (at least in Latin America) poet Raúl Zurita created a huge 3km tall "poem" in the desert of Chile (so tall its quite clear in Google Earth). He recently helped open the new UCLA Center for Argentina, Chile and the Southern Cone. Zurita also received the 2000 Chile's National Prize for Literature for his works.

• 3D/4D Quake Analysis - Received an E-mail from Luca Postpischl, of Istituto Nazionale Geofisica e Vulcanologia, about his work visualizing data from the recent Abruzzo Earthquake in Italy. He has created a KML file with lots of interesting data about the earthquake. Of particular note is a time animation showing a 3D presentation of the earthquake seismic events. (NOTE: you have to spread open the time slider handles to see the data properly and move your view to a higher point to see the data projected miles above the surface). This isn't the first time I've seen a 3D presentation of seismic data though. A similar 3D representation was done by Duncan Agnew of Scripps Institution of Oceanography - seen here.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 1:49 PM | Comments (0)

May 6, 2009

Google Ads in Some Google Earth Panoramio Placemarks

I just realized that some random sample of Panoramio photo placemarks in Google Earth are now showing Adsense ads in the description bubbles. Now that I realize it, I believe I've seen the same layout of these placemarks before (but, didn't realize the ads were there). So, maybe these ads have been appearing for a while. This may be a test on Google's part to see how ads work GE placemarks. Only a small percentage of photos appear to have the ads.

If the results of this test are good, maybe Google will allow other KML developers to add Adsense code in their files. This might give incentive to some organizations and individuals to devote more attention to the quality of their KML files. Or, it could mean we'll get even more ad-filled content detracting from the quality of our experience. Only time will tell. Here's an example ad (seen in the lower center right under the words "Sponsored Links":

Posted by FrankTaylor at 11:21 PM | Comments (6)

KMLFactBook - A Data Visualization Tool with Google Earth

David Tryse continues to offer great methods for visualizing data with Google Earth. This time he has produced a great free tool called the KMLFactBook . The KMLFactbook utilizes data available from the CIA World Factbook to let you pick and choose geographical-based data about the world and see 2D and 3D graphs of the data by country on either a 2D Google Map or use the 3D Google Earth plugin. You can also generate a KML file to view the data directly within Google Earth. There is a massive amount of data here to play with and get some interesting perspective about how things are going on our planet. Not only that, but the KMLFactbook provides details on how to upload your own datasets to generate other visualizations using simple spreadsheet formats.

World Population Data

David had previously produced some visualizations for disappearing forests around the world, and the Edge of Existence collections in the Google Earth Outreach showcase. He also recommends the Thematic Mapping Engine by Björn Sandvik which uses similar techniques.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:59 AM | Comments (0)

May 5, 2009

The U-2 Incident in Google Earth

On May 1, 1960, an American U-2 spyplane flew high above the Soviet Union photographing strategic targets. The pilot of this U-2 was thirty-year-old Francis Gary Powers. The plane was shot down by surface to air missiles causing the "1960 U-2 Incident". Back in late-December, Google Earth Community member 'BeadieJay' posted an excellent Google Earth collection of placemarks documenting the life of Francis Gary Powers and the U-2 Incident.

Thanks to 'Delta102' for the tip. I would have posted this on May 1, but I was on a backpacking trip and completely off the 'Net for a few days.

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

May 4, 2009

Henry Hudson 400th Anniversary in Google Earth/Maps

In honor of the 400th Anniversary of the acquisition of Manhattan by Henry Hudson, the Henry Hudson 400 Foundation has commissioned the creation of an excellent collection of interactive maps using the Google Maps API. The maps not only include a historical perspective on the times of Henry Hudson, but also include the use of the Google Earth Plugin to view 3D models of ships of the time. After just a few minutes of perusing the collection, I'm already impressed with the interface. Check out the Henry Hudson maps here . Here's a brief glimpse:

Google was also impressed with the maps, and featured them on the Lat Long blog.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:23 AM | Comments (0)

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