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October 30, 2009
Happy Halloween! Turn Google Earth into a giant pumpkin
A few years ago, Frank Taylor made a cool pumpkin overlay for Google Earth. It's still a fun toy to play with, so we're showing it off again. To make it work, simply download the KML here 
and that's it!
For maximum benefit, turn off the atmosphere ("View -> Atmosphere") and the "Borders & Labels" (found in the "Layers" on the left side of your Google Earth window).
The pumpkin was created using a simple image overlay that he wrapped around the globe, then added a 3D model for the stem. You can read details on how that's done in his post from last year.
If you want more, you can check out a bunch of Halloween goodness in the Google 3D Warehouse or maybe check out the "Pumpkin Man" in Google StreetView, found in the Disney Resort in Paris.
Happy Halloween!
Posted by mickmel at 3:26 PM | Comments (1)
October 23, 2009
Your 3D buildings arrive in Google Earth and Shelter Competition winners announced
Google is just about to push out their weekly 3D building update, your some of your buildings might be in there! They've added thousands of user-generated buildings from people using the slick new Building Maker tool. Also, be sure to check out the models they've chosen for their Best of Building Maker collection, as it showcases some very nice models.
[UPDATE 24-OCT: The new buildings are now live in Google Earth. Also, as pointed out by 'WLKPman', Budapest, Hungary was updated with a full city of autogenerated 3D buildings. Good find!]
Google often releases new auto-generated 3D cities as well (Melbourne and Lyon last week, Antwerp and Portage before that), but no word on new cities today (yet). If you find any other new 3D cities, be sure to let us know.
In addition, back in June Google announced a contest called the Design It: Shelter Competition. The goal was for participants to "create a simple shelter for a specific geographic location anywhere in the world". The competition has ended and the winners were announced on the Google LatLong blog. The winning models can be found in the Google 3D Warehouse for viewing in Google Earth.
The People's Prize: CBS - Cork Block Shelter [3D Warehouse]
The Juried Prize: SeaShelter [3D Warehouse]
The short video below highlights the winning submissions.
Posted by mickmel at 1:50 PM | Comments (3)
October 22, 2009
KML file that shows the October imagery, now updated in Google Maps
A few readers have pointed out that Google has posted the monthly KML file showing the updated imagery from a few days ago. Google has also posted an entry that gives the full details of the update.
In addition, Google Maps has now been updated with the imagery from this latest update. Along with the new imagery, Google has added a nifty "Real Estate" layer to Google Maps. Click the "More" button at the top of the screen and choose "Real Estate". You'll see hundreds of markers appear in the USA and Australia, with options to filter on the left side of the screen. This data is not yet available in Google Earth, but I'd expect we'll likely see a layer for it in the future.
Having this information in Google Earth would be wonderful. By toggling various layers, you could view a particular home in relationship to nearby schools, churches, businesses, etc. It could be very useful. We'll keep an eye on it and let you know if we hear anything.
Posted by mickmel at 1:55 PM | Comments (1)
October 21, 2009
Links: New Panaramio app, Thematic Mapping, ARsights, Disaster Relief, First Pics from WorldView-2
Panoramio launches iPhone app: The team at Panoramio has just released their first iPhone app (iTunes link), to allow you to quickly upload photos directly from your phone. It's a very simple app -- open it, log in, and upload. New Panoramio images are pushed to Google Earth on a regular basis, so this is a simple way to add geo-referenced photos to Google Earth.
However, the app doesn't allow you to view existing photos or browse for photos near you. For that, you'll need to use an existing app such as Layar and have it pull the Panoramio photos into it. I'd expect a future update will have more features along those lines.
Using KML for Thematic Mapping: Bjørn Sandvik has just released his research paper on Thematic Mapping as a free PDF download. In his word: A thematic map displays the spatial pattern of a social or physical phenomenon, such as population density, life expectancy or climate change. The paper (PDF) provides an in-depth look at thematic mapping, while the link above gives a nice overview of the thesis.
ARSights: We discussed InGlobe technologies earlier in the year when they released their slick Augmented Reality program. Using your web cam, you could virtually show a 3D model on your desk. It was a neat program, but had some shortcomings: Windows only, and it only had a few 3D models to use. They've now built a Mac version of their program and introduced ARSights to hook into the Google 3D Warehouse to let you use any of the models in there. Below is a quick video to show how the process works:
Powerful IT for disaster relief: Earlier this month, Google held a day of workshops in Washington for over 20 various humanitarian organizations, to share ideas on how to improve humanitarian and relief efforts when disaster strikes. They covered a lot of topics, using tools such as Google Earth and Google Map Maker to handle various situations. You can read the full recap on the Google LatLong Blog.
First Images from WorldView-2 Satellite: Just twelve days after its launch, the first images from DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 Satellite are available. The first images are of a few locations in San Antonio, Texas, where the GeoInt 2009 Symposium will be held this week. The images look very crisp, and the quality is expected to improve as refinements and calibrations are made to the system. Below is an image that the WV2 captured of Dallas Love Airport. (via SlashGeo)
Posted by mickmel at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2009
New Google Earth Imagery - October 20
We've received and verified a report of new imagery in a few places around the world. At this point, we don't yet know the scope of the update.
The new imagery is not yet visible in Google Maps, so to help find areas that have been updated simply compare the imagery in Google Earth with the imagery from the same location in Google Maps. If they're different, that means the imagery in Google Earth is new. If you find a new area, please leave a comment below and let us know.
UPDATED: Google has just posted their monthly quiz on the LatLong Blog. Check it out and see what areas you can discover.
New and updated imagery [UPDATED 21-OCT 07:23 ET]
- Algeria: Thanks 'Jonas'
- Argentina: Goya and Reconquista - Thanks 'McMaster_de'
- Bolivia: Southern part of the country - Thanks 'Thilo'
- Brazil: Including Belo Hoizonte, Maraba and Rondonopolis - Thanks 'Jonas' and 'McMaster_de'
- China: Northern part of the country - Thanks 'Steven'
- Estonia: Thanks 'Cristi'
- Iceland: Thanks 'Thilo'
- India: Mumbai - Thanks 'Munden'
- Indonesia: Surabaya - Thanks 'okasbali'
- Kazakhstan
- Laos: Southern part of the country - Thanks 'Donalbain'
- Latvia
- Libya
- Lithuania
- Mozambique: Most of the country - Thanks 'Antonia'
- Niger
- Poland: Most of the country appears to be updated, aside from major cities
- Romania: Cluj and Brasov - Thanks 'Cristian' and 'Twist3r'
- Russia: Various locations - Thanks 'McMaster_de'
- Sri Lanka: Hambantota, Trincomalee and a few other areas - Thanks 'McMaster_de' and 'Martin'
- Sudan
- United Kingdom: Blackburn, EastBourne, Southern Wilkshire, West Yorkshire - Thanks 'Munden', 'Ozybolairy' and 'Damien'
- United States: Areas of Texas along the Coastline (Corpus Christi, south of Houston, among others) and parts of North Carolina
- Uruguay: Central part of the country - Thanks 'JP'
Posted by mickmel at 3:45 PM | Comments (36)
More 3D buildings appear around the globe
It's been yet another big day for 3D buildings in Google Earth. Google has pushed out a major update to Melbourne, Australia and Lyon, France, blanketing the cities with photorealistic 3D buildings. Below is a nice shot of Melbourne with the new buildings.
In addition to that, CyberCity3D has added about 25,000 gray buildings along the California coastline in the cities of El Segundo, Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach as part of Google's Cities in 3D Program. You can fly directly to those cities using this KMZ file. Be sure to turn on the both the 3D Buildings and the Terrain layers to view these buildings.
If you're not familiar with the Cities in 3D program, which was introduced last fall, you can visit their site or watch the video below.
Posted by mickmel at 9:44 AM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2009
Get your home or business modeled in 3D for Google Earth
There are many businesses out there that would like to see their office rendered in 3D in Google Earth, but can't make it happen. Perhaps they don't have the time or talent to play with Google SketchUp, and Google's new Building Maker doesn't cover their area. What to do? There are a number of enterprising companies that are offering their services, and we thought we'd point a few of them out to you. These companies have all had their work featured on this blog in the past, and seem like good places to start.
The first is concept3D, which just opened their new Self Service site to the public. They allow you to choose what kind of work you need done and they create a custom quote for you automatically. We've written about their models before (such as the recent Boston University rendering), and they appear to do excellent work. Their prices seem to be very reasonable, though there isn't a lot to compare them to.
Another big alternative is CyberCity3D, who offer separate Residential and Commercial services. Like concept3D, we've written about CC3D a few times in the past (such as the models they added last month). They also appear to do excellent work, though they don't list any prices on their site.
Finally we have Gerardo Paz, who runs GeoDataMaps (and also translates the GEB in Spanish). He built the incredible 3D version of Frank's Tahina catamaran, which can be seen here. You can visit his site for more information or to get started.
Posted by mickmel at 9:14 AM | Comments (1)
October 16, 2009
3D buildings in Antwerp, Portage, and your buildings are coming soon
The Google SketchUp team just released another nice batch of 3D buildings. Along with a variety of new models from the 3D Warehouse, they've added a ton of grey buildings in Antwerp, Belgium (thanks for the tip Nick!) and Portage, Michigan. A few months ago, Google showcased a few excellent 3D modelers that were building out a large portion of Antwerp. Having the new gray buildings to surround their models really helps bring the city to life.
The SketchUp team posts these updates each week, using models that they've approved during the previous week. I'd expect they'll begin to approve some Building Maker models this week, which means they might start appearing in Google Earth as early as next week.
Another minor update this week is the Disney World area (our original review | video tour). Some buildings had gone missing which have now reappeared, and some other models have been slightly cleaned up. The best part of Disney 3D is Google Earth 5.1. Because of the incredible level of it detail, it used to require a very powerful computer to handle it at a decent framerate. With the speed enhancements in Google Earth 5.1, Disney performs much better and it's a neat place to fly around with your kids.
Posted by mickmel at 10:32 AM | Comments (3)
October 15, 2009
Tunneling under the city of Mecca
The city of Mecca is an interesting place. Because of its position in a narrow valley, they've had to work hard to continue to expand the transportation system over the years.
As a result, many tunnels have been built under the city to handle both pedestrians and vehicles. While you can can see many of the tunnel entrances in Google Earth, it can be difficult to determine where they all lead. A handful of users in the Google Earth Community (led by "Diane9247", with help from various others) have been mapping out the tunnels to try to determine where they all lead. The thread is an interesting read, and you can view the results of their work in this KMZ file (shown below).
During the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, where roughly three million pilgrims travel to the city, the capacity of the tunnels becomes very tight. Over the years there have been a number of tragic incidents, typically caused by a stampede of people. This file really showcases just how immense the network of tunnels has become.
[UPDATE: As some of you pointed out, between the time this mapping started and now, updates to the Google Earth road layer made much of this work obsolete. However, it's still a nice testament to their hard work, and they point out a few additional areas that road data doesn't cover. It'll be real neat once StreetView covers the area!]
Posted by mickmel at 3:44 PM | Comments (4)
October 14, 2009
CyberCity3D releases a ton of 3D buildings in San Francisco
CyberCity3D has just pushed out a lot of 3D buildings for the San Francisco area. They're all gray buildings (no textures), but the number of buildings is quite impressive. As per their Facebook Page, they've just covered the neighborhoods of Marina, Cow Hollow, Japan Town, Fillmore, Hayes Valley, Haight-Ashbury, Cole Valley, Inner Sunset, Outer Sunset, Laurel Heights, Inner Richmond, Outer Richmond, Sea Cliff and Pacific Heights. Below is a snapshot of Haight-Ashbury, with downtown San Francisco in the distance:
While the buildings are non-textured, they weren't done hurriedly. As you can see in the photo above, they've taken the time to indlude angles, arches, gables, chimneys, dormers, etc.
This ties in nicely with the new Building Maker tool that Google released yesterday. The area just released by CyberCity3D happens to be in an area supported by Building Maker. You can pick your favorite sites, model them in textured 3D, and they'll appear in Google Earth alongside the gray buildings that are there now.
I'd expect buildings rendered in Building Maker to start appearing in Google Earth within a few weeks. The SketchUp team does a weekly push of new buildings to Google Earth, so once they start approving these new buildings, they should start going out each week. I've personally modeled about 25 buildings so far, because it's so easy to do (and kinda fun!). For example, this building I modeled in Austin only took about five minutes.
If you notice any of your Building Maker buildings being approved and showing up in Google Earth, let us know!
Posted by mickmel at 2:37 PM | Comments (3)
October 13, 2009
Help Google model 3D buildings with a simple new tool
Google has just unveiled "Building Maker", an incredibly easy-to-use tool that will help them quickly expand their collection of 3D buildings.
To use Building Maker, simply choose a city from the list of 50 that they provide, and then find a building you want to model. In the browser, use the tools to outline the building. When you have it lined up, click the next image (different view of the same building) and tweak the alignment. Repeat this on a few different images until everything is lined up perfectly, then submit the building. That's it!
The only downside is that Building Maker currently only works in certain areas near big cities, so the scope is somewhat limited. This is because they need to have imagery from enough different angles for the process to be successful. I would think they'll be rolling it out to wider areas as more imagery becomes available.
Watch the video below for more information, or visit the Building Maker site to get started.
Posted by mickmel at 11:33 AM | Comments (7)
Links: Race My Race, Random Hacks of Kindness, WorldView-2
Race My Race - Designed for athletes that want to visualize an upcoming event (running, biking, etc), this uses the Google Earth plug-in and gives you a test drive of your event. It has some slick features -- an elevation overlay as you go, start/finish gates, easily controllable speed. The downside is that many places are just flat. For example, I had it simulate the Boston Marathon, and the first 90% of the race is useless -- just flat scenery with a few hills. The end of the race (shown below) is kinda neat, with the 3D buildings all around. This simulator would do well to offer the option of StreetView, as that would make many of these courses much more lifelike. Still, it's a neat project. (via All Points Blog)
Random Hacks of Kindness - Google is partnering with The World Bank to host a codejam called "Random Hacks of Kindness". As they explain: Random Hacks of Kindness will bring technologists and relief workers together to develop technologies that enable disaster victims to help themselves and give first responders and aid workers the tools they need to better help victims--to reduce loss of life and to speed recovery.
Google has built a variety of geo-related tools to assist after major disasters, such as Tropical Storm Ketsana, the Cyclone in Myanmar, and even back as far as Hurricane Katrina. The results of this gathering should help make these tools even more useful in the future.
DigitalGlobe launches WorldView-2 satellite - Just over a year ago, the GeoEye satellite was launched to provide exclusive imagery for Google. The WorldView-2 satellite was launched a few days ago aboard Boeing Delta II 7920, and promises to bring even more great imagery to Google Earth. You can read more on the DigitalGlobe site, or view the launch of the Delta 2 below:
Posted by mickmel at 9:39 AM | Comments (1)
October 12, 2009
Better Parks Layer Info, Rio 3D Terrain Enhancements
A few years ago, we told you about the new "USDA Forest Layer" that had been added to Google Earth. A few days ago, Google added a ton more USDA info to Google Maps.
As Google announced a few days ago, the new parks info in the United States is quite comprehensive. In addition, they also seem to have added quite a bit of parks and POI data to Brazil, and possibly other countries around the world. However, many countries are still lacking the rich data found in Google Maps.
For a good example in Brazil, look at all of the green outlined park areas in Rio de Janeiro (fly to Rio in Google Earth), shown below:
While you're in Rio, be sure to check out some of the cool 3D terrain models that they have. Because of the unique terrain in the area, Google sometimes can't display things as well as they'd like. To compensate, users have added 3D terrain to go along with their 3D buildings, to help make them as realistic as possible. A great example of that is the famous "Christ the Redeemer" statue. In the image below, notice the missing terrain until the "3D buildings" layer is turned on:
To activate the 3D buildings layer, simply choose "3D Buildings" from the list of layers in Google Earth as explained here.
Posted by mickmel at 9:39 AM | Comments (0)
October 9, 2009
Links: Load KMZ files on handheld Garmin devices, video of NASA rocket crashing into the moon
Garmin has quietly released a pretty cool beta update for some of their devices; the Colorado, Oregon and Dakota, specifically. This update allows users to create image overlays in Google Earth, then load the resulting KMZ file on their device. Once loaded, the overlay will simply appear as part of the map when they view that area.
The instructions are pretty straightforward for anyone that has built an image overlay before. Simply build the overlay, save it your PC, and upload it to your device. It looks quite slick. Hopefully more devices and services will start supporting the KML/KMZ format, making the datasets in Google Earth even more useful.
Rich and Scott have both posted blog entries with tips on doing this with your Garmin. Rich covers some best practices for creating these maps to keep redraws to a minimum, while Scott gives a step-by-step walkthrough, along with a resolution chart to keep things looking sharp on your device. (via SlashGeo)
Also today, as you may have heard, NASA intentionally crashed a segment of a rocket into the moon to study the impact. Keir has built a simple page that lets you browse the moon, the Cabeus Crater where the impact occured, and view a video of the impact as an overlay on top of the moon.
You can read more about the mission on the NASA website, or view the video below for a raw look at the impact:
Posted by mickmel at 3:45 PM | Comments (1)
October 8, 2009
Links: Improve Map Data, Urban Planning Webinars, Students building 3D models
Improving Map Data: Google has just released some tools for Google Maps to make it easier to report map errors (misspelled street names, for example) in the United States. By right-clicking on the map, you can choose to "Report a problem". Google hopes to have issues corrected within a month of being reported.
The new mapping data does not yet appear to be in Google Earthis now in Google Earth, but I'd expect that it (and any error correction updates) will find it's way over to Earth before too long.
[Update, 10-Oct: The data now seems to be live in Google Earth]
Here's a short video showing the new process:
Urban Planning Webinars: Planetizen will be hosting a few webinars in the next month on how to use Google SketchUp, Maps and Earth in the context of Urban Planning. They are:
- October 21: Using Google Maps and Mashups for Planning
- October 28: Google Earth for Planners -- An Introduction
- November 4: The Virtual Staff Report -- Using the Free Version of Google Earth
- November 11: The Virtual Staff Report -- Advanced Google Earth for Planners
More information about all of their courses is available here.
Italian students building 3D models: An Italian math teacher has been using Google SketchUp with his 13-year-old students for the last few years as they work on solids. In that time, they've submitted 622 models to the 3D Warehouse! In addition, they've done some work using the Google Earth plug-in, such as head-to-head modified Monster Milk Truck. Here is a video showing models of the cars the students made this year:
For more information, you can read their Italian language blog, or read a short paper about why he chooses to use SketchUp with his math students.
Posted by mickmel at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)
October 7, 2009
StreetView also arrives in Canada
Along with releasing StreetView imagery in Prague, as we announced earlier today, Google has also released StreetView in a number of cities in Canada.
According to Google Maps Mania, the new cities include:
It's quite a comprehensive update, so check out the new sights and let us know of any noteworthy things that you find.
Posted by mickmel at 11:34 AM | Comments (12)
Google releases StreetView for Prague
Google continues to expand their coverage of StreetView, having just released imagery for Prague in the Czech Republic. This comes just a few months after Google unveiled 3D buildings for much of the city.
Not only can you view it in Google Maps, but you can also check out the new StreetView imagery using Google Earth -- here are some tips on how to do that.
Google Maps Mania has already pointed out some neat sites, such as:
If you make any other neat discoveries, share them in the comments below or add them to the Google Earth Hacks StreetView section.
Posted by mickmel at 10:27 AM | Comments (9)
October 6, 2009
Google releases more tours to highlight climate change
A few weeks ago, Google released a series of Google Earth tours that highlighted some climate change issues, in preparation for the COP15 meetings in Copenhagen later this year.
Today, Google has released a few more tours. The new tours all deal with deforestation, and show ways to help protect forests from further deforestation in the future.
The tours are:
Greenpeace: Talking about how companies can work together to help.
Conservation International: A close look at Madagascar.
WWF: A virtual tour of the peatland swamps in Borneo.
You can view all of the tours on Google's COP15 site.
Posted by mickmel at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)
October 5, 2009
Data visualizations in Google Earth
One of the great things about Google Earth is how extensible it is using KML. You can use it to show off placemarks, build 3D structures, track wildfires, show educational resources, and much more.
Today's example, from Thijs, shows how well Google Earth can be used as a scientific visualization platform. Some of the highlights of his work include:
Dutch bathymetry: The bathymetry of the entire Dutch coast, varying in time from 1928 to present, with yearly updates in later decennia. It's a total of 4gb of data on the server, so loading a full animation does take a while.
Hurricane Katrina: Animation of the measured winds during Katrina, and the associated water level set up.
Tidal water movement: Animation of water movement during a tidal cycle in an estuary.
For more, you can visit his website and see some screenshots or simply browse the raw files.
Posted by mickmel at 2:11 PM | Comments (0)
October 3, 2009
Find ways to help those affected by Tropical Storm Ketsana
As they often do after a natural disaster, Google is doing what it can to help those affected. In this case, they've set up various pages to give you quick access to information to help those affected by Tropical Storm Ketsana (named "Ondoy" locally) last weekend, which killed nearly 300 people, left dozens missing, and thousands without shelter.
To see a visualization of the flooding and aftermath, you can check out this kmz file in Google Earth, as shown in the image below:
For more information, Google has set up a special Help page that provides details about road conditions, donation centers, missing persons and other information. The page also lists many places where you can donate funds to assist those in need.
Posted by mickmel at 5:58 AM | Comments (0)
October 1, 2009
Use the Google Earth Plug-in with Google Wave
A few days ago, we showed you a quick glimpse of how Google Maps could be used inside of a Google Wave. Today, less than 24 hours after the semi-public release of Google Wave, Roman Nurik has already released a slick little gadget to embed the Google Earth plug-in in a wave.
To add it to a wave, simply click the green "Add Gadget by URL" icon and use the following URL: http://www.nurik.net/gadgets/earthwavegadget.xml
This gadget will fire up the plug-in, and plot the locations of all of the users in the wave. There aren't any other options than that, but it's more of a proof-of-concept than anything. The idea of combining the Google Earth Plug-in with Google Wave's real-time collaboration has some awesome potential.
If you have access to Wave, check it out and let us know what you think. If you find any other great geo-related Wave gadgets, please feel free to let me know at mickey@gearthblog.com. Below you'll find a short video I created that shows exactly how to use this gadget:
Posted by mickmel at 12:59 PM | Comments (4)
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