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December 30, 2010
More great models from Andy Dell
Back in August, we showed you some of the great 3D models that Andy Dell was creating in Hounslow, and more recently we showed you some of the great 3D models found on the grounds of the Hampton Court Palace in London.
As it turns out, Andy has been building a lot of other models in that same area of London. The models aren't yet in Google Earth, but they're all available in the 3D Warehouse. As you can see below, the buildings look excellent and are very well built.
Here's some of what he has been working on:
Hampton Court Main Gates -- 3D Warehouse -- KML
Bushy Park Entrance -- 3D Warehouse -- KML
King Arms Hotel -- 3D Warehouse -- KML
Liongate Hotel -- 3D Warehouse -- KML
Along with those models, he's done a good bit of work in nearby Thorpe Park. He's built a variety of buildings in the park:
You can even see some of the rides, which were created by user 'Clad' and look great!
You can view all of those items in this collection in the 3D Warehouse.
Great work, Andy!
If you or someone you know is building excellent 3D models in Google Earth, please
let us know about them so we can check them out.
Posted by mickmel at 9:23 AM
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December 23, 2010
Simulate forest fires with ForeFire
In a lab at the University of Corsica, the French national research agency CNRS has developed a very slick forest fire simulator that uses the Google Earth Plug-in.
The tool itself is quite impressive, using a physical combustion and spread model to simulate the advance of a fire front. Just choose an ignition point, change the wind to the direction of your choosing, and watch it burn. Even better, you can adjust the wind during the course of a burn to see how things change.
Try it for yourself here: http://forefire.univ-corse.fr/websim/
At the end of the simulation, you can download the final result as a KMZ file for use in Google Earth. That file is pretty cool and gives you a great way to visualize the data.
The simulation takes a lot of data into account, including fuels, roads and elevation. As a result, some point may not start a fire if they are on unburnable land. Also of note is that only Corsica is current set-up in the system, so the rest of the world is currently fireproof.
They're looking for feedback about the interface and features, so feel free to leave a comment with any ideas you might have.
Posted by mickmel at 7:41 AM
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December 22, 2010
Holiday Trees throughout Google Earth
Now that Google has introduced 3D trees to Google Earth 6, they've decided to take it a step further and drop decorated trees in various places around the globe.
According to their blog, these special trees can be found in 14 different locations. However, they've only revealed 11 of them. Here are the 11 that they've shown:
• Boston Common, Boston, MA
• Skyline Park, Denver, CO
• Grove Plaza, Boise, ID
• Alster Fountain, Hamburg, Germany
• North Capital of Texas Highway, Austin, TX
• Place Du Parvis Notre-Dame, Paris, France
• Old Town Square, Prague, Czech Republic
• Red Square, Moscow, Russia
• Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY
• Pier 39, San Francisco, CA
• Trafalgar Square, London, England
I tracked down those 11 trees and loaded them into this KMZ file for you. Now, who can find the other three?
Below is the video that shows off the first 11. Leave a comment if you're able to find any of the others.
Posted by mickmel at 8:05 AM
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December 21, 2010
Use Ground-Level View to complete a 3D maze
GEB reader 'Will from the UK' has sent us another cool find -- a 3D maze! The grounds of the Hampton Court Palace in London include a lot of greenery, and this maze is part of it.
This would have been pretty neat in any case, but it's made much cooler by the new "Ground Level View" in Google Earth 6. You can give it a try by using this KML file. If you use a Space Navigator, try to fly through it. If not, then grab the Street View pegman from the navigation tools and put him in the maze. This will shift you to "Ground-Level View" mode, and then you can use the arrow keys to work your way through the maze.
The lack of collision detection in Google Earth means that you can go right through the shrubs, which makes it a bit difficult to work your way through. Still, it's a pretty neat find! If you get stuck, Will created this simple KML file that shows the path to the center.
While you're there, be sure to check out the Palace itself. It possibly has the most chimney stacks of any building in Google Earth -- there are a ton of them!
Were you able to complete the maze? Have you discovered any other locations that are much more interesting now thanks to the "ground level" mode?
Posted by mickmel at 7:35 AM
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December 20, 2010
Simulating the upcoming lunar eclipse
Early tomorrow morning, December 21, there will be a total lunar eclipse. It will be completely visible to those in North America (assuming clear skies, of course) and people in Europe will be able to see the beginning of it.
For the solar eclipse this past summer, we showed you the great tool that was created by Michael at HeyWhatsThat.com.
He's back again with a similar tool to determine the best time to view the lunar eclipse from your location. Check out the tool here to see when you should step outside to view the eclipse.
If you're not in a location that can view the eclipse, or if cloud cover obscures your view, NASA has a live feed that you can tune into to see the eclipse as it happens. UPDATE: Or watch it live in Google Earth using Slooh.
Posted by mickmel at 7:05 AM
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December 17, 2010
Paris in 3D
The Eiffel Tower is one of the most popular sights in Google Earth, and it's had a high-quality 3D model for a few years now. However, the rest of the city has been rather flat -- until now.
Google has rolled out extensive 3D building coverage for the city and it looks great! (NOTE from Frank: There are some areas - especially around the Eiffel Tower, where the building models look half-finished. Many of the sides are missing photo-realistic textures. But, hopefully this will inspire people to use Building Maker to finish the models.]
Check out some of the cool sites like the Eiffel Tower, the Notre Dame Cathedral or the the Arc de Triomphe.
To simply explore the city for yourself, fly there using this KML file.
To get a quick overview of all of the new places to see in the city, Google has made this video for you to enjoy:
Posted by mickmel at 6:50 AM
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December 16, 2010
WikiLeaks around the world
WikiLeaks has been all over the news for the past few weeks. As politicians are quickly finding out, fighting something like WikiLeaks doesn't stop it -- it simply causes it to spread. Thanks to the big crackdown against them, their site has been mirrored all across the globe.
Laurence Muller spent some time tracking down the locations of the mirrors (with some useful tools) and built an excellent visualization of them.
His technique for creating this was pretty impressive. He first found the list of mirrors that WikiLeaks provided, then ran it through GeoLite City which resolved the mirrors to actual locations. He then wrote a PHP script to turn the location into latitude/longitune, and then to compile all of that into a KML file. Details about all of that work can be found on his site. Nice work Laurence!
To see it for yourself, you can visit one of the following pages that have the data loaded in the Google Earth Plug-in:
• Wikileaks Edges only
• Wikileaks Nodes
• Wikileaks Nodes with labels
Alternatively, you can download a KML file that has all three versions loaded, or watch the video below that he put together.
Posted by mickmel at 7:52 AM
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December 15, 2010
Building Maker just keeps getting better
It's been a few months since we've talked about Building Maker, when they added the slick feature to use Street View imagery inside of the tool. Building Maker is a free set of tools Google created to make it easier for people to create photo-realistic 3D models for Google Earth. Google continues to work hard to improve the product and they've just announced a few nice additions:
• New cities: Oklahoma City (Oklahoma), Oslo (Norway), The Hague (The Netherlands). Also, they recently released imagery for San Antonio (Texas), Tucson (Arizona), Norfolk (Virginia), Salt Lake City (Utah).
• Expanded coverage: San Diego (California) and Portland (Oregon).
I'm particularly excited to see them expanding existing cities. Many of the building maker cities have pretty solid 3D coverage in the available area, and it can be difficult to find a available building that still needs to be be modeled. The expansions seem to be quite extensive, too -- for example, the available area in San Diego appears to be more than 10x the available area in Atlanta. As Google continues to add/expand cities, the tool will only become more useful, creating a more realistic world for all of us.
Head over to the Building Maker site to try it for yourself.
Have you created any models in Building Maker lately?
Posted by mickmel at 8:07 AM
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December 14, 2010
Skydiving in Google Earth
Google's "Demo Slam" has brought out some creative ideas from people. The basic idea is to create a video that uses technology in a unique way. Some are serious, many are funny, and lots of them are worth watching.
This one really caught my attention -- a way to sky dive using Google Earth. There's not much practical application to it, but it looks like they had a ton of fun making it and it's certainly a creative use of Google Earth.
They used an overhead projector to display Google Earth from a nearby laptop, and even had a friend point a fan toward them to add to the realism. Check it out below!
Have you seen any other Demo Slams that use Google Earth in a unique way? Leave a comment and let us know.
(via @gsightseeing)
Posted by mickmel at 8:38 AM
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3D Virtual Campus at Northeastern University
We've seen a variety of 3D College Campuses over the last few years, such as the awesome 3D buildings at Bowling Green and the collection of tools at the University of Exeter.
We've also shown you Northeastern University in the past, when they added 88 3D buildings to their campus. Now they've done a few more things that are quick exceptional.
The main piece they've added is expansion of their campus map to highlight its "global learning experiences" in 160 cities across 60 countries, and also to show incoming students the cities across the globe where international students are from.
They've also added a lot more detail to the campus, including 3D trees (unrelated to the new 3D trees in Google Earth 6), and even some tables and chairs. It looks amazing!
For more, go check out the new and improved campus map, fly to the campus in Google Earth using this KML file or read the details in their press release below:
Current and future Northeastern University students are experiencing the Boston campus, global study opportunities and the school's rich cultural diversity in a whole new way with CampusBird, the first interactive campus map using 3D and other dynamic media.
CampusBird™, developed by Boulder, Colo.-based concept3D, presents a virtual mapping environment and content management system, based in large part on Google Earth and Google Maps, for prospective students and other visitors to explore.
Northeastern University is making the most of concept3D's technology in several innovative ways. The Northeastern 3D campus guide and global links are at: northeastern.edu/neuhome/aboutnortheastern/maps.html.
In addition to Northeastern's 3D virtual tour of its urban Boston campus, students also can "fly" across the Google Earth world and click to read about global learning experiences NU offers in 160 cities in 69 countries. Incoming students also can click to see the cities where international students are from in 125 countries.
By clicking on Costa Rica, for example, both students and their parents can learn how NU is partnering with the Children's Hospital there, or zoom into England where Northeastern students works with leading companies like Barclays Wealth and One change: Turner Entertainment Network should be Turner Broadcasting Systems, Cartoon Network Europe.
"Presenting the university's global presence and its cultural diversity along with the 3D tour throughout its Boston campus allows for a completely immersive online experience," said Oliver Davis, concept3D CEO and co-founder.
"As Northeastern continues to expand its global presence, we seek more innovative ways to inform prospective and incoming first year students of Northeastern's extensive worldwide network and educational reach beyond Boston," said Philomena Mantella, Senior Vice President, Enrollment & Student Life at Northeastern University. "A key advantage of this map is its capability to showcase the locations across the globe where our students are making an impact, whether it's through our global co-op program or various academic programs."
University officials also are planning to launch a series of guided themed audio tours before the new year.
To create a CampusBird 3D map, concept3D's team of globally recognized 3D modelers and web developers build photorealistic 3D models of campus buildings and grounds and place them in Google Earth. Layers of information are added to the CampusBird platform to provide location-based details such as individual building info, parking and Wi-Fi hotspots.
The process, which takes anywhere from four to 12 weeks, produces a detailed virtual environment that current and future students, campus visitors, university staff, alumni and community members will find both useful and fun.
Using Northeastern's 3D map, for example, a student can move around a building or jump clear across campus, seeing different views of the university and Boston skyline. Click on each building for a color photo, short description and further location details. Admissions prospects have a 3D view of the place they're thinking about their next four to five years.
Each CampusBird interactive map is easily added and updated by school staff through the CampusBird online content management system hosted by concept3D. The CampusBird CMS allows schools to simply and dynamically update, edit and add content to their map. If an image, video or description is changed in the CMS, the map is automatically updated on the school site and campusbird.com.
The interactive map and 3D models become permanent assets to the institution, and are often used by campus planners, architects and engineers, development staff and safety personnel. Universities also are repurposing concept3D campus maps in video format for more visual recruitment and capital fund-raising efforts.
"Our clients find so many ways to use the 3D content and maps that they often achieve ROI/payback in as little as three months," Davis said.
Along with the institution's own website, college.campusbird.com and the CampusBird iPhone app, the models and maps appear on Google Earth, Google Maps and other websites that use Google Earth browser tools.
Posted by mickmel at 8:01 AM
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December 13, 2010
Android and Google Earth Technology
During the past year I have been sailing through the Caribbean and the south Pacific and, after 13,000 miles of sailing, arrived in New Zealand. Right now, I'm back in the US visiting friends and family for the holidays.
Earlier this year, Google was good enough to send me an unlocked Nexus One (see GEB review). Increasingly, I've managed to use the phone - often without cell or WIFI connections - for a variety of applications. Google Earth for Mobile still has the ability to work offline, just like the desktop version. You just have to visit the places you want to store (while you are on an Internet connection) and the last 2GBytes of data are remembered in your cache. Then, when you have no Internet, you can still use Google Earth to re-visit those places. The offline ability can be incredibly useful since you often have a need for geo-spatial awareness when you are far away from a data connection (read my story on Google Earth for Sailors).
Keep reading for more about using Google Earth on your phone...
Google Earth for Android has a nifty interface when you use it under motion. When you turn on the GPS, you can click on the menu option "My Location" and it will track your position. As you move along in a car, it can even tilt the view so you get a 3D perspective of your motion down the road. Unfortunately, the current version doesn't let you set up directions from within Google Earth though. But, that's not a real problem, because of the next app.
Google Earth technology has been blended in with Google Maps on Android as well. There's an amazing GPS navigation tool that works with Google Maps for Android and gives you voice navigation, directions, AND it can show your 3D position using a view very much like the Google Earth view. In fact, the navigation has a better look than more costly dedicated car navigation tools. And, it is available for free for your phone!
When we first arrived to New Zealand, Google had just turned on the ability to do GPS navigation for that country. I tested driving with both Google Earth and with the new GPS navigation tool and they worked flawlessly! See the screenshot to the right for a view of the app running while driving in New Zealand. I really like the GPS navigation tool and have used it several times in both New Zealand and now in the US. The only drawback is that the GPS uses a lot of power and will drain your phone battery quickly (unless you hook up to a power source like your laptop or the lightplug). And, if you are using a limited data plan it will be best to first cache your route data before you leave while you're on a WIFI so you don't use up the bandwidth on the trip.
Another favorite Android app, which indirectly uses Google Earth technology, is Google Sky Maps. This app is one of the killer apps of Android IMHO. I've shown it countless times to people and everyone is always impressed. It uses the motion sensors, digital compass, and GPS to detect the 3D position of the phone as you hold it. It then draws the stars, planets, and constellations as viewed behind your phone. So, as you hold the phone up it can show you what stars or planets you are seeing in that direction! It even shows them under the horizon, so you can see when the sun, moon, or constellation is about to rise. Sailors love this app because they are so often getting to see the beautiful night sky while sailing at sea with no city lights. Did you know Google Earth has a really cool night time sky mode?
Android phones and Google Earth technology really go well together. I'm expecting to see even further advances in the future - things like showing your GPS tracks (or other KML content) in Google Earth on your phone, and viewing other popular Google Earth content like real-time earthquakes, weather, web cams, etc.
Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:31 AM
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CyberCity 3D Teams with Vixen's L.A. Happy Hours
We've talked about CyberCity3D quite a bit on this blog, with the most recent item being their work on Hidden Los Angeles. They've now taken the technology that was created for that site and have started rolling it out to other sites that could benefit from having a 3D map of their data.
Now tracking down a thirst-quenching happy hour in L.A. is as quick as a click of your mouse. They've toasted to teaming with the popular blog, Vixen's L.A. Happy Hours (vixenslahappyhours.com), to create lahappyhours3d.com.
Victoria Chandler (a/k/a "Vixen") uncorked her happy hours blog last February with a straightforward buzz: "I'm not a fancy writer... just a girl that likes a good drink." Since then, the blog has spun into an active Facebook page -- and now, its own 3D web portal.
Happyhoursla3d.com features a 3D exploratory portal highlighting happy hour locations (searchable by geographical area), blog reviews, driving directions and more. A cool mobile search app, in its beta testing stage, gives on-the-go followers access to Vixen's happy hour picks and locations.
"I think with the 3D map, my blog will turn into something much bigger than what I originally imagined. I'm just thrilled!" says Vixen's L.A. Happy Hour's Victoria Chandler.
"3D maps like lahappyhours3d.com are a big value add to social websites and their fans, bringing in another dimension to the social graph," states CyberCity 3D CEO Kevin DeVito.
lahappyhours3d.com is something that will certainly add a fun, new way to hone in on the widespread city's happy hour scene.
Posted by mickmel at 7:10 AM
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December 10, 2010
View the 2010 Hurricane Season in Google Earth
Greg at Geodesic contacted us to let us know about a very cool animation that his company has built which provides a great visualization of the 2010 Hurricane Season. Based on the NOAA tropical cyclone track data, this file does a great job of showing all of the hurricanes in 2010.
The file is rather large (9.35MB), but includes fantastic imagery of the various stages of each storm. For example, here is a great image of Hurricane Danielle as it was heading toward Bermuda:
You can read more about this project on their site. To see it for yourself, you can use this KMZ file or watch the video below:
Posted by mickmel at 9:12 AM
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December 9, 2010
New Google Earth Imagery - December 9
As pointed out by GEB readers 'Jorge' and 'Ika', Google has just pushed out some fresh new imagery!
As is usually the case, you can use Google Maps to determine for sure whether or not a specific area is fresh. This new imagery isn't in Google Maps yet, so you can compare Earth vs. Maps to see what's new; the fresh imagery is already in Google Earth, but the old imagery is still in Google Maps. If you compare the two side-by-side and they're not identical, that means that you've found a freshly updated area in Google Earth!
[UPDATED -- 9-December, 12:57pm EST]
- Georgia; Tbilisi -- thanks 'Ika'
- Peru: Nasca -- thanks 'Jorge'
- Switzerland: Various areas -- thanks 'Chris'
- Thailand: Various areas -- thanks 'Andy'
- United States: Alabama (Birmingham, Tuscaloosa), Arkansas (Little Rock), Illinois (Peoria), Missouri (St. Joseph) -- thanks 'Andreas'
- Uruguay: -- thanks 'Enrique' and 'Sam'
If you find any other updated areas, please leave a comment and let us know!
Posted by mickmel at 8:36 AM
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December 8, 2010
Street View imagery released in Romania
Google has just released Street View imagery in Romania, the first new release since Google Earth 6 came out last week.
As you know, Google Earth 6 completely changed the way that Street View imagery is handled. If you're not familiar with the changes, this video will show you how it works:
In addition, as pointed out by Google Earth Design, you can now include Street View when creating a tour in Google Earth! Rich even built a sample KML to show it in action.
It works just as you'd expect:
1. record a tour in the normal way,
2. drag and drop the pegman (orange man icon on the main screen controls) half way through to enter streetview
3. navigate around in streetview
4. click 'Exit Street View' button top left of your screen to exit street view
5. stop the tour.
He also includes a bit about the technical aspects of the KML that is generated:
GEarth 6 has spawned a new gx KML element: "gx:ViewerOptions", this element inserted into a FlyTo parent with"gx:option name="streetview"" tells GEarth to changes from normal to Streeview in the middle of a tour. ViewerOptions also allows historical imagery and sunlight conditions to be captured as well.
This certainly opens up a lot of possibilities for great new tours using Google Earth. Check out Rich's full article for more information, and let us know if you create any noteworthy tours using this new feature.
Posted by mickmel at 10:48 AM
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December 7, 2010
3D Travel launches 3DLasVegas.com
A few months ago, we showed you the click 3DHawaii.com site, which is a wonderful resource if you're planning a trip to the islands.
This morning, they've released 3DLasVegas.com and it's a big improvement over the already-great 3DHawaii. The navigation is much more intuitive, and the entire site has a great flow to it.
In particular, the little "Location Navigator" bar at the bottom is vastly improved. It takes up less space, has more options, and is much easier to use. Here is a close-up of the bar when viewing the MGM Grand.
Some of the items on there:
• View Site: View a pop-up window with information about this location, including address, phone, photos, and a description.
• 3D Views: A very easy way to swoop and fly around the building to see it from all sides.
• 3D Tour: Essentially an automated click-through of the options in the "3D Views".
• Videos and Photos: What you'd expect.
• Street View: Jump down to check it out in Google Street View.
I've yet to visit Las Vegas personally, but I'd like to get there someday with my wife. A site like this would be an excellent tool to help plan our trip. Congrats to the 3DTravel team for a job well done.
Go visit the site to try it for yourself, check out the video below, or read more about it in their press release at the end of this post.
Following the launch of 3DHawaii.com earlier this year, 3D Travel, Inc. introduces www.3DLasVegas.com, the newest addition to the first-ever collection of interactive 3d travel portals. Available collectively at 3DTravel.com, the sites incorporate Google Earth™ technology and are an innovative, experiential way to plan and book travel on the web.
Travelers who visit 3DLasVegas.com can explore the most comprehensive selection of hotels, resorts, casinos, restaurants, shopping centers, shows and visitor attractions available on the web, most in 3d, to help them plan their vacation or business trip to Las Vegas. After researching all the options, travelers can make reservations directly with featured properties.
"With the early success of 3DHawaii.com, which launched in July, Las Vegas was a natural choice for our second site," said Craig Carapelho, CEO of 3D Travel, Inc. "Las Vegas attracts a huge number of business and vacation travelers every year. 3DLasVegas.com offers an entirely new, immersive way of seeing what the city has to offer, allowing visitors to best design their Las Vegas experience. Plus, the city's creative architecture and the vibrant skyline of the Strip look incredible in 3d."
With the launch of 3DLasVegas.com comes upgraded technology. The new platform has multiple language capabilities, the user interface has been streamlined for easier navigation, street-view accuracy has been improved, and the overall speed of the site has been optimized. Other planned new features include an itinerary builder and a shopping cart, allowing travelers to save preferred hotels and activities while exploring the site.
MGM Resorts International is a client with ten major Las Vegas Strip resorts it operates, including world-famous resorts such as Bellagio, MGM Grand Las Vegas and The Mirage, presented as in-depth 3dLasVegas.com experiences.
For 3D Travel, Inc., 3DLasVegas.com is the second of a planned 10 new destination portals to be rolled out in 18 months. The upcoming sites will highlight domestic and international destinations.
Experience 3D Las Vegas
Travelers who want to plan their next vacation or business trip can utilize 3D Las Vegas in three easy steps: 1. Visit 3DLasVegas.com; 2. Install the Google Earth plug in; 3. Launch the site.
Participate in 3D Las Vegas
Companies interested in being listed on 3D Las Vegas have several options for inclusion. 3D Travel, Inc. works with businesses of all types, from small retail stores to five-star luxury resorts. 3D Travel, Inc. also offers businesses a free 30-day trial listing package that allows them to monitor results and determine if they want to upgrade to an expanded paid listing.
About 3D Travel, Inc.
3D Travel, Inc. specializes in the development of 3d interactive destination portals where people can explore, discover and book travel in content-rich, 3d, virtual environments. Through an exclusive web publishing agreement with one of the largest contributors of 3d buildings on Google Earth™, 3D Travel, Inc. has published hundreds of high-quality 3d buildings in key US travel markets to create virtual online destinations. These 3d models appear on Google Earth™, as well as on 3D Travel Inc.'s stand alone web portals via the Google Earth™ API Plug-In, providing the opportunity for participants to be cost-effectively marketed to the world. This next generation online travel planning experience signals the virtual evolution of web business interactions. For more information, visit www.3dtravel.com.
Posted by mickmel at 7:46 AM
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December 6, 2010
Google Earth is creating a beautiful 3D world
When Google Earth was first released in 2005, people were amazed at the ability to view the entire planet in 3D. Of course, there really wasn't much 3D on the surface of the globe other than terrain and some gray buildings.
In early 2007, they released Google Earth 4, which included support for photo textured buildings and recently we saw the release of Google Earth 6, which saw the addition of 3D trees.
As a result of those improvements, along with the work of many talented modelers, there are often new stunning features we discover in Google Earth such as the interior model by 'PeterG' and the model of The Church of the Nativity of Our Lady by Semenov Nikolay.
Today we have a few new ones for you.
First we have the Leshan Giant Buddha, located in Sichuan, China. The model is stunningly detailed, and can be found in the 3D Warehouse here or you can fly there using this KML file. Frank discovered this one while cruising around in Google Earth, and it's a beautiful structure.
Also, we wanted to highlight the work of Zeljko Zdravkovic, who has published over 500 models in the city of Belgrade! The Google SketchUp Blog did a nice story about Zeljko, and I encourage you to check it out.
For more, you can see all of Zeljko's 3D Warehouse models, fly to Belgrade using this KML file, or watch the short video below:
What is your favorite 3D building on the globe right now?
Posted by mickmel at 9:04 AM
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December 3, 2010
Google Earth continues to reveal strange sights from above
Over the years, we've seen a variety of interesting items revealed as result of Google Earth.
One of the most popular was the Swastika-shaped Navy Barracks that Frank first told you about in 2007. For years it was a simple building, but it gained fame once viewed from above, as it was clearly (though certainly unintentionally) shaped like a Nazi swastika.
Another great example was the huge scale model of China that was discovered. It represented an area that was occupied by China but claimed by India and was in dispute, and the model itself was nearly a square kilometer in size.
The latest example is the Star of David being discovered on the roof of the Iran Air headquarters. The building was constructed in 1979, and it seems that no one noticed the symbol until now. Unlike the Navy swastika building, this symbol was clearly intentional, though it's unclear who placed it there.
Iranian government officials are quite upset by this, and plan to have it removed quickly. However, it may stay in Google Earth for a few years, or at least until the imagery in that area is updated again. If you'd like to see it for yourself, you can fly there using this KML file.
If you enjoy seeing strange items like this, there are a few categories full of fun items like this over at Google Earth Hacks: Crop Circles, Huge Man-Made Structures and Huge Symbols. You can also check out the great "20 Awesome Images Found in Google Maps" post by Search Engine Land,
For some Street View fun, try the Giant Items/Oddities category at GEH, or the Strange Things category at StreetViewFun.
Of all of the strange things you've seen in Google Earth, which is your favorite?
Posted by mickmel at 12:43 PM
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Google Earth Engine, an amazing tool for scientists and researchers, released at COP 16
Yesterday at the International Climate Change Conference, Google released a mountain of data for scientists around the world to analyze and use. Known as "Google Earth Engine", it gives researchers access to this huge pile of data, along with computing power to deal with all of it.
The data includes Landsat satellite data and "trillions of scientific measurements" covering the past 25 years.
So what can be done with all of this data? Thanks to some launch partners, there are already a handful of projects underway. For example, below is a map showing the loss of forest cover in the Congo for the past 10 years, taken from the Earth Engine Map Gallery.
To go along with this, Google is also donating 10 million CPU-hours for each of the next two years, to help developing nations track the state of their forests. This is in anticipation for REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries), which offers financial incentives for tropical nations that protect their forests.
Do you plan to use Google Earth Engine? If not, what would you use it for if you had the chance?
Posted by mickmel at 7:19 AM
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December 2, 2010
Santa Claus is coming to Google Earth
It's that time of year again, and NORAD is once again preparing their very popular "Santa Tracker" to follow Santa around the world on Christmas Eve. The new 2010 site has just gone live in preparation for the holiday.
Last year's tracker was astoundingly popular, with over 13 million people from 231 countries visiting the NoradSanta.org site, and I'd expect that number to keep growing every year.
Of course, the actual tracker doesn't go live until December 24. In the meantime, they introduce new games every day in "Santa's Village". They tend to be rather simple games (yesterday was tic-tac-toe), but the music and environment add some fun if you play them with your kids.
NORAD (and its predecessor, CONAD) have been tracking Santa every year since 1955. The addition of tools such as Google Earth and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have only served to help increase the spread the of this fun tradition. To keep up with the latest happenings from the North Pole, you can join their Facebook Page (with a remarkable 386,000 fans) or follow them on twitter at @NoradSanta.
My girls will certainly be following along this year, as they had a great time watching him last year. How about you? Did you follow along last year with your kids? Looking forward to doing it again?
Posted by mickmel at 10:03 AM
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December 1, 2010
23 Aerial Views of Cities Around The World -- in Google Earth!
The Huffington Post recently ran a neat story titled "23 Aerial Views of Cities Around the World" (though it actually included 24 cities). As I clicked through each photo, I tried to match it up with the corresponding view in Google Earth and was able to find 16 of the 24 pretty easily.
In some cases, the view in Google Earth was remarkably similar to their image. For example, compare the two images of Pittsburgh below:
I put together a KMZ file where I tried to match the views as closely as I could. Here are the ones included in the file:
1 -- Seattle
3 -- Rome
4 -- Granada
7 -- Quito
8 -- New York City
9 -- Berlin
10 -- Riddarholmen, Sweden
11 -- Venice
13 -- Las Vegas
14 -- Los Angeles
16 -- Leh, India
17 -- Gdansk, Poland
19 -- Lujiazui, China
20 -- Pittsburgh
21 -- Lamego, Portugal
23 -- Miami
Of course, that means I failed to find eight of them. Read the article and see if you can match the views they shot of any of these eight cities:
2 -- Mexico City
5 -- Kathmandu
6 -- Brasov
12 -- Bangkok
15 -- Aleppo
18 -- Dubrovnik
22 -- Goreme, Turkey
24 -- Havana
One other funny sidenote; number 17 is labeled as "Berlin" in their article, but I spent a while looking for that building in Berlin and couldn't find it. As a last resort, I pulled out my Droid and took a photo of my screen using Google Googles. It immediately identified the building for me, and told me it as in Gdansk, Poland. Amazing! If you have an iPhone or Android device, I highly recommend you download Google Googles.
Anyhow, check out the article, follow along with the KMZ, and see if you can fill in any of the gaps.
Posted by mickmel at 9:18 AM
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