Google Earth Blog: March 2011 Archives

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March 31, 2011

Google adds higher-resolution, post-earthquake Japanese imagery

In the past few weeks, Google has added a ton of new data and information related to the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan. Much of that information is summarized here for you.

UPDATE In addition to the information below, Google has also pushed out a bunch of fresh historical imagery around the Fukushima Nuclear plant that everyone has been talking about. The imagery includes almost every single day immediately following the disaster. Fly there using this KML file to see it for yourself. Be sure to turn on the "historical imagery" feature, and use the (+) magnifying glass to zoom in 2011 in slider, as seen here:

However, all of that has come in the form of add-ons to Google Earth, such as image overlays. In an effort to post data quickly, that is their best option. However, Google has now made their first major update to the base layer imagery with some brand new imagery from the area around Sendai:

The imagery was collected this past Sunday and Monday, so it was very quick work for them to get it posted already! You can visit Sendai to see it for yourself by flying there using this KML file Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. .

Google is planning to publish more fresh imagery in the near future, and you can read more about that over on their Lat Long Blog.

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Posted by mickmel at 8:11 AM | Comments (1)

March 28, 2011

The 10 most expensive hotel rooms on earth

A few weeks ago, we showed you a cool new tool that allows you to preview your hotel room using Google Earth. If you have a lot of money to spend on your hotel visit, then today's list could be quite helpful.

Google Sightseeing recently showed off the "Top 10 Most Expensive Hotel Rooms 2011", and we thought we'd track those locations down in Google Earth for you.

10 The Bridge Suite, The Atlantis, Bahamas -- $22,000/night
View: Maps | 10-KML Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.

9 The Ritz-Carlton Suite, Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo -- $25,000/night
View: Maps | KML Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.

8 The Penthouse at The Setai, South Beach, Miami -- $30,000/night
View: Maps | KML Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.

7 Villa Le Cupola Suite, Westin Excelsior, Rome -- $31,000/night
View: Maps | 7-Westin.kml Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.

6 The Royal Villa at the Grand Resort Lagonissi, Athens -- $32,000/night
View: Maps | KML Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.

5 The Presidential Suite, Hotel Cala di Volpe, Costa Smeralda, Sardinia -- $34,000/night
View: Maps | KML Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.

4 Penthouse Prestige Apartment, Hotel Martinez, Cannes, France -- $35,000/night
View: Maps | KML Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.

3 Ty Warner Penthouse, Four Seasons Hotel, New York -- $35,000/night
View: Maps | KML Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.

2 Hugh Hefner Sky Villa, Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas -- $40,000/night
View: Maps | KML Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.

1 The Royal Penthouse Suite, President Wilson Hotel, Geneva -- $65,000/night
View: Maps | KML Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.

Have you ever been fortunate enough to stay in one of these hotels (even outside of the suites listed here)? If not, do you have a favorite hotel due to its location, view, amenities?

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March 25, 2011

Go inside the tomb of Esther and Mordechai

Digital Heritage Mapping is a non-profit organization that specializes in virtual documentation of global cultural heritage sites. Their flagship initiative, Diarna: Mapping Mizrahi Heritage pioneers the use of digital mapping and database technologies to virtually preserve and ensure open access to endangered Jewish heritage sites across the Middle East and North Africa. The goal of the project is quite similar to the Global Heritage Network that we recently showed you.

As part of their expanding coverage, they have constructed an amazing 3D model of the traditional tomb of Esther and Mordechai in Hamadan, Iran. Erin, the model's creator, built this under the direction of Yassi Gabbay, the architect who restored the actual tomb in the 1970s and who constructed the iconic gate and the subterranean synagogue. The synagogue has a Jewish Star-shaped skylight, perhaps the only Jewish Star visible from space (the known other, which was also in Iran, is believed to have been destroyed).

The building is not yet available in the base 3D models layer of Google Earth. However, you can view this model in Google Earth by simply downloading this KMZ file Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. .

More about the Diarna project:

Diarna, "Our Homes" in Judeo-Arabic, weaves and synthesizes satellite imagery (complete with terrain, zoomable perspectives, tiltable views, and 360-degree rotation), photographs, videos, oral history, immersive panoramas, and three-dimensional models to offer a unique digital window onto sites and communities disappearing before our very eyes. As structures decay and the last generation to live in these locations passes on, we are in a race against time to preserve priceless cultural treasures. Diarna recently launched D'fina: Jewish Treasures of Southern Morocco, an online exhibit of Judeo-Amazigh ("Berber") and Holocaust sites that was made possible with grant from the Cahnman Foundation.

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March 24, 2011

Gigapixel panoramas

We've talked before about Gigapixel images and 360 Panoramas, but it's not often that the two come together.

For the past year, Thomas Hayden has been shooting gigapixel-quality 360 panoramas, and the quality is stunning. For example, this KMZ file Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. takes you to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science & Industry) in Portland, OR. Be sure to turn on the "360Cities" layer under the main "Gallery" layer.

He has recently completed shooting a 42 image set virtual tour of the museum using a GigaPan that allows him to capture very high resolution panoramas. While most GigaPan images you see these days are multi-GigaPixel "framed" panormas, he specializes in almost completely spherical location coverage. These are as high resolution as many popular gigapan images, an order of magnitude higher resolution than the standard methods for virtual tour photography. The standard methods compose a 360 from 5 or 6 individual photos, while he composed these using 112 to 126 individual 8 MP images. The average size of one of his 360s is around 220 MegaPixels (.2 GigaPixels). This resolution allows the viewer to zoom in on very fine details, and in the case of the Manuevering Room of the USS Blueback fast-attack submarine on exhibit at OMSI, allows the viewer to examine the switches, dials, and gauges that move the boat.

His first project was in creating a virtual tour of the Grand Canyon by rafting the Colorado River for 18 days last April. There are 21 images in all as part of Grand Canyon GigaView that can be found along the river over 225 miles from Lee's Ferry to Diamond Creek. All of the images very near to the river in the Grand Canyon that are visible on Google Earth are part of Grand Canyon GigaView. Look for the 360Cities red icons near this KMZ file Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. . (Again, be sure to turn on the "360Cities" layer under the main "Gallery" layer.) He has also built a Tumblr blog Google Earth PLUGIN required. that serves as a day-by-day trip report and a place to display the media. The imagery from the Grand Canyon is absolutely stunning:

For those of you interested in the specifics of how he was able to capture the imagery for these panoramas, he's explained his equipment in detail:

The equipment I use is half of my story, actually. I generate these images with a five year old, low end, prosumer camera (Canon Powershot S5 IS 8MP) and a GigaPan Epic 100 robotic camera mount. The GigaPan unit is designed to handle almost any brand of point and shoot camera, and together with software, become a high resolution imaging device. The concept spun out of NASA's Mars Rover Missions where they needed small cameras (low power, light weight) to do great things. The primary resource they knew they would have on Mars was time, so the created this process for turning low end cameras into useful imagers by compositing back on earth. With money from Google, Carnegie Mellon University started the program initially with National Geographic and NASA called the Global Connection Project, which spun out into a company called GigaPan Systems to produce and market an affordable robot+software package that would make thise kind of imaging within reach of the average consumer. In the last year, GigaPan has also produced a beefier unit to manager larger DSLR prosumer cameras and their telephoto lenses.

My Grand Canyon GigaView project is not-for-profit and GigaPan supported the project by providing the Epic 100 I still use today. NRS supplied me with whitewater gear and PNY supplied me a all the SD cards I will ever need, so I had some sponsorship. I was invited on the Grand Canyon Private River Trip permit that my old raft guiding buddy had won last year in the newly formed private permit lottery system that GCNP devised in 2007 to deal with the 25 year waiting list that had become the average wait for a private rafting permit. Because I used to guide and have many friends in the river communities of the Colorado Plateau, this was my second opportunity to row a boat down the Grand Canyon through 225 river miles, 182 named named rapids, and 3 of the largest drops in North America.

Most of the images are inner canyon landscapes, but when there are people to be found in them, they are usually my fiance and I posing on a overhanging ledge or peering around a bush to see if the GigaPan had finished shooting yet, only to get caught by the robot.

Great work Thomas!

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March 23, 2011

Four new cities added to Building Maker: Rome, New Orleans, Long Beach, Malibu

Last month Google added some new features to Building Maker and this month they've added some new cities. The new cities added are:
• Rome, Italy
• New Orleans, Louisiana
• Long Beach, California
• Malibu, California

To try them for yourself, simply head over to the Building Maker site and get started!

If you're not yet familiar with Building Maker, you can read this post on getting started with it, or watch the short video below.

Happy building!

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Visualizing the vast problem of marine debris

With the fifth international Marine Debris Conference taking place this week in Hawaii, Google and NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) have put together some resources to help visualize this growing problem. The conference aims to help provide tools and information, as well as to inspire innovation.

To that end, Google and NOAA have built a tour to showcase some of the major problems our oceans are facing, as well as the main sources of marine debris around the world. To view the tour, you can view the tour in the Ocean Gallery Google Earth PLUGIN required. , download it as a KMZ file Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. , or watch the video below:

For more, check out the Google Lat Long Blog or the official NOAA website.

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March 22, 2011

The Global Heritage Network

The Global Heritage Fund has recently launched an early warning and threat monitoring system for various heritage sites around the world that are under threat of being looted and/or destroyed.

The Global Heritage Network Google Earth PLUGIN required. is the product of successful partnership with Google, Esri and DigitalGlobe, with those companies having donated millions of dollars in critical support, satellite imagery and GIS-mapping technologies to enable early warning and monitoring for 500 global heritage sites. Each site has a coordinator to manage the information, which comes in from not only professional site monitors, but also volunteers, travelers and local communities.

Sites are marked on the map with various colors to indicate the state of the site. Black means the site was destroyed, Red means "rescue needed", Yellow indicates the site is "At Risk" and Green means the site is stable. Sadly, it's a very colorful map.

The goal is to scale this to allow thousands of experts from around the world to collaborate on the project. The sites are estimated to generate over $100 billion in tourism revenue by 2025 for the world's poorest countries, greatly contributing towards poverty alleviation and the UN Millennium Development Goals.

For more, check out the GHN community at: globalheritagenetwork.ning.com.

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March 21, 2011

Skiing with OpenStreetMap

A few weeks ago we showed you a handful of neat tools to help you enjoy the ski season a bit more, but we missed a big one -- Skimap.org.

The main idea behind SkiMap is to allow users to upload maps from various ski resorts and share them with other users. Recently, however, they added a feature that uses the OpenStreetMap API to convert OSM data into KML vector ski maps. In just the past month, 940 ski maps were generated for use on the site!

The quality of the maps varies by location -- European resorts are more fully mapped than US ones, and in the US they're in better shape on the eastern half of the country. However, with the rate at which new ones are being added, your favorite ski area will probably look good on there very soon.

To see a good example of a ski area, check out Whistler Blackcomb. They have 67 different printed maps for Whistler, along with a handful of "OpenSkiMaps". Here's a KML file Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. from one of them if you want to see it in Google Earth.

What site do you like to use before you hit the slopes?

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March 18, 2011

March 17, 2011

New Google Earth Imagery - March 17

It's been a little while since the most recent imagery update, but thanks to sharp-eyed GEB reader 'Munden', we're now aware that Google has just pushed out a new update!

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 - 17-March, 6:43pm EST]

Bahrain: Entire country
Canada: Manitoba (Winnipeg), Quebec (Granby, Farnham) -- thanks 'Lurgee' and 'tofu'
China: Haining, Shanghai, Qingdao -- thanks 'Munden' and 'McMaster_de'
Germany: Kappeln, Bad Münstereifel, Wittlich, Kastellaun, Sinzig, Horb am Neckar, Rottenburg am Neckar and others -- thanks 'margin-auto'
India: Nagpur -- thanks 'Alok P'
Ireland: Various areas -- thanks 'rm'
Japan: (pre-earthquake) Himeji, Ishinomaki, Kakuda, Minamisoma, Nashushiobara, Soma, Tokyo, Tsuchiura, Tsukuba, Yokohama -- thanks 'Munden'
Poland: Poznan -- thanks 'Paker'
Romania: North of Timisoara -- thanks 'Triggerhappy'
South Korea: Gunsan -- thanks 'McMaster_de'
Ukraine: Kiev -- thanks 'Roman'
United Kingdom: Wales (northern half)
United States: California (Arcata, Lone Pine, Los Banos, Merced, Williams, Yuba City), Florida (Boca Raton, Gainesville, Ocala, Oxford, Palm Springs, Spring Hill), Georgia (Buchanan, Jefferson, Savannah), Kansas (Lawrence, Manhattan, Wamego), North Carolina (Asheville), Washington (Sequim, Carlsborg), Wyoming (much of Yellowstone Park including Old Faithful) -- thanks 'GT' and 'S B'

If you find any other updated areas, please leave a comment and let us know!

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Posted by mickmel at 6:40 AM | Comments (58)

March 16, 2011

Preview your hotel room with Google Earth

Room77 is trying to provide you with a lot of infomation about hotel rooms before you reserve one, but they're taking it much further than anyone has before. Part of what they do is match up basic criteria; high or low floor, near an elevator, etc, which is quite useful on it's own. However, they take it a step further by generating previews of what you can see out the window of your hotel room by using the Google Earth Plug-in. The example that I saw on their home page really shows you what it's about:

Of course, a site like this will get better with time -- even if they don't add a thing. As Google Earth adds more 3D buildings and trees, the views from the rooms will become increasingly accurate. That being said, Room77 is working very hard to add new features and to make things more useful, and I'll certainly be checking them out next time I need to book a hotel room.

Have you tried them before? How accurate is the rendered view compared to what you really saw? I'd love to see a side-by-side comparison of those.

(via Tnooz)

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March 15, 2011

Experience March Madness in Google Earth

If you're a college basketball fan, your favorite time of the year has arrived -- March Madness!

In true Google form, they've modeled all of the stadiums being used in the tournament in beautiful 3D, giving you a great way to check out all of the venues from within Google Earth.

Some of the stadiums even include indoor modeling, like we saw for the Super Bowl this year, such as Reliant Stadium in Houston, TX.

You can view all of the stadiums in a few different ways:

• Their college basketball tournament map, which provides information about all of the games and venues.
• This KML tour Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. for Google Earth.
• By watching the tour video below:

Personally, I'm pleased to see Michigan make it to the Dance this year, since they don't go nearly as often as they used to. Who are you rooting for in this year's tournament?

(via Google Lat Long blog)

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Find out where the Street View cars are currently on the road

Google has just released a major update to their Street View site with a handful of great new features. Notice that this isn't new imagery, but it's still quite cool for a few reasons.

Along with greater detail about the various Street View vehicles and your privacy, they've added an oft-requested feature: where the cars are currently driving. People often ask when imagery for their city will be updated, and now we get a nice glimpse at the answer.

Beyond that, you can learn the details of how the imagery from cars gets converted to Street View or check out their gallery of locations, which includes some amazing views.

(via Google Lat Long blog)

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March 14, 2011

Round-up of all imagery and resources available for Japan

We've written a few posts recently with information about Japan in the wake of their horrible earthquake and tsunami, but the data keeps pouring in so here's an update on everything that is available to you.

On Friday, we listed all of the available resources, including Google's very useful People Finder tool. On Saturday, Google started pushing out fresh imagery of the area, courtesy of GeoEye. Check out that post for the list of cities available.

Since then, they've also released imagery for Sendai and the surrounding area, which you can view using this KML file Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. .

To make it easier to keep up with all of this new imagery, Google has created an all-in-one KML file that includes all of the various imagery updates. On top of that, they include some stunning before/after placemarks for areas that were hit especially hard. Here is an example:

For easier viewing, those before/after shots can also be found in this Picasa web album.

The LA Times has built an interactive timeline of the quakes.

The Washington Post used Google Maps to show their "Wave of Destruction" map, highlighting some of the hardest hit areas.

Harvard built a map to show the location of all of the nuclear sites in Japan.

Google Maps Mania also has quite a few more Maps-based resources listed in these two posts.

Finally, Google's @EarthOutreach twitter account remains to be the best source for updated info/maps, so keep an eye on them.

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March 12, 2011

Brand new Google Earth imagery of post-earthquake Japan

GeoEye is moving very fast after the major earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan yesterday, already pushing out some fresh imagery from Tokyo, Kamaishi and Kushiro.

[UPDATE: Fukushima and Yokohama now available as well]

To see the imagery for yourself, simply download the appropriate file below:

• Tokyo: KML Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.
• Kamaishi: KML
• Kushiro: KML
• Fukushima: KML
• Yokohama: KML

They're posting continual update on the @EarthOutreach Twitter account, so stay tuned to that for the most recent imagery as it becomes available.

Also, they've just created a special Google Map to show all of the fresh imagery they've pushed out, so keep an eye on that as well.

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March 11, 2011

Google Earth resources for the Japanese Earthquake

As I'm sure you've heard, Japan was hit this morning by a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami. There are already a variety of Earth/Maps-related resources to provide information about the quake, and we'll summarize them here.

The first is Google's People Finder, a tool that they provide in these types of situations. You can also visit their Crisis Response page for much more information.

Next is also a Google Map showing the location of temporary shelters that have been set up in Japan.

Next is this Google Gadget Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. , which uses the Google Earth plug-in to show real-time earthquake information world-wide.

Next is a map showing earthquake-related Tweets from Japan.

Lastly we have a collection of maps from the US Geological Survey that gives a lot more information about the quake and tsunamis.

[UPDATE: How you can help] To donate $10 to the relief efforts, users in the US can text "REDCROSS" to 90999 and users in Canada can text "REDCROSS" to 30333. You're also encouraged to visit the Red Cross donation site and contribute there.

If you have more sources of useful geo-related data about the quake, please leave a comment and let us know.

(via Google Maps Mania and Visualizing Data)

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3D trees arrive in London

When Google Earth 6 was released, it brought us a bunch of cool features. One of those great new features was the addition of 3D trees in a handful of cities. It's taken a few months, but Google has finally started adding more trees to the globe, starting with London!

In preparation for the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in April, Google has added a lot of 3D buildings and 3D trees throughout London, including along the entire royal procession route.

Here's a video that shows how great the procession route looks with all of the new 3D items in there:

If you want to see if for yourself, you can use this KML file Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. to fly directly to London. Be sure to enable all of the 3D items in the "3D Buildings" layer in Google Earth.

(via Google Lat Long Blog)

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Engineering a network in Haiti with Google Earth

In the time since the tragic earthquake in Haiti 14 months ago, we've seen a variety of uses of Google Earth to help cope with the event in various ways.

Today we're looking at how the Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City is using Google Earth to prepare for an upcoming relief trip to the country.

Last year, the church sent 15 teams to Haiti to help repair and rebuild various facilities including churches, schools, medical clinics, and more. However, the teams had a very difficult time communicating with their support systems in the US due to poorly-operating internet connections and wifi.

Last April, Clif Guy went down to help troubleshoot and repair/upgrade internet service in the Methodist guest house in Port-au-Prince so that subsequent teams would be able to stay in communication. During that trip and over the next 6 months he made major improvements and through the process learned a great deal about ISPs in Haiti and the challenges of dealing with intermittent service and intermittent availability of electricity.

This weekend he's heading back down to Haiti to install network infrastructure and Internet connections in five Methodist buildings in the small town of Petit Goave, on the coast 42 miles west of Port-au-Prince. One of the five buildings is a school (College Harry Brakeman) where they will also be setting up a computer lab for use by high school students. Since Internet connections are very expensive in Haiti, it's much more economical to install a primary and backup connection and then distribute the connections to the five buildings via radio links rather than purchase a separate connection for each building.

Working with a volunteer (retired manager from AT&T) who is their advance person in Petit Goave, they used Google Earth to mark the locations of the facilities that need Internet access. Once they had locations identified, they were able use Earth to perform a virtual site survey - distance between buildings, building elevations, terrain profiles along the paths between buildings, etc. in order to engineer a building-to-building wireless network. He chose a central location on the highest ground and with the best electrical power to be our network hub. Using Earth and some simple trigonometry he was able to select directional antennas that will allow them to establish the links from the hub to the other buildings with the minimum number of radios.

It's an impressive piece of work. The files aren't as complex as many that we've shown you over the years, but the simple fact that they were able to do so much planning from so far away because of Google Earth shows just how useful it can be.

If you'd like to view their plans in Google Earth, you can download the KMZ file here Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. . Buildings are marked with yellow push pins. Radio links are marked with red paths.

Nice work Clif!

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March 10, 2011

New Street View imagery in Japan

Last week we showed you some fresh imagery in Street View that had been captured using the "Street View Trike", because the areas weren't accessible by car. Today Google has released some more Trike-generated Street View imagery for various places in Japan.

As reported by Google Maps Mania (via the Google Japan Blog), the update includes places such as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Itsukushima Shrine and the Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium.

If you find any other areas updated today, please leave a comment and let us know.

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Modeling 3D buildings using Satellite Imagery

CyberCity3D has been doing a lot of cool stuff with Google Earth lately. Last year we showed you their Hidden Treasures of Los Angeles map, and a few months ago they showed off some of their new GeoGames that provide an interactive experience for the user.

Their latest announcement is going back to their roots -- 3D modeling. They've announced today that they've developed a system to produce 3D buildings from stereo satellite imagery, in a way that be scaled to a fairly large region.

As an example, here is a photo of their model of JFK International Airport, which you'll see includes some rather detailed architecture.

The only real downside to this is that their system doesn't yet put textured images on the buildings. Hopefully that is something they can figure out in the future. If you'd like to see their model of the airport yourself, you can download this KMZ file Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. .

CyberCity3D has created hundreds of thousands of 3D buildings for Google Earth, and this technique may help increase the speed of that. If that can figure out a way to automatically texture the building, or least give users an easy way to texture it themselves, we could see substantial increase in 3D building coverage over the next year.

For a bit more info, here is a video they produced that shows off the JFK Airport model:

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March 9, 2011

Creating rooftop murals for Google Earth

Over the years, we've seen a handful of people and companies create massive images to be seen in Google Earth. One of the most famous was the Maxim magazine cover in 2006, but we've also seen advertising companies that focus on Google Earth as a way to show off their clients ads.

Today we'll show you Molly Dilworth, who creates giant murals on top of buildings with the intent of being seen in Google Earth. Molly uses only discarded paint, and simply uses the physical surface of the roof to determine the shape of the painting. The end result is a pretty cool work of art, as seen here:

The problem that Molly faces, as does anyone that creates artwork intended for Google Earth, is that you never know when your images might appear online. In Molly's case, it seems only one of her pieces of artwork is in Google Earth so far, and sadly it didn't get captured especially well by the satellite.

If you'd like to view that mural in Google Earth, just use this KML file Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. .

Fortunately, as Google Earth continues to improve the quality and speed of their updates, and Molly continues to create more of these murals, we'll likely start seeing some appear very nicely in Google Earth in the near future.

What's the best artwork you've ever seen in Google Earth?

(via DesignTaxi)

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March 8, 2011

A detailed Shaker Village in Google Earth

GEB reader 'Matthew' recently sent us a very impressive recreation of the Mt. Lebanon North Family Shaker Village in New Lebanon, NY, which is often considered to be the birthplace of Shakerism in the United States.

As you can see in the image below, their work includes not only some excellent 3D models, but other details such as information about their complex water systems:

To fill in the full story, Matthew has written up more details about how it all came together. Watch the video below for an overview, and then read Matthew's words below that for detailed information.

In 2009, two of the National Park Service's Heritage Documentation Programs (the Historic American Landscapes Survey and Cultural Resources GIS) worked to document the Mt Lebanon North Family Shaker Village in New Lebanon, NY. The site is owned and operated by the Shaker Museum and Library and is perhaps best known as the birthplace of Shakerism in the USA.

A team lived on the site through the Summer, working to create detailed measured drawings of landscape features, with an emphasis on documenting the complex waterworks system at the site. The Shakers constructed a series of underground aqueducts, reservoirs, and piping to aid in numerous agricultural, industrial, and domestic tasks.

However, little was known about how the system operated or where many of these underground features were located. To make it worse, one of the main buildings experienced repeated damage from flooding cause by heavy rains which seemed to mysteriously flow in from unknown sources. Thanks to the work of the Summer team, many issues like this one have since been resolved.

The National Park Service's Historic American Buildings Survey first documented and photographed the site around 1930. This time around, new images were developed by National Park Service photographers using both large format black-and-white photos as well as detailed panoramic images.

Cultural Resources GIS staff utilized georeferenced maps, GPS data, and detailed 3D models of the village to produce this tour of the site which explains some of the mechanisms of the water system.

These models are now part of the official 3D buildings layer, and you can find them all in the Google 3D Warehouse. Additionally, a KMZ Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. was developed which allows users to interact with landscape plans, historic and modern photos, and GIS overlays. Clicking on some of the historic photos and drawings will link you to the documentation archived at the Library of Congress.

*Note: As this project was developed in GE v5, some layers appear to not display properly in v6.

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March 7, 2011

Share your ski trips with Google Earth

Growing up in Michigan, I skiied a lot in the winter, but I don't get out nearly as often now that I'm down in Georgia. For those of you more fortunate, Google put out a reminder that there are a lot of great ways to capture your adventures on the slopes to play back later in Google Earth.

The easiest way is to simply record your track. If you use an Android phone, the "My Tracks" app works great. For iPhone, "MotionX-GPS is a good place to start.

As an example, Google posted this video that shows a bunch of them skiing in Lake Tahoe a few weeks ago. It's cool to see all of them zipping around on the slopes like that!

Frank did something quite similar back in 2006, posting his tracks from ski trips to Alta and Snowbird.

Of course, winter fun isn't just limited to recording your ski trips. You can actually browse a few resorts in Street View, thanks to the "Street View snowmobile" that Google put together a few years ago.

If you want to do a bit of virtual skiing, you can try out Ski Earth that we told you about last September.

Lastly, we have a very cool visualization of the Cross Country Skiing World Championships that we recently held in Oslo, Norway. GEB reader 'Jan' let us know about a great video that uses the Google Earth Plugin and actually has animated skiers!

Because it uses quite a bit of Javascript to build the animations, it's not available as a downloadable file. Still, it's a very cool visualization.

Going skiing soon? Record your track, and share it with us in the comments area below.

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Posted by mickmel at 7:19 AM | Comments (6)

March 3, 2011

The Sargasso Sea Expedition

We recently showed you the Mission Blue expedition to Salaz y Gomez, and now Google is helping post data from another scientific expedition.

This time it's the MBARI Sargasso Sea Expedition, which traveled from Bermuda to the Bahamas, to help better understand the unique ocean habitat in the area. The habitat in that area is named for the "Sargassum" algae that is found there, hence the name of the expedition. While there, the team "measured biodiversity and the impacts of climate change and carbon cycling to this ecosystem".

To follow the expedition, you can download the full log KML file Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. , see their Earth Gallery Google Earth PLUGIN required. , visit their Facebook Page, or read the MBARI Expedition Logbook on their website.

For more information about this voyage, check out the full entry on the Google Lat Long Blog.

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Posted by mickmel at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)

3Dconnexion sells their one millionth 3D Mouse

I've been a big fan of 3Dconnexion since the first time I put my hands on a SpaceNavigator a few years ago. Frank first showed off the 3D mouse in late 2006, and we took a fresh look at it again last year. Mine continues to sit on my desk and is used daily.

Earlier this week, the folks at 3Dconnexion hit a major milestone by selling their one millionth mouse. Amazing! Congratulations to the team over there on such a remarkable accomplishment.

Below are details about this milestone. Do you use a SpaceNavigator when you're in Google Earth or SketchUp?

FREMONT, Calif. - March 2, 2011 - 3Dconnexion today announced it has shipped more than one million 3D mice, supporting today's most popular and powerful 3D software solutions from companies including Autodesk, Dassault Systèmes, Siemens, PTC, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe across computer aided design, digital content creation, architecture and construction, and geographic information systems.

3Dconnexion 3D mice unlock the power of 3D design applications by allowing design engineers to interact naturally with 3D content as if they are holding the model or camera in their hand. Many of the world's leading companies in industries from aerospace to automotive, consumer goods to electronics, and machine tools to game development, use 3Dconnexion 3D mice to boost productivity, efficiency and the comfort of their design teams.

"As we accelerated through the one millionth 3D mouse milestone, we've seen customer recommendations become an increasingly powerful driver of our business," said Dieter Neujahr, president of 3Dconnexion. "And the future looks bright as we continue to bring the benefits of superior 3D navigation to an ever wider range of software applications and new market opportunities, bound only by the imagination."

To mark its "One Millionth 3D Mouse Milestone," 3Dconnexion will host several activities throughout the next month, offering users the opportunity to win a 3D mouse. For more information, visit 3Dconnexion's website, Facebook and Twitter.

The core technology inside all of 3Dconnexion's 3D mice originates from the field of robotics and space exploration. In 1993, a 3D controller was used on the space shuttle Columbia, manipulating the first robotic arm in space, and was the launching point for a family of 3D mice that now help 3D professionals in hundreds of thousands of organizations to design, innovate and create some of the most well known products in the world.

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Posted by mickmel at 7:10 AM | Comments (1)

Rapid progress being made in rebuilding L'Aquila in 3D

Just over a month ago, we told you about the efforts being made to rebuild the city of L'Aquila, Italy in 3D in its post-earthquake state.

In that short period of time, great progress has already been made. As an example of that, Google has put out the image below that shows 3D models available before the Google workshops (on the left) vs. 3D models available now (on the right).

It's quite a great improvement! To see L'Aquila for yourself in Google Earth, you can fly there using this KML file Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. .

For more, check out this blog entry on the Google SketchUp blog.

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Posted by mickmel at 6:27 AM | Comments (1)

Shaderlight creates a Winter Wonderland, and is now available on Mac

Back in January we told you about Shaderlight, a plug-in for Google SketchUp that helps you create photorealistic renderings from your models.

Back in November they announced the "Winter Wonderland" contest, encouraging users to to render festive image using their impressive plug-in. They recently announced the winners of the contest, all three of whom created some incredible scenes:

First Place: Luke Holdmann: Milwaukee, WI, USA

Second Place: Abedallah: Christchurch, New Zealand

Third Place: Zoungy: USA

Shaderlight is an amazing plug-in, and it's really starting to show the power behind Google SketchUp. The only downside to Shaderlight was that it has only been available on Windows, but just a few days ago they finally released a version of the plug-in for Mac. They had promised it "sometime in March" and delivered on March 1. Impressive!

Have you tried out Shaderlight yet?

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Posted by mickmel at 6:18 AM | Comments (0)

March 2, 2011

Fresh imagery from Christchurch

In the wake of the earthquake that struck Christchurch last month, GeoEye captured some fresh imagery of the area and has now made it available to everyone.

While the imagery is a bit cloudy, it really gives a sense of the widespread damage in the area. These images were captured two days after the quake, on February 24.

To view the imagery in Google Earth, they've made a few files available for you to download:

• Central and Northern Christchurch Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.
• Southern Christchurch

[UPDATE 28-March-2011: The Royal NZ Air Force flew over Christchurch two days after the quake. Very high resolution aerial imagery can be viewed on this Google Map. via GoogleMapsMania

As Frank mentioned on the Tahina Expedition blog a few days ago you're encouraged to contribute to the families affected by the quake on the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal site.

(Via National Business Review)

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Posted by mickmel at 3:45 PM | Comments (3)

Geospatial Revolution: Episode Three Released

Once again, right on time, Penn State Public Broadcasting has released Episode Three of their excellent "Geospatial Revolution" project.

If you've missed either of the first two episodes, I strongly suggest you go back and watch them. Episode One covered a wide overview of "how" and "why" questions regarding geospatial technologies, and Episode Two dug into more specific examples including the City of Portland and the well-known shipping company UPS.

Episode Three covers a variety of safety and war-related topics, such as:

• "Mapping the Road to Peace"
• "Waging Modern War"
• "Serving and Protecting"
• "Staying Safe"

You can watch each segment individually on their site, or watch the full 15 minute video below:

I hope you enjoy the video, and be watching for their fourth and final episode on May 3, 2011.

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Posted by mickmel at 9:57 AM | Comments (0)

March 1, 2011

The Street View Trike keeps on trucking

A few years ago, Google introduced the Street View "trike" -- a three-wheeled bicycle that contained a StreetView camera, for the purposes of capturing areas that cars couldn't reach. Since then, they've captured interesting areas such as Stonehenge and Sea World.

Today, Google has announced that additional Trike-generated Street View imagery is now available in a few different places around the world, including the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin, Ireland, as seen below.

If you'd like to see the Botanic Gardens for yourself, you can fly there using this KML file. Other new additions include the Château de Chenonceaux in Civray-de-Touraine, France (KML), the gardens at the San Diego Art Institute (KML) and some beautiful locations inside Balboa Park in San Diego (KML).

As you know, Street View was greatly enhanced with the release of Google Earth 6, making it much easier to browse this kind of imagery from within Google Earth. To enter one of these areas, or any other Street View-enabled location, simply drag the "Peg Man" from the controls in the upper right corner onto the globe.

At this point, we're not aware of any new traditional Street View cities that have been added with this update, but please leave a comment if you notice anything else that is new today.

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