Business Archives

January 20, 2012

Traffic congestion visualization in Google Earth

We all know that Google Earth is great for visualizing an amazing array of information. However, sometimes it won't support a need that you have and a creative solution must be found. Such is the case today with Skycomp and their "traffic flow visualization" tool. It's no surprise to us that Paul van Dinther from PlanetInAction.com is the guy that made it happen -- he's built some amazing applications over the years, including the focus of yesterday's post on the cruise ship Costa Concordia. His solution to help Skycomp is quite innovative.

traffic.jpg

There are two main components that come together to make this happen.

First you have Skycomp, who have found a cost effective way to collect aerial footage of the same location over a sustained period. This involves maintaining an accurate position of the helicopter and complex image alignment and correction.

Secondly you have the Google Earth component. The imagery produced by Skycomp typically is taken at a 1 or 2 second interval and turned into a video. Unfortunately, Google Earth is not equipped to render video on the ground. So instead, Paul uses a sequence of ground overlays and individually turns them on and off using javascript and the Google Earth API. The application is designed to play back several minutes of footage of a busy intersection so a traffic flow analysis can be done. In order to produce a smooth looking playback the application actually fades the next image on top of the previous image. The amount of cross-fade can be reduced for more detailed frame by frame analysis. It's quite an impressive result.

You can try it for yourself by visiting www.planetinaction.com/skycomp/.

If you'd prefer, here's a video that shows off how the system works:

For more info, check out the latest edition of the Skycomp newsletter.

The next stage of the application will introduce the capability to export the animation as a KMZ file for playback on Google Earth Desktop using the tour mechanism, which would be quite impressive and very useful for people in this field.


Posted by mickmel at 8:56 AM | Comments (1)

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January 17, 2012

Where 2.0 2012 coming in April

This spring, for the seventh year in a row, we'll be heading to the Where 2.0 conference in California. This year's event will be held at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis from April 2-4.

As they've done in past years, O'Reilly is offering a discount for GEB readers. If you register on their site and use the code 'WHR12GEB', you'll receive 15% off!

Leading up to the event, O'Reilly has quite a few mobile-themed webcasts they'll be showing. You can few them all right here:

We'll certainly be sharing more information about the conference as it approaches, but in the meantime you can visit the conference site at whereconf.com/where2012 or read below for more:

Now in its 8th year, the O'Reilly Where Conference is where the grassroots and leading-edge developers building location-aware technology intersect with the businesses and entrepreneurs seeking out location apps, platforms, and hardware to gain a competitive edge. Where Conference presents leading trends rather than chasing them. Immerse yourself in three full days of hands-on training, information-rich sessions, and an Expo Hall filled with the key players and products. Where's topics and programs include: Mobile Development, Location Development, Business & Strategy, and Marketing, including an all day Location Marketing Boot Camp.

Join with hundreds of experts and practitioners in the mobile and location ecosystems and get a handle on what's happening now and what's lurking just below the radar - and how you can leverage location for your business.

Do you plan on attending Where 2.0 2012?


Posted by mickmel at 8:31 AM | Comments (1)

January 5, 2012

Great new 3D San Francisco site

After launching 3DHawaii and 3DLasVegas in the past few years, 3DTravel.com has just launched their ,3DSanFrancisco site and it's great!

3dsf.jpg

I'm heading to San Francisco in a few months for Where 2.0, and I'm not familiar with the city, so it's been fun to use it to cruise around and check things out. While the San Francisco site isn't that much different from the Hawaii and Vegas sites, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's clear that they've spent a lot of time plotting destinations, adding content, creating tours, and building all of the other items that make the sites so useful.

You can read more about the new site here and visit it for yourself at sanfrancisco.3dtravel.com.


Posted by mickmel at 9:46 AM | Comments (1)

December 30, 2011

The Year 2011 in Google Earth

Google Earth had a tremendous year in 2011. Our most popular story of the year, by far, was from people searching for Osama bin Laden's compound in May. There was also quite a bit of interest in resources for the Japanese earthquake, as Google Earth is an excellent platform to share imagery and information for an event like that.

Here's a quick look back at the biggest stories for each month of 2011.

January
There wasn't any major Google Earth news in January, but we saw cool things like Louis Zamperini's journey mapped in Google Earth and Google hosted the 2011 GSA Penrose Conference.

February
Google brought art galleries into Street View and GeoEye provided some amazing imagery of the protests in Egypt.

Egypt protests

March
Google was quick to respond to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami with high-resolution post-earthquake imagery shortly after the disaster and 3DConnexion sold their one millionth 3D mouse.

April
This month Google made some great enhancements to the mountain layer in Google Earth and we got some fresh imagery from the tornadoes that ravaged Alabama.

alabama tornado

May
Google added 3D building support for Android tablets and people flocked to Google Earth to try to see Osama bin Laden's compound.

June
More 3D trees started appearing in a few cities and fresh imagery was released from the Nabro Volcano in Africa.

Nabro Volcano

July
July brought the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Machu Picchu, South Sudan became a new country and the final space shuttle launch was tracked in Google Earth.

August
In August we showed you some fresh imagery of the damage from Hurricane Irene and we explored the true size of the Stone Mountain carving.

Stone Mountain

September
Google Earth 6.1 was released, bringing some nice new KML features with it. We also looked at the past, present and future of the World Trade Center complex in New York on the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

October
Peter Olsen created an excellent 3D model of the MLK National Memorial and Google Earth reached the one billion download milestone.

MLK National Memorial

November
We took an early look at the 2012 London Olympic venues and enjoyed the cool new Fluid Nebula tool for Google Earth.

December
We played with Google Earth on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and saw a new island being formed in the Red Sea by a volcano.

new island

It's been another amazing year for Google Earth. What was your favorite story of the year?


Posted by mickmel at 8:48 AM | Comments (1)

December 20, 2011

Visualizing Google Analytics data in Google Earth

Introduced six years ago, Google Analytics has quickly become one of the most popular stat-tracking packages around. Many websites, including Google Earth Blog, use it to see which pages on their site are the most popular, how visitors find them, where they come from, etc. It's quite powerful.

When you have software that can show a list of where the visitors to your site are located, it only makes sense to want to view that data in Google Earth. That's where ShufflePoint comes in. Along with a variety of dashboards and charts, ShufflePoint allows you to view your data in Google Maps or Google Earth, as seen here:

shufflepoint.jpg

To try it for yourself, they have a sample KML file for you to try out, as well as the video below to show more about how it works:

If you use Google Analytics and need a way to better visualize your data, ShufflePoint is certainly something to consider. Prices start at $49/month, presumably for a single site. You can learn more about ShufflePoint on the Google Geo Developers Blog.


Posted by mickmel at 9:01 AM | Comments (1)

More entries for this category:

  1. Help keep Google Earth accurate with the improved Map Maker tool - December 19, 2011
  2. Google won't charge for heavy use of the Google Earth API - November 9, 2011
  3. Enhanced Geothermal Systems in Google Earth - October 28, 2011
  4. Visualizing 50,000 power plants in Google Earth - September 20, 2011
  5. A few great new ways to get more out of Google SketchUp - September 7, 2011
  6. The Kansas airspace awareness tool - August 2, 2011
  7. SAP adds Google Earth and Google Maps integration - August 1, 2011
  8. Data Appeal: A new way to visualize data in Google Earth - July 27, 2011
  9. What am I allowed to do with Google Earth? - July 13, 2011
  10. Watching trees grow in Google Earth - July 12, 2011
  11. An amazing tour of the new U.S. Green Building Council headquarters - June 10, 2011
  12. Real-time recycling and bus info in Google Earth - May 13, 2011
  13. Using Google Earth on Earth Day - April 22, 2011
  14. Five Universities with great maps - April 8, 2011
  15. The World's Nuclear Reactors in Google Earth - April 1, 2011
  16. Where 2.0 2011 is just three weeks away - March 29, 2011
  17. The 10 most expensive hotel rooms on earth - March 28, 2011
  18. Preview your hotel room with Google Earth - March 16, 2011
  19. 3Dconnexion sells their one millionth 3D Mouse - March 3, 2011
  20. Planning new roads with Google Earth - February 9, 2011
  21. A great guide to Turkey in Google Earth - February 4, 2011
  22. Predict how much solar power your house could generate - January 20, 2011
  23. Use Google Earth to estimate point-to-point links - January 11, 2011
  24. FaceTime around the world - January 7, 2011
  25. Fixing incorrect information in Google Earth - December 28, 2010
  26. 3D Travel launches 3DLasVegas.com - December 7, 2010
  27. Google Earth Engine, an amazing tool for scientists and researchers, released at COP 16 - December 3, 2010
  28. Geospatial Revolution: Episode Two Released - November 2, 2010
  29. Geospatial Revolution: Episode One Released - September 27, 2010
  30. Get your building modeled by PopArchitexture - September 15, 2010
  31. Google Earth Enterprise 4.0 released - August 17, 2010
  32. Finding illegal pools with Google Earth - August 3, 2010
  33. Louisiana Earth - July 22, 2010
  34. Team Vision Virtual launches 3dHawaii.com - July 16, 2010
  35. Want your home or business in 3D? Estate3D will do it for $99. - July 8, 2010
  36. CyberCity 3D unveils the Sanborn Emergency Response Map - July 6, 2010
  37. StreetView finally heading indoors? - April 21, 2010
  38. Where 2.0 - Day 3 - April 1, 2010
  39. 3dBizMap launches first city - El Segundo, CA - March 25, 2010
  40. The Points of Interest return! - March 24, 2010
  41. Use StreetView to make Points of Interest more precise - March 10, 2010
  42. Want to work for the Google Earth Enterprise team? - February 17, 2010
  43. Where 2.0 2010 coming in March; Discount for GEB Readers - February 8, 2010
  44. Place Pages arrive in Google Earth - December 9, 2009
  45. Aerial perspective imagery - December 8, 2009
  46. StreetView inside buildings? - December 1, 2009
  47. Links: Full list of StreetView updates, TeachMideast.org, CyberCity 3D partners with HomeGain - November 11, 2009
  48. KML file that shows the October imagery, now updated in Google Maps - October 22, 2009
  49. Get your home or business modeled in 3D for Google Earth - October 19, 2009
  50. More 3D Cities Appearing in Google Earth - September 14, 2009
  51. 360 Degrees Longitude Book Using Google Earth - July 15, 2009
  52. North Shore City, New Zealand in Google Earth - July 2, 2009
  53. Using Google Earth to Review Urban Development Project - June 15, 2009
  54. New "Businesses" layer for Google Earth and iPhone Google Earth - May 27, 2009
  55. 3D Disneyland Resort Paris in Google Earth - May 24, 2009
  56. Where 2.0 - Day 2 - Short Summary - May 21, 2009
  57. Google Ads in Some Google Earth Panoramio Placemarks - May 6, 2009
  58. Links: Ocean Now, Michigan Earth Day, Goldman Prize, Convention Center, Queen Mary - April 21, 2009
  59. Nine Inch Nails Uses Google Earth Again and iPhone - April 7, 2009
  60. Google Wants to Hear Your Google Earth Story - April 3, 2009
  61. Links: Where 2.0, Map Lens, Historical Placemarks, Condé Nast - March 30, 2009
  62. Google Announces Two New 3D Cities - March 7, 2009
  63. Huge Update to Berlin's 3D Building Collection for Google Earth - March 4, 2009
  64. Links: New 3D Town Project, Model Underwater, World's Largest Ship Graveyard - March 3, 2009
  65. New York City in Photo-Realistic 3D Now in Google Earth - December 17, 2008
  66. Links: Going Sailing, Mumbai Attacks, Street View, South Africa Award - December 11, 2008
  67. Tomb Raider Challenge with Google Earth - December 3, 2008
  68. Links: Where 2.0, Weather Buoys, Argentina, Earthscape, MapMyPage, and more - November 19, 2008
  69. Peachtree City Public Information Interactive Map - September 30, 2008
  70. McCain Geo-Biography in Google Earth - September 23, 2008
  71. 600 Starbucks Closures in Google Earth - July 22, 2008
  72. GIS Data for Canary Islands in Google Earth - July 15, 2008
  73. Roses First 3D City in Spain for Google Earth - July 10, 2008
  74. Google Releases More Map Crowdsourcing Tools - June 24, 2008
  75. Where 2.0 - Day 1 - May 13, 2008
  76. Impressive Upgrade to Virtual Earth 3D - April 11, 2008
  77. New York Times in Google Earth - April 7, 2008
  78. Links: Digital Urban Booklet, GE OSX UI Tweak, Peru Meteor Strike - March 31, 2008
  79. Armageddon Pills in Google Earth - March 14, 2008
  80. See Guys Putting Up Sign on Luxor Hotel & Casino - February 18, 2008
  81. Links: Zillow News, Virtual Volcanology, Design in GE, GearthHacks News, Ski Time, VE Geocoding - January 18, 2008
  82. Top 25 Stories of Google Earth 2007 - December 27, 2007
  83. Governor of Alabama Unveils Google Earth Application - December 4, 2007
  84. Links: Tracking Santa, Netherland Statistics, Boat Parades, OpenAerialMap - December 3, 2007
  85. KFC Logo Stunt Now in Google Earth - November 19, 2007
  86. Armor All Promotion in Google Earth - November 16, 2007
  87. Defense Earmarks in Google Earth - November 7, 2007
  88. Google Earth Christmas Gift: 15% Discount on SpaceNavigator - November 2, 2007
  89. Links: Glider Towing, 3D Bonanza, John Hanke Presentation, Google Maps Profiles, Virtual Earth 3D Modeling - October 19, 2007
  90. Business Layers Have Reviews and Pictures in Google Earth - October 16, 2007
  91. Microsoft Virtual Earth Supports Basic KML and KML Searching - October 15, 2007
  92. Links: Google Maps Zoom, GE Pro Classes, 10 Features of GE, Arc2Earth V2, Spot Image Layer - October 14, 2007
  93. DigitalGlobe New Satellite WorldView I is Black and White? - September 18, 2007
  94. The Gmail Video Collection in Google Earth - August 30, 2007
  95. New Real-Time Traffic Layer in Google Earth - August 21, 2007
  96. Virtual London Project Dead in the Water - August 8, 2007
  97. Using Google Earth and Web 2.0 Mapping Tools for GIS Visualizations - August 7, 2007
  98. News Roundup - Microsoft and KML, Minnesota Bridge, New Competition, and more - August 5, 2007
  99. Energy Production Information for Western US - July 17, 2007
  100. Largest Coca Cola Logo - Made from Bottles - July 12, 2007
  101. Pool Guy Taps Google Earth - July 10, 2007
  102. News Roundup - New GeoSearch, GeoWeb 2007, Traffic Gadget, Earthplot, Environmental Data - July 9, 2007
  103. OgleEarth Roundup: Illegal Fishing Caught, Picasa Web Albums Review, Geo-Ads Patent, HeyWhatsThat - June 28, 2007
  104. News Roundup: GE 4.1 Stuff, Plotting a Trail, Business Reviews, More Second Earth - June 20, 2007
  105. Pict'Earth - UAV Aerial Photography Solutions - June 19, 2007
  106. Road Maps and Local Search for Sweden in Google Earth and Maps - June 13, 2007
  107. News RoundUp: Football Game, VesselTracker, Antarctic Bases, Egyptian Digs, 3D Cities Help, Chimps, Gallery - June 12, 2007
  108. Google Transit in Google Earth - June 5, 2007
  109. ChartGeek - Sectional Maps for Pilots in Google Earth - May 28, 2007
  110. News Roundup - GeoCommons, AC3D, LaudonTech Maps, MacFamilyTree - May 23, 2007
  111. More Roads, POI, 3D Buildings in Google Earth - April 12, 2007
  112. News Roundup: Amsterdam Google GeoDay, Google LitTrips, US Capitol - March 30, 2007
  113. Traditional Advertising Gets Boost in 3D Google Earth - March 27, 2007
  114. Google Earth Classified Ads by Safarri - March 26, 2007
  115. Movie Making Information for 300 in Google Earth - March 20, 2007
  116. gCensus - US Census Data for Google Earth - March 14, 2007
  117. Lloyd's Using Google Earth for Insurance Visualizations - March 12, 2007
  118. Major Layer Update for Google Earth - March 10th - March 10, 2007
  119. News Roundup: Google Earth Resume/CV, Google Maps Interface to BMW cars - March 7, 2007
  120. News Roundup - Tax Collector, Google Federal, Virtual Worlds Conference - February 28, 2007
  121. World Oil Consumption - 3D Charts in Google Earth - February 27, 2007
  122. FedEx Pilots "Smart" Tracking with Google Earth - February 23, 2007
  123. Google Earth Advertising Gets More Credibility - February 21, 2007
  124. News Roundup - India Censorship, SightSeer, Plazes, Education - February 5, 2007
  125. Update to Ads in Google Earth/Maps - February 2, 2007
  126. Shape2Earth - GIS Data to Google Earth - January 29, 2007
  127. Dutch KLM Releases Air Fare Finder in Google Earth - January 24, 2007
  128. News roundup: Google vs. Microsoft, 3D San Jose, Endurance, Weather, Off the Map - January 23, 2007
  129. Google Announces Aerial Photo Shoot for Australia Day - January 26 - January 22, 2007
  130. Google Earth Layers - January 11, 2007
  131. SpaceNavigator Works on Mac OS X - January 9, 2007
  132. News Roundup: GlobeXplorer Acquired by DigitalGlobe, Conferences, Google Telescope - January 8, 2007
  133. Mars Sucks - A Game for Google Earth - December 29, 2006
  134. Amazing Implementation of Marine Charts for Google Earth - December 21, 2006
  135. NASA and Google Sign "Space Act Agreement" - December 18, 2006
  136. Trulia Adds Google Earth for Real Estate Searches - December 5, 2006
  137. Exciting New "3D Mouse" for Google Earth - The SpaceNavigator - November 27, 2006
  138. Exclusive Economic Zones in Google Earth - November 24, 2006
  139. Satellite Photo of KFC Logo and Viral Marketing Scheme - November 17, 2006
  140. CBS News Does Google Earth - November 9, 2006
  141. Baseball, 3D Stadiums, Videos, and Google Earth - November 2, 2006
  142. Cape Town Travel Guide for Google Earth - October 31, 2006
  143. Spanish Architecture Project in 3D by Tagzania - October 27, 2006
  144. Live Flight Sales and Driving Tips with Google Earth - October 26, 2006
  145. James Bond DVD Promotion Using Google Earth - October 20, 2006
  146. News Roundup - October 9, 2006
  147. Google Earth Enterprise in Oil and Gas Industry - October 3, 2006
  148. Ad Campaign for Saturn Aura Uses Google Earth - September 26, 2006
  149. Google Earth Las Vegas - September 22, 2006
  150. Roundup - Pillows, redtrails, earthpoint, Robogeo 5, libferris, virtual land rush - September 20, 2006
  151. Anousheh Ansari Blasts off to Space - September 18, 2006
  152. Interview With Michael Jones - Google Earth Chief Technology Officer - September 14, 2006
  153. Huge New Layers Update in Google Earth - September 13 - September 13, 2006
  154. "Prison Break" on Google Earth - September 11, 2006
  155. CBS News Does Google Earth - Missing Last Step - September 8, 2006
  156. British Airways Uses Google Earth to Improve Online Sales - September 1, 2006
  157. Turnhere.com - Videos About Places - August 15, 2006
  158. Campus Maps with 3D Buildings in Google Earth - August 14, 2006
  159. Music Group Audioslave Uses Google Earth for Promotion - August 4, 2006
  160. Vancouver in 3D for Google Earth - July 21, 2006
  161. Weather Symbols in Google Earth - July 18, 2006
  162. News Roundup - July 15, 2006
  163. Magnalox Provides Live Tracking Interface for Google Earth - July 7, 2006
  164. 1000 Pizzas Publicity Stunt Using Google Earth - June 28, 2006
  165. Win a Free Trip from Surfing Magazine by Using Google Earth - June 21, 2006
  166. RoboGEO - Simplifying Georeferencing of Photos - June 10, 2006
  167. Digital Camera Illustrates Camera Shot with Google Earth - June 4, 2006
  168. Forbes Magazine Article - Maps Mania - June 3, 2006
  169. Pin in the Map - Keep it Simple - May 30, 2006
  170. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Points of Interest in Google Earth - May 26, 2006
  171. See More Recent Aerial Photos in Google Earth - May 22, 2006
  172. Google Earth Business - May 21, 2006
  173. Da Vinci Code Tour in Google Earth - May 17, 2006
  174. Ads in Google Earth - May 10, 2006
  175. Gulf Impact - Analysis of Damage to Oil/Gas Industry from Hurricanes - May 9, 2006
  176. Win a Mazda CX-7 in a Sweepstakes Contest in Google Earth - May 1, 2006
  177. Mission Impossible III Promotion with Google Earth - April 28, 2006
  178. TheCity Local - Google Earth Dating Service - April 26, 2006
  179. City of Bergen Norway Makes Smart Business Move in Google Earth - April 10, 2006
  180. Honda Releases Traffic System in Japan for Google Earth - April 4, 2006
  181. Apple iPod Ad in Google Earth? - March 27, 2006
  182. Business and Google Earth in Information Week - March 22, 2006
  183. Track "Amazing Race" TV Show in Google Earth - March 20, 2006
  184. Google Earth E-mail Signature - March 14, 2006
  185. Bed and Breakfast Locations in Google Earth - March 6, 2006
  186. Here Comes the Oscars - March 5, 2006
  187. Eye in the Sky Advertising - March 4, 2006
  188. EarthPoint - Real Estate Listings with some GIS - March 3, 2006
  189. Arc2Earth Released - March 1, 2006
  190. Giant Frog Attacks Chicago - February 17, 2006
  191. Visualizing Controversial New Buildings in New York in Google Earth - February 6, 2006
  192. CNET Superbowl Guessing Game in Google Earth - February 2, 2006
  193. Win a Fiat Sedici in Google Earth - February 1, 2006
  194. South American Trade in Google Earth - January 27, 2006
  195. Sundance Film Festival "Event Map" in Google Earth - January 24, 2006
  196. KMLer for Converting ArcGIS for Google Earth - January 19, 2006
  197. Real Estate for Google Earth by Re/Max - Again! - January 14, 2006
  198. Top 500 Hotels in Google Earth - Travel + Leisure Magazine - December 28, 2005
  199. Adidas Promotion Uses Google Earth - December 27, 2005
  200. Company Specializes in Google Earth/Maps Services - November 28, 2005
  201. Ski Resorts and Snow Reports in Google Earth - November 21, 2005
  202. Everything You Wanted to Know About Singapore - November 12, 2005
  203. Example of Google Earth Ad - November 8, 2005
  204. EarthBooker - 80,000 Hotels in Google Earth - November 7, 2005
  205. Real Estate Interest in Google Earth Grows - November 1, 2005
  206. NewsGlobe a Geographic Locator for News - October 6, 2005
  207. Cruise Ship Positions and Web Cams - October 5, 2005
  208. Garmin Buys MotionBased - October 4, 2005
  209. ~12 Million Google Earth downloads? Where's Mac/Linux Versions? - September 30, 2005
  210. Google Helps NASA - September 29, 2005
  211. Making Money with Google Earth - September 28, 2005
  212. Security and Privacy Concerns and Google Earth - September 13, 2005
  213. City of Portland GIS Adds 3D Buildings - September 3, 2005
  214. Business Opportunities and Google Earth - August 30, 2005
  215. Real Estate Done Google Earth Style - August 29, 2005
  216. ABC Primetime Uses Google Earth - August 26, 2005
  217. City of Portland GIS - August 25, 2005
  218. EarthPlot - Commercial Software - August 23, 2005
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