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Augmented Reality with Google Earth

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have been experimenting with using 3D Google Earth imagery to add live video to the scenery. Adding real events to computer generated scenes by merging video and other forms of visual media is a type of technology known as augmented reality. The researches are in the process of presenting a paper on their new work, but have released a video on YouTube showing some of the results. Adding moving traffic, football teams at play, and people walking in the Google Earth scenery is a pretty amazing thing to watch. In the video, they show how they take multiple views to generate moving 3D renderings which are merged with Google Earth 3D scenes. Check it out here:


This is still the results of academic research, but it demonstrates some possible future visualizations we are likely to see as Google Earth (and related technologies) progress.
via Anything GeoSpatial

About Frank Taylor

Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.

Reader Interactions






PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

Comments

  4. Aulo Aasmaa says

    Good work from every angle but a key to get me really excited about anything is to put some science in it and they had it 🙂 – I liked the scientific simulation of moving cars at the “unobserved area” for creating a complete simulation as this is what makes the technology usable, allowing developers to take only a few “key frames” and clever algorithms fill the gaps :).

  5. alan says

    Interesting to see on the G-Earth platform, but this technology is hardly new. It’s been commercially available for years. One maker of software that performs this task admirably is Skyline.

  6. kay says

    Actually, Skyline is similar to AVE system that maps a single video directly onto the GE, and is different from the approaches above.

  7. Ray says

    I don’t really care for the identity gentrifying animations. I really would like to see more video overlays though. Seems like AVE type systems should be more widely available. This is, at least a good step towards familiarizing the public with videomaps.
    Question: Where is a list of videomaps I can open in GE, RIGHT NOW?

    • Fynder Enlil says

      Tune in releases police radio from 3 days earlier, the NT police destroy CCTV footage that is available for purchase,

      http://www.pfes.nt.gov.au/Access-to-information/CCTV-Footage-from-NT-Police-City-Safe-Cameras.aspx

      If google earth stored and made footage publically available, it could be linked with crime mapping and serve the community.

      I was a big fan of Augmented google earth, adding in sports broadcasts, placing TV shows in correct locations on google earth using this technology.

      Sad more people saw it as an invasion of privacy rather than technological advancement for the improvement of the community.

      Here is an example of the potential applications using 10 years of satellite data,

      http://world.time.com/timelapse/

      Linking Google earth with an archive of news services would be incredibly valuable to historians, adding CCTV and Traffic cams would open up big brother, not usher in a police state.

      I hope Google Augments Google Earth.



PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.