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Google Earth For Sailors and Travelers

August 12, 2010

tahina-logo.pngA big part of the experience of sailing around the world is meeting up with other sailors doing similar routes. In French Polynesia, we have had numerous opportunities to meet up with the crews of boats we have met along the way, and many new boats as well. As a big fan of Google Earth, I have been making sure to share tips on some of the ways I am making use of Google Earth as we sail. Many of these tips apply equally to many other forms of travel. One thing is apparent, few people realize some of the less-known, but best features of Google Earth for travel.
Here are some important tips on Google Earth’s lesser-known features that every sailor (and many other travelers) should know:
1) Google Earth can be used without an Internet connection – As we are traveling, I actually use Google Earth more without an Internet connection than with. Many people aren’t aware that Google caches the last 2 GBytes (if your cache is set to the maximum) of imagery/layers you last loaded. What I do is visit the places I’m about to travel to (in particular the anchorages) and make sure to load the imagery of those places most important to me. It’s important not to load too large an area or the cache will start forgetting the older stuff. Once we are on a passage (with no easy way to be on the Internet) we can still load Google Earth and view those last places loaded. I can view what the appraoch to an anchorage is like, and the places we plan to visit while reading other guide materials or charts we have. Read more about using Google Earth off the Internet.
2) The Ruler – I frequently make use of the Google Earth ruler to measure distances between places we are going, or the places we have already traveled. You can change the units (I frequently use the “nautical miles” units) to help convert to local measures. Also, you can trace out paths, not just single measurements (look for the tabs at the top of the window that pops up to find the “Paths” tab). This is very handy for measuring routes. As a sailor, I often use this feature to check distances on passages, determine the best places to anchor, estimate dinghy runs, and distances we’ll have to walk to grocery stores and customs offices.
3) GPS Tracks – if you have a GPS, you can take your saved GPS tracks and use many free programs to convert your track to GPX. Some GPS programs will even output your GPS tracks directly to Google Earth’s KML. But, Google Earth will read GPX files as well. Simply open your KML or GPX file of your track. The new Google Earth 5.2 presents you with a new option to save your file as a “track”. This lets you play back the track with some new features like the time slider. I also recommend a free online program called “GPSVisualizer” to generate highly customized GPS tracks for use with Google Earth.

ge-track.jpg

4) GPS in Real-time – Google Earth can connect directly to many GPSes. Look for the option under “Tools->GPS”. If you have a Garmin with a USB connection, it is very simple. You can also use the NMEA option to connect. Read more about that in the Google Earth user guide. Once you have your GPS connected, Google Earth can show your position in real-time. It makes Google Earth into something like a 3D “chart plotter”. Google Earth is not to be used for navigation purposes. The data is not intended for that, so it is not guaranteed to be accurate enough to sail by. However, using it as an additional reference has proven to be very effective. The satellite is often (but, not always) good enough to see underwater obstructions (such as coral heads, rocks, and even sunken ships). It has also been handy for seeing the best route through passes. In fact, I have often found GE imagery is more accurately placed than my electronic charts. You need to remember some of the imagery can be several years old though. The imagery is definitely not real-time (read about Google Earth imagery).
5) Many other uses – I also share our position reports, GPS tracks, and photography using Google Earth. You can share your photos for free with Google’s Panoramio – which lets you map the positions of each photo when you upload them (or you can do the geotagging with another program). The photos will later appear on Google Earth and Google Maps for everyone to see as icons when the Panoramio/Photos layer is turned on. I also take 360 Panoramas and upload them to 360cities.net, which are also viewable on Google Earth, or you can put them on your web site (see example). Most importantly, I often use Google Earth while on the Internet to do research on the places we are going to find information and pictures about popular places to visit. Turning on the Panoramio layer is a fast way to find popular places (more photos in the most interesting spots). I also showed a bunch of sailors how to use Google Earth to show the best place to watch the solar eclipse that occurred over the central Pacific waters on July 11th.
These are just a few of the many ways I use Google Earth while sailing/traveling. They are all free, and easily available to anyone. All you have to know is that they exist, and how to use them.

Filed Under: Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Navigation, Network Links, Sailing, Sightseeing

New GPS Satellites Launched

June 2, 2010

Every day, we rely a little more on GPS satellites for both work and pleasure. Along with items like your car GPS navigation system, many items in Google Earth (such as these ships, real-time air traffic or following Frank) require GPS to enable us to see their current location.
Last week, the U.S. Air Force launched a new satellite (the GPS IIF SV-1), the first in a series of launches aimed at replacing all 24 existing satellites over the next 10 years.
These new satellites offer a variety of enhancements over the existing ones. The most important part of this project is to simply replace them. Numerous reports are concerned that the existing network may begin to fail due to age. This will obviously remedy that.
In addition, these new satellites will provide a stronger, more accurate signal. Rather than the roughly 20 foot accuracy that you currently receive, the new ones will allow for accuracy down to about 3 feet. In addition, the stronger signal will help more GPS units to function properly indoors, which could be a big boost for various augmented reality tools that are beginning to find their way into the marketplace.
You can view the launch of the IIF SV-1 (aboard the Delta IV rocket) below:


The launch of the next satellite (GPS IIF SV-2) is scheduled for November, 2010.

Filed Under: Navigation, Science, Video

Links: Burj Dubai, Historical Imagery Updates, Updated EveryTrail App

January 5, 2010

Burj Dubai: The tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai Khalifa (Update: renamed after opening), opened to the public yesterday. At over 800 meters tall, it is by far the tallest building on the planet. You can view it in Google Earth (KML) or view it here using the Google Earth Plug-in.

Burj Dubai

Historical Imagery Update Information: As pointed out by Stefan at Ogle Earth, Google’s Imagery Update KML now includes information about previous updates as well.
EveryTrail Update: We’ve talked about EveryTrail a few times in the past (GE5 tour support, updated layer, etc), as it’s a very slick GPS-oriented trip-sharing service. They’ve just released version 3 of their iPhone app, which has some great additions such as the ability to follow trips on an interactive map, see your current route being drawn on the map, and a lot of sharing capabilities with Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Here’s a brief video showing off the new app:




Filed Under: 3D Models, Environment, Google Earth Tips, GPS, Navigation, Sightseeing, Tours, Video

Links: Audi A8 with Google Earth, Liquid Galaxy, Deer Hunting, StreetView in the snow

December 10, 2009

Audi A8 with Google Earth: The new Audi A8 comes with a lot of neat toys, including integrated Google Earth! The car connects to the internet via 3G, which it uses for a variety of purposes. It pushes the 3G out via wifi for anyone in the car that needs it (similar to the Verizon MiFi), and it also streams Google Earth imagery to the navigation system.
Detailed information about the Google Earth integration is lacking, but you can see it in action for a just a few seconds in the video below (skip ahead to the 7:24 mark). It shows 3D buildings (some photorealistic, some gray), just like you’d see in Google Earth.


Liquid Galaxy: At Google I/O earlier this year, they showed off a cool thing they called the “Holodeck” — a 360 degree booth that surrounds you with StreetView imagery. They’ve now renamed it “Liquid Galaxy” and integrated a special version of Google Earth to work with it. They’ve brought it to the COP15 conference in Copenhagen, and they’ll be bringing it to other conferences in the future. I hope to maybe try it out at Where 2.0 this spring.
Liquid Galaxy

Deer Hunting with Google Earth: A man in Illinois shot a 25-point buck after studying Google Earth to determine probable routes that the deer would take. He staked out his position based on that information and was able to get his shot just before dusk. It turned out to be a lucky shot (deflected off a tree branch, pierced the deer’s ear, which then fell down a bank into the creek and drowned), but it’s interesting that he used Google Earth to find the best location.
StreetView in the snow: A few days ago, in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Google hit the slopes in Vancouver and captured some StreetView imagery using a snowmobile outfitted with their cameras.
I would have to guess that the development of the StreetView trikes helped make this possible, as it was likely a similar system.
StreetView Snowmobile in Vancouver
No word on a release date for this imagery, but the Olympics begin on February 12, so I’m sure we’ll see it sometime before then.

Filed Under: Applications, Environment, Flying, Navigation, Sightseeing, Video

Links: Load KMZ files on handheld Garmin devices, video of NASA rocket crashing into the moon

October 9, 2009

KMZ in a Garmin deviceGarmin has quietly released a pretty cool beta update for some of their devices; the Colorado, Oregon and Dakota, specifically. This update allows users to create image overlays in Google Earth, then load the resulting KMZ file on their device. Once loaded, the overlay will simply appear as part of the map when they view that area.
The instructions are pretty straightforward for anyone that has built an image overlay before. Simply build the overlay, save it your PC, and upload it to your device. It looks quite slick. Hopefully more devices and services will start supporting the KML/KMZ format, making the datasets in Google Earth even more useful.
Rich and Scott have both posted blog entries with tips on doing this with your Garmin. Rich covers some best practices for creating these maps to keep redraws to a minimum, while Scott gives a step-by-step walkthrough, along with a resolution chart to keep things looking sharp on your device. (via SlashGeo)
Also today, as you may have heard, NASA intentionally crashed a segment of a rocket into the moon to study the impact. Keir has built a simple page that lets you browse the moon, the Cabeus Crater where the impact occured, and view a video of the impact as an overlay on top of the moon.
You can read more about the mission on the NASA website, or view the video below for a raw look at the impact:

Filed Under: GE Plugin, GPS, Navigation, Video

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