New Google Earth Stuff

[KimB]

Thought some people here might be a bit interested in this. Google just announced that they're developing new 3D imagery for Google Earth:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18348674

Here's a short flyby demo of some of the new stuff:

And here's the (rather long) press event where this was demoed:

Includes a lot of other stuff.

Edit: The stuff on the new 3D tech starts at 37:45.

 

[liem107]

Wow, it's amazing to see that some companies like IBM and Google are still investing in gigantic and really challenging projects with a broad vision of the future beyond immediate pecuniary intent. Bravo Google. This new Goole Earth is a big step forward in terms of realism... I wonder if they are going to fusion G Earth and Maps?

 

[KimB]

Wow, it's amazing to see that some companies like IBM and Google are still investing in gigantic and really challenging projects with a broad vision of the future beyond immediate pecuniary intent. Bravo Google. This new Goole Earth is a big step forward in terms of realism... I wonder if they are going to fusion G Earth and Maps?

That's available now, actually, as long as your computer supports WebGL. Head over to maps, click "try out MapsGL" on the lower left. And if your computer supports it, you'll get an "Earth" option on the map, but will have to download a plugin for it to work. I don't know if this works in anything but Chrome at the moment.

 

[Grall]

Apple bought a company that was doing just this the other year, and rumors have it next version of iOS will have it integrated.

 

[KimB]

Apple bought a company that was doing just this the other year, and rumors have it next version of iOS will have it integrated.

Yeah. My understanding is that's basically why Google made this announcement today: rumors are that Apple is supposed to announce something related next week. Either way, I think it looks very cool. I'll also be interested to see what Apple is showing, but seeing as I've got no Apple devices, well, it's inherently less interesting to me.

 

[RudeCurve]

Google Maps will get booted in favor of iMaps for the upcoming iPhone 5 and iOS devices.

 

[KimB]

Google Maps will get booted in favor of iMaps for the upcoming iPhone 5 and iOS devices.

Well, I'm sure that Google will continue to try to offer Google Maps for the upcoming iOS devices, competing directly with Apple's version. It will be interesting to see whether users will prefer the Apple version, or will continue to use Google Maps.

In particular, it is really, really tough to make a reliable mapping product. Google's product still falls down on reliability from time to time, but has spent a heck of a lot more time and money getting its reliability up than Apple has had a chance to spend. So it'll be interesting to see how they compare at launch, and what people will think of the two products.

 

[Arwin]

I was quite surprised a few months ago that I started up Google Maps on my Vita and found it to display the traffic jam I was in and everything. I've used it to find an address three times now in the car when my iPhone was broken (I normally use TomTom software), and it's pretty good in terms of quality.

 

[Davros]

My mother is on google street view

 

[Grall]

Apple's Maps apps looked really really solid and polished on the WWDC presentation. What they did not show was a Street View-equivalent functionality - so I would assume it doesn't have that (yet?), but everything else was just great. Including realtime crowd-sourced traffic information feed and such.

 

[KimB]

Apple's Maps apps looked really really solid and polished on the WWDC presentation. What they did not show was a Street View-equivalent functionality - so I would assume it doesn't have that (yet?), but everything else was just great. Including realtime crowd-sourced traffic information feed and such.

Here's the video I could find:

It was...okay. But about the same as what Google offers now. Except for the flyover bit. It will be interesting to see how that compares at launch (both in launch time and quality).

 

[RobertDCoover]

I think Bing Search engine has also introduced the 3D thing..Right?

 

[KimB]

I think Bing Search engine has also introduced the 3D thing..Right?

Hmm, interesting. Yes. It has it. But it's not fully-animated yet. Just a few fixed views.

 

[Mintmaster]

I have a feeling that Google is going to be earning tens of thousands of dollars of my money during my lifetime. There's going to be some insane synergy between this and the Google driverless car.

 

[KimB]

I think Bing Search engine has also introduced the 3D thing..Right?

Actually, I looked at this a bit more closely, and they basically do a rough approximation of 3D by having a few images with different views displayed. They don't fully animate the scene because they haven't actually generated a 3D mesh for it. You can see this because they try to shade the road labels to make it look as if it's 3D, but sometimes they shade the road labels incorrectly, making them appear in front of the buildings when they should be behind.

It's a pretty neat effect, and looks quite good. But I don't think it holds a candle to the stuff coming from Google and Apple here.

 

[Arwin]

I have to agree with patsu that gameplay applications for this are pretty exciting. There was this PS3 game that did it with 2D and was already amusing, but doing this in 3D would be something else entirely.

 

[Blazkowicz]

I had fun, looking at the little photographs planted on the map, in google earth.
I find a town in siberia. how the hell are there people living there? (if not for the fact it's a gazprom town).

I was fooling around on wikipedia, don't remember why I got on Ivan the Terrible's page but he conquered the Khanate of Sibir amongst other things.
well after a few steps, wasting my time, I end up in Salekhard in Google Earth, and quickly in the towns across the river.

look at pictures, then follow the railroad on the north.
there are vast, beautiful, entirely natural and totally unknown landscapes, with magnificent and colorful flowers sometimes (obviously >90% of pictures are at summer time). good shots of railroad bridges.
I say to myself, there's no way this can get very far, right? we're past polar circle. but it goes on!

I then found people living like inuits, that was marvelous. I lose track of railroad, does it end or is the res too low I don't know, there are still industrial settlements and other outposts. wild reindeers!
the icing on the top was going so far as finding a polar bear (but on an article isle so that's cheating)

just one image, wow there's that at 71° North :

 

[Ike Turner]

ERm...Microsoft's Virtual Earth 5 years ago..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPk20BEJ5S0

aka Bing Maps 3D which has now been discounted (but still available here http://www.bing.com/maps/Help/VE3DInstall/ ) :

and will be replaced by Nokia's Maps 3D which is already available since last year here:

http://maps.nokia.com/3D/

 

[Blazkowicz]

you're right, that has been done before.
seen also on Géoportail for select sites, done years ago, but a stupid plugin is needed and I'm wary of crashing my browser so I'll pass.

I used to drool on Géoportail because it has high res aerial photography of all french territoires (it's done by the IGN, "national geographic institute").
but then Google dramatically catched up and we got high res everywhere with their service too.

the software aspects are almost trivial, what only matters is the quality and extent of the datasets.

 

[KimB]

you're right, that has been done before.
seen also on Géoportail for select sites, done years ago, but a stupid plugin is needed and I'm wary of crashing my browser so I'll pass.

I used to drool on Géoportail because it has high res aerial photography of all french territoires (it's done by the IGN, "national geographic institute").
but then Google dramatically catched up and we got high res everywhere with their service too.

the software aspects are almost trivial, what only matters is the quality and extent of the datasets.

Interesting. My understanding, however, is that previous attempts had very low coverage, whereas Google intends to have global coverage of their 3D maps, which has just been too expensive for others to do before now. I'm not sure how long it will take to get there, but it will be interesting to see how well Apple competes with coverage.