Google Earth: Explore the World with Virtual Flyovers and Directions

[Ivan Seeking]

...Practically speaking, Google Earth, as the technology is called, allows users to get directions and find businesses and share the information with friends. But the ability to zoom in from space to street level and take virtual flyovers inevitably will elicit a chorus of gee-whizzes. [continued]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/06/29/GOOGLE.TMP&type=tech

 

[meteor]

Gee-whiz

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/5717/spain2vj.jpg
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/989/barcelona9ch.jpg

 

[meteor]

It's also possible to slant the images, to get a more accentuated 3D sensation

The Rock of Gibraltar

http://img285.imageshack.us/img285/4903/gibraltar2wp.jpg



Cape Town

http://img285.imageshack.us/img285/3306/capetown1dr.jpg

 

[darkar]

Are u using Legacy database or new database?
AFAIK, it seems that the image is more detail in LEgacy database.

The good points of Google Earth / Keyhole are that u can know geographical places well, improve ur geographical sense. And in GE, u can use GPRS add on...

The bad thing is that my hometown and my country is just not so clear...

 

[meteor]

The new, the so-called primary database. Do not despair about your country, possibly there will be upgrades to the software in the future, to polish the regions that are not in high resolution. I've been thinking about the potential of this technology, and I think that would be stupendous a virtual reality version, with the helmet and such, so you could experience a very real sensation of flying over Earth. Moreover, what about a video game, e.g. a RPG, having as scenario the very surface of Earth?

Some more pictures taken during my trip around Earth...

Kingston Town

http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/1513/kingston5pv.jpg

Mao, in Minorca (I did my military service in that city, a whole year, yep)

http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/6585/mao9ku.jpg

Berlin

http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/1263/berlin3dz.jpg

 

[brewnog]

This thing's amazing!

 

[Astronuc]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/06/29/GOOGLE.TMP&type=tech

Alternatively - http://earth.google.com/ - powered by Keyhole.

Needs about 2 GB on an HD. Check system requirements before downloading.

 

[JamesU]

this is why googlness needs to be a word...

 

[Galileo]

Check this out:

http://maps.google.com/

You can scan the Earth from satellite pictures online.
Note that some areas have higher resolution than others.

 

[moose]

Everyone who has this check out Mount Everest, when you move around zoomed into it, you feel as if it is 3D. It's amazing. So just get there and move around at an eye altitude of about 40000 feet.

 

[hypnagogue]

This program is amazing. For fun, I juxtaposed a Google Earth 3D image of Yellowstone Canyon in Yellowstone National Park with a photo I took while actually there. Damn impressive.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Damn impressive.

No kidding!

 

[darkar]

Maybe u should also check the bbs of google eath/keyhole. THe comunity there always share their fun with others.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Dodger Stadium

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/6729/dodgerstadium25mv.jpg

 

[Integral]

I found an interesting little nook. If you follow I80 up from Auburn towards Reno you will see a corner were they have tried to match a high resolution tile with a low resolution.
See it at.
38 58' 52.84" N
121 00' 23.08"W

http://home.comcast.net/~Integral50/glitch.jpg

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I found an interesting little nook. If you follow I80 up from Auburn towards Reno you will see a corner were they have tried to match a high resolution tile with a low resolution.
See it at.
38 58' 52.84" N
121 00' 23.08"W

http://home.comcast.net/~Integral50/glitch.jpg

[/URL]

There are some funky glitches. If you fly to one place and then enter another fly-to location that the program doesn't recognize, such as the Eiffel Tower, sometimes the program gets lost. On on occasion it placed Mount St. Helens in downtown Portland. :uhh: Okay, I haven't been to Portland for awhile, but I'm guessing that's not right.

I was wondering if they have inserted any additional information for the horizontal view of key sites, but I didn't spot anything. Has anyone else? I checked places like New York, Devils Tower Wyoming, the Queen Mary, Dodger Stadium, Mt. Rushmore, Mt. St. Helens, and other places of interest that I thought might have additional data.

Oh, here you go ZapperZ, how about Disneyworld? I hadn't thought of that one.

The view of Dodger Stadium absolutely blew me away. For all practical purposes, I've sat there for before! I wonder how long it will be until we can watch a game this way! :tongue2:

 

[hitssquad]

With the 3D-buildings feature enabled, its rendition of the Transamerica Pyramid is distorted. It shows it as perfectly straight up and down, instead of pyramid shaped.

 

[Kazza_765]

NASA has a similar program called WorldWind. It doesn't have access to photos of the same resolution as Google , except within the US. It does let you choose between different satellites though, including one outside the visible light range. Interestingly, when I first downloaded this about two months ago, photos of the White House were pixellated, now they are clear. Also, some satellites had images missing from where area 51 is supposed to be.

 

[darkar]

you know where is area 51?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Its about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. And we do know for a fact that it's really there. There have been law suits involving former employees which forced the gov to admit that the testing facility does exist. Also, many photos were taken, but now the boundary has been expanded to prevent this from happening.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Area 51

http://img281.imageshack.us/img281/1312/area513vs.jpg

 

[lwymarie]

You can even find the Pentagon! Amazing...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Look what I found by zooming in on Area 51!

http://img285.imageshack.us/img285/9033/roswellfunufo9dy.jpg

 

[darkar]

Oh my! Aliens do exist!
Umm, btw, Ivan, arent u an alien too? Your avatar... SO the green one is the one u killed?

 

[hitssquad]

More distortions. Check out Millerton Lake in California. GPS 370000N by 1194217W. It shows it as a huge mountain of water, hundreds of feet higher than the dam holding it back.

 

[Kazza_765]

Ahh, you can get photos of area 51 in google earth, with World Wind all the photos of that area were missing.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Ahh, you can get photos of area 51 in google earth, with World Wind all the photos of that area were missing.

Note that key details, like the length of the runway, are impossible to make out. I don't think Groom Lake is really that white.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A personal comment on Area 51: Talk about a public relations disaster! Intended to be one of the most secret places on earth, who hasn't heard of it?

 

[hitssquad]

Note that key details, like the length of the runway, are impossible to make out.

The one extending into Groom Lake seems to be 25,300 feet long by 100 feet wide. The short one next to it seems to be 11,960 feet long by 140 feet wide.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The one extending into Groom Lake seems to be 25,300 feet long by 100 feet wide. The short one next to it seems to be 11,960 feet long by 140 feet wide.

I don't think the long one seen running all the way through is a runway; It looks like a road. As for the short one, are you only considering what's visible? That being the point after all.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Or have we gone all the way around. First it wasn't there, now there's nothing to hide?

 

[hitssquad]

I don't think the long one seen running all the way through is a runway; It looks like a road.

The second link below says, "Until recently, the facility was supported by one 12,400 long 100 foot wide hard surface runway, which extends onto the dry lake bed North, giving it a total length of 25,300 feet or 4.8 miles." The wording seems to leave open the possibility that the part extending into Groom Lake is not paved.

As for the short one, are you only considering what's visible?

I'm only considering what John Pike wrote here:
http://www.fas.org/irp/overhead/groom.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/overhead/ikonos_040400_overview_02-f.htm

 

[hitssquad]

Ivan,

Check the poles of the globe. They're puckered.

And in Juneau, Alaska, you can fly underneath the streets. Even the street names float above you, and they are inversed.

 

[hitssquad]

Hmmm. The Juneau streets are no longer floating for me.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Hmmm. The Juneau streets are no longer floating for me.

Maybe alcohol would help. :tongue2: But yes, I've found all sorts of bugs as well.

I was hoping for a good shot of my house and property but the frame for this area is low resolution. I went outside and waved but didn't see anything on the computer. Corvallis looks good though.

As for Area 51, I've heard of a five mile runway, but that should be much wider than indicated... The thing is though, people have gotten good shots of most of this stuff with telephoto lenses before the boundary was expanded. So much of this is quite well documented.