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December 10, 2008

Google Earth and Santa 2008

[UPDATE: It's Christmas Eve! The santa tracker is now live!]

Every year since Google Earth was released, Google has provided a way to track Santa as he makes his deliveries around the world. This year is no different, and Google will once again provide tracking based on the data provided from Norad which has been tracking Santa since 1955. But, the tracking doesn't start until Christmas Eve. Visit the www.NoradSanta.org site to see the countdown or download a gadget to keep the countdown handy. On Christmas Eve day, you'll be able to follow Santa with Google Earth (or Google Maps), so make sure to check on that day.

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  Official Santa Tracker - Google officially teamed up with Norad (the US North American Air Defense Command), which has been tracking Santa on their radar system for many years, to officially provide tracking for Santa in Google Earth. You should visit the NORADSanta.org web site to see the countdown to Christmas Eve and some games and other information related to the tracking system (and choose other languages).

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  Santa's Route - You can check out Santa's route right now in Google Earth based on information from Travel by GPS. Click on the "Points" folder and select "Tools->Play Tour" from the GE menu to see a really cool flying tour of the route. Pretend you are Santa! You can E-mail Travel by GPS a placemark from Google Earth for the location of your house, and they will add your house to the route. Click here for more information.
  
  

• Santa from Space - In 2005, one of the Google Earth Community members called 'ear1grey' posted an amazing discovery. He found a huge picture (36 miles tall) of Santa. He made a nifty Google Earth file for kids so they could go find the Santa by following the red nose of Rudolf the reindeer. Download this file and then turn on the "Little world" in your "Temporary Places". Look in the nose of Rudolf for Santa.
  

Don't forget that Google Earth Blog is the best place to learn about the amazing things you can do with Google Earth. Save Google Earth Blog in your bookmarks, or better yet, use the RSS feed.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:27 AM | Comments (0)

December 09, 2008

Google Doubles US Coverage of Street View Imagery

Today Google has doubled the amount of coverage for Street View imagery in the United Sates. Street View is now available in many new cities and states. New cities such as: Memphis, Birmingham, and Charleston, SC. And new states for the first time such as Maine, West Virginia, North Dakota and South Dakota. If you turn on the Street View layer in Google Earth, you can zoom around and get an idea of the scale of the amount of Street View coverage available now in Google Earth and Google Maps (you used to be able to get an overview in Google Maps of the Street View imagery, but I'm not sure how to do that with the newly designed maps interface). There is coverage in roads going between cities and in smaller towns now - not just the major cities. Both Google Maps and Google Earth share the same imagery database, so the availability of the imagery is the same in both platforms. Here is the Official Google Blog post with more details on the new imagery.

Here are some tips on viewing Street View imagery in Google Earth (which is different from the Google Maps experience). And here are a couple of examples from Google's post of some of the new Street View imagery:

Devil's Tower, Wyoming:

View Larger Map

Pyramid Arena, Memphis, Tennessee:

View Larger Map

Posted by FrankTaylor at 02:32 PM | Comments (9)

Making Better 3D Models for Google Earth

Google recently posted at the SketchUp blog about new features in SketchUp 7 that help improve buildings 3D models for Google Earth. The new features help improve the textures for 3D models allowing you to separate each side of a building in the textures so you can re-touch the photos removing obstructions (trees or cars) which block the sides of the building in the photos.

Here is the start of the process using the original photo:

And here is the final result:

Google has a number of useful video tutorials for making models for Google Earth with Sketchup. If you are looking for some real training for SketchUp, the best resource I know is the Google-authorized training company "school". They have some online training webcasts here, you can also purchase some training DVDs, or attend one of the live training classes in locations in the US.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:45 AM | Comments (0)

December 05, 2008

Google Earth Plugin Roundup

Now that the Google Earth plugin is available for the Mac as well as Windows I thought it would be time to make it easier to find plugin related stories at GEB. So, there is now a GE Plugin category for posts on that topic. To help highlight some of the best GE Plugin stories, here is a short roundup of some of the best (in chronological order):

• Announcement of Google Earth Plugin - I attended the Google I/O conference last May and was there when Michael Jones announced the new plugin.

• Monster Milk Truck - The first game made for Google Earth Plugin with a 3D truck you can drive around.

• First wave of plugins - Here are some of the first plugins done by non-Google developers.

• Bouncing Earth - James Stafford makes a controllable animation with the plugin.

• Embedding GE Plugin - Several tools to allow you to embed the GE plugin in a web page without programming.

• 3D Driving Directions - A cool way to show driving directions by driving there with the plugin.

• Real-Time Satellites - See 13,000 satellites around the Earth tracked in real-time. Includes a link to a plugin version available here at GEB.

• EarthAtlas - An application which provides access to a broad range of the features of the plugin - making it closer to the real GE application.

• 3D Building Tour - A cool way of doing architecture walkthrough using the plugin.

• Paragliding simulator - Just like you would expect. Someone created a simulator which uses the plugin to let you fly like you were in a paraglider.

• Frank Gehry Tour - A cool 3D tour of 3D buildings by a famous architect at EarthSwoop which is a plugin-based site which lets you create and view tours for Google Earth viewing.

• Famous Tourist Sites - Another cool tour available at EarthSwoop.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:00 AM | Comments (1)

Links: GE Plugin Update, KML Contest Update, Panoramio Contest, Teaching with GE, Santa Video

• GE Plugin Update - As mentioned Tuesday night, the Google Earth plugin became available for Mac OS X. Google announced the update also included an update to the Windows version as well. The update includes startup time improvements on Windows, KML parsing and renderings speed improvements, and some bug fixes (see release notes). Not only that, but Google released a new game to be played inside the plugin called Puzzler. Check out the GE Plugin catagory here at GEB for lots of plugin examples.

• KML Contest Update - The deadline for the KML in Research contest has been extended to February 1st. Scientists, researchers, and students can submit their research oriented KML and win a Garmin GPS, and Apple iPod Touch.

• Panoramio Contest Winners - Winners of the October Panoramio monthly photo contest have been announced. Winners of the monthly contest get handy photo accessories from the sponsor ATP.

• Teaching with Google Earth - This looks like an excellent resource for GeoScience teachers on using Google Earth to teach. This was forwarded to me by GEB reader Glenn Richard of Stony Brook University. It also has some excellent overviews and guides for teaching with Google Earth which might be useful for any teacher. Definitely worth checking out.

• Santa video - On Sunday, GEB mentioned about how Google is working again with Norad to track Santa with Google Earth on Christmas Eve. And, Norad also has a countdown to Christmas with different games and stuff each day in December. As part of Google's announcement of this year's event, they showed a cool video of Santa's journey last year flying around the world (using Google Earth as a backdrop). This video was created by Transvideo Studios for Google:

• Weather Tools For GE - Got an e-mail a while back from Bryan Guarente who has been working on compiling useful weather KML content into a massive KML network link bundle of weather data. Here is a list of what is in the bundle. Bryan is an instructional designer with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and so has some experience on where to find some good weather resources.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:33 AM | Comments (0)

December 03, 2008

Google Earth Plugin Available Now For Mac OS X

The long-anticipated release of the Google Earth Plugin for the Mac has finally arrived! Mickey at Digital Earth Blog was the first to blog about it - after finding a mention of the new arrival in a forum post.

The forum post noted that the plugin install requires a 47 MByte download. A very large download for a plugin - a Googler responded that the download is actually both the Intel and PowerPC version of the plugin. You can download by visiting any Google Earth Plugin app or visiting the Earth API web site. When I went to install the plugin on my Intel-based MacBookPro it said it would take 147 Mbytes during the install. I have no idea why it would require that much space for the plugin. But, after the install I restarted Firefox and immediately went to EarthSwoop to try some plugin action. The plugin on the Mac worked just as expected! I also tried out the Google Earth API gallery to try some other examples. All worked great.

Having the Google Earth API available for the Mac will most likely result in more widespread support of the plugin for some serious applications. Keep watching this blog for more news on plugin applications.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:45 PM | Comments (7)

Tomb Raider Challenge with Google Earth

In a promotion for the latest Lara Croft game "Tomb Raider Underworld", Atari is running a contest called the Tomb Raider Challenge (GE Plugin and Adobe plugins required) with the opportunity over the next few days for a lucky someone to win a Sony PS3. The fun part is that it uses the Google Earth Plugin to play the game. Basically, you visit the site and are presented each day with a clue. You then have to hunt on the Earth to find the location provided by the clue. If you guess right, after you zoom in close enough, you will see an orange Tomb Raider icon. When you see that, you've found the answer! Click on it and you will be congratulated on deciphering the clue, and can submit your name and E-mail to see if you were first. There is also a bigger "Major Challenge" where you can win a trip around the world, a big screen TV, and a lot of other goodies.

NOTE: At least on my computer it takes quite a while for this web site to load up (over a minute). Once it does load, you have to close the video of "Lara Croft" ("X" button in the lower right) to see the underlying Google Earth plugin and today's challenge.

There's an extensive forum thread all about this challenge at the Tomb Raider Forums. Some people are posting hints on each day's clues. There was also discussion in the thread that apparently the contest is only for folks in New Zealand or Australia. But, I haven't verified that yet.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:32 AM | Comments (4)

December 02, 2008

Vendee Globe in Google Earth

It used to be very difficult to follow the drama of an around-the-world-sailing race. But, the Internet changed all that. One of my all time favorite Internet experiences was following the 2000-2001 Vendee Globe solo non-stop round-the-world race. The shining star of that race was a young 20-something Ellen MacArthur from the UK who managed to take second place in a very dramatic race. Ellen was later awarded an MBE for services to sport - so she's now Dame Ellen MacArthur. Being able to follow the racers' positions on a map and read daily updates and even see pictures and video from solo competitors at sea was a revolution in the sport of round-the-world sailing races. But, the story of Ellen's race was especially captivating.

The Vendee Globe is only held every four years. On November 9th, 2008 the current race began from Les Sables d'Olonne, France. The competitors are currently in the southern Atlantic Ocean and is a very close race so far. Since the last race was held in 2004-2005, this is the first time the Vendee Globe has been held since Google Earth was released. When the race started I was disappointed to find there was no published KML file for viewing the race in Google Earth. They do have a web based map and race tracker.

Fortunately, some enterprising French programmer has created some KML for following the race in Google Earth. You can visit his web site here (french). Here is a link to download the current positions of the racers . Alternatively, I've created a Vendee Globe network link which will automatically load his file and refresh every 6 hours so you can keep the file handy for putting in your My Places in Google Earth.

The data for the Vendee Globe racer positions is available in spreadsheet files at the Vendee Globe rankings page.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:14 AM | Comments (1)

December 01, 2008

Street View for New Zealand Released

Google has released Street View imagery for New Zealand today. It's available in the Street View layer in Google Earth and I'm sure it will be available in Google Maps within minutes or hours from now. Rumors were out this morning based on a premature press release that came out in ComputerWorld. As promised in the press release, it looks like Google did a thorough job creating imagery all over New Zealand. Below are a couple of shots from Street View New Zealand.

Old Ferry Building, Auckland, New Zealand:

View Larger Map

Queenstown, New Zealand:

View Larger Map

Don't forget, you can see full 3D panoramas of each Street View image inside Google Earth. Here are some tips on using Street View in Google Earth.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 02:32 PM | Comments (5)

Tilt Shift Photography Using Google Earth

DigitalUrban blog regularly provides a look at many different visualization techniques for cityscapes with a special emphasis on 3D building views. Recently DigitalUrban has been writing about tilt-shift miniature faking photography (see Wikipedia) - which can be used to make a life-sized location or object look like a miniature scale model. The technique distorts the focus of the photo to simulate a shallow depth-of-field. Using image processing software you can even use normal images and simulate the tilt-shifting technique. This morning, DigitalUrban pointed out Google Earth is an excellent source of material for faked tilt-shift videos and shared a video someone made using the technique with San Francisco as a subject. It's a really cool way to use Google Earth and the "miniature" effect is quite noticeable. Check out the video yourself - produced by Inoue_k3D at Vimeo:

Flight over Miniature San Francisco (Tilt-Shift) from Inoue_k3D on Vimeo

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:05 AM | Comments (1)

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