In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Some pretty interesting Google geonews in batch mode.

From official sources:

• Google announced Photo tours in Google Maps: "Photo tours are available for more than 15,000 popular sites around the world [...] To produce these photo tours, we use advanced computer vision techniques to create a 3D experience from public, user-contributed Picasa and Panaromio photos."
• The new 3D buildings announced last month are now available in Google MapsGL
• There's new 45° imagery available for 19 cities, International: Avignon, France; Reus, Spain; Rotterdam, Netherlands; L'Alcudia, Spain; Gandia, Spain; Sueca, Spain; Burgos, Spain; Los Palacios Y Villafranca, Spain, US: Albany, GA; Omaha, NE; Baytown, TX; Miami, FL; Amarillo, TX; Monroe, LA; Manchester, NH; Alexandria, LA; Rapid City, SD; Loudon, TN; Farmington, NM
• Street View is now available in Ukraine

From other sources:

• It's James that made me aware that the Google Maps game 'Maps Cube' is available, I couldn't test it yet on the Linux machine in front of me. Here's how James describes it: "Basically you use your mouse to tilt a 3D cube and have a ball travel down the transportation networks (road, trails, subways, etc). Since we in GIS all know about topology in these networks, the game isn’t as hard as you might expect. Still it’s a pretty amazing example of using HTML + WebGL for web mapping." APB also links to a short PC Mag article on the Maps Cube Game.
• The GEB shares an update on the impressive Data Appeal visualization tool for Google Earth
• Slashdot also ran the story named Google Releases FCC Report On Street View Probe
• If you want analysis of Trimble's acquisition of SketchUp from Google, read more from the GEB, from Spatial Sustain,
• Here's Plymouth, Michigan in 3D
• And to end with something funny, here's UFO Sightings in Google Earth

This comes as a surprise to many, Slashdot discusses Trimble To Acquire Google SketchUp.

Their summary: "It looks like Google is selling off SketchUp or, conversely, Trimble is acquiring it. Despite several indications there will continue to be a free version of the 3D modelling software, users are unsure about what this will mean for the SketchUp community at large as indicated by the comments on the official Google SketchUp Blog post. They are, however, rejoicing that they will be freed from Groups for SketchUp discussions."

From the Trimble press release: "[...] we are committed to continuing to provide SketchUp as a free version to millions of users."

We of course mentioned tons of times SketchUp, which is a popular tool to generate 3D models. Trimble also found the road to our users quite a few times.

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode.

From the open source front:

• Here's a DM summary entry on FOSS4G-NA 2012 that I haven't shared yet, and it's pretty informative
• There's a new video showing us uDig features
• Here's examples of using QGIS in local government, related to QGIS, here's an entry on What's New in QGIS Plugins
• A technical entry on dynamic WMS styling with GeoServer with SLD
• Here's an interesting web browser memory usage experiment for OpenLayers

From the Google front:

• Google announce new StreetView imagery for Israel in an entry named Exploring Jerusalem’s Old City streets with Street View
• There's also an update to the Google Maps API deprecation policy and Terms of Service
• The GEB reminds us the options we have for Sharing your favorite locations in Google Earth

On the Microsoft front:

• You can now Find Venue Maps, Businesses and Buildings Faster on Bing Maps
• Bing Maps is Reducing the Complexity of Rendering Shapes

Discussed over Slashdot:

• A "Big Brother Chip", the Broadcom 4752, that acts as a ubiquitous location chip using everything available: "global navigation satellites, cell phone towers, and Wi-Fi hot spots, coupled with input from gyroscopes, accelerometers, step counters, and altimeters"
• A GPS system that will speed up tsunami warnings
• The Physical Travelling Salesman Challenge
• Using satellite imagery to counting Emperor Penguins from space

Directions Mag articles of note:

• The Top 10 Things You Should Know about GIS Certification, including "In 2012, more than 5,000 people are active GISPs." and "Eight states have recognized and endorsed the GISP"
• A Q&A entry about Is Intergraph’s New GeoMedia Smart Client for You?

In the everything else category:

• The ESA mentions Envisat's mapping of ice shelf disintegration in Antarctic and update on the investigation of Envisat woes, being offline since early April
• @Thierry_G links to interesting impressions on the Where 2012 conference titled From Where 2.0 To Just Where; With Meh 2.0 Somewhere In The Middle, asking where is the geospatial excitement today?
• Via Paul I found this extreme video example of augmented reality
• APB has an entry on TomTom’s New Global Geocoder Targets Power Users
• SS shares a perspective named Have the geospatial technology frontiers changed much in three years?
• SS also shares an interesting summary of a session on capacity building and the expansion of the global geospatial marketplace to a billion plus people

In the maps category:

• O'Reilly shares two visualizations, one on The history of shipping routes and the other on Mapping the Titanic's passengers

Here's the recent Google related geonews in batch mode.

From official sources:

• With 100$ kit you can get your own balloon and kite imagery for display in Google Earth, this was also discussed over Slashdot
• You can now easily snap your photos to a location in Panoramio
• There's an entry on remembering the Titanic in Google Earth
• There's a map example from the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG with Google Maps API
• The dev blog also shared a Zombie Survival Map that uses Google services!
• Maybe be useful is visualizing U.S. demographics using Google Maps API for Business and a related announcement of Analytics for Google Maps API for Business
• And there was an imagery update to Google Earth & Maps this week, tons of areas impacted

From the GEB:

• The GEB informs us on ways of using Google Earth on Earth Day
• There's New Street View imagery in Israel and Ukraine
• Also on the Titanic topic, the voyage of the Titanic in Google Earth
• And you can now fly a jetpack in Google Earth
• Still from the GEB, view the recently discovered animal-shaped mounds in Peru
• The GEB finally informs us that the unofficial Google Earth Flight Simulator gets a new home and a slew of enhancements

Google is clearly one of the most news-generating entity in the geospatial industry. Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From official sources:

• Google now uses live traffic data alongside with historical data  for trip durations in Google Maps, they use the My Location feature on Google Maps for Android to extrapolate live traffic conditions. This news was also discussed over Slashdot
• And if that isn't enough, we now get typical traffic for roads, not just highways
• Here are the finalists for the Google Model Your Town Competition 2012
• Google Maps for Android got a fresh look with version 6.5
• Google released the Google Maps Floor Plan Marker app, to help orient customer in businesses 
• Mix art and Street View and you get the Google Art Project
• You can now see service alerts for the London Underground in Maps
• Traffic and Transit Come to Google Maps in Malaysia
• And there's new 45° imagery available for 15 cities: US: Atlanta, GA; Canyon Lake, TX; Charleston, SC; Dallas, TX; Houston, TX; Lakeland, FL; Lubbock, TX; Orlando, FL; Port Charlotte, FL; Roanoke, TX; San Luis Obispo, CA; Smyrna, TN; Walker, LA. International: Adelaide, Australia; Cordoba, Argentina
• The Weather Layer is now available in the Google Maps API

From other sources:

• The GEB found out about the latest imagery update in Google Earth yesterday
• The GEB also shares an entry named Exposing Shantytowns in India with Google Earth

In February we mentioned that Google augmented reality glasses were in development, well, there's still in development but the Google Project Glass augmented reality glasses has been unveiled. The location-based features are numerous.

Slashdot discussed the story and there's articles on The Verge, The New York Times and Wired. From Wired: "The concept video for the Glass project concentrates on the cool things you may do with it one day — create instant contact with friends, monitor feeds about weather and other info, get information about a subway station out of service, receive turn by turn directions on the way to a destination, snap a picture by command, even find your way to a certain tome in the labyrinthine Strand bookstore. Everything works perfectly because, well, it’s a concept video and not a depiction of something that’s actually perfected. But Googlers have been testing prototypes and have already solved some (not all) of the challenges required to make this real and feasible."

Here's the video:

While this is an April Fools related story, it's 100% real and live, at least for today. I learned about it on Slashdot in a story named Google Maps Introduces 8-Bit Quest Maps. StreetView is quite bizarre in 8 bits...

From the official Google Lat Long blog: "With Google Maps 8-bit, you can do all the things you already do on regular Google Maps. Search for famous landmarks and sites around the world. Take an epic journey with 8-bit Street View. Get detailed directions to avoid dangerous paths, and battle your way through a world of powerful monsters and mystic treasures."

The Slashdot summary: "Today users of Google Maps will notice a new mapping option — 'Quest' — alongside the usual 'Map' and 'Satellite' views. Quest view renders the planet in a retro 8-bit fantasy video game style, including renders of famous landmarks such as the White House and the Eiffel Tower. Even Pegman gets in on the game, now taking on the appearance of a sword wielding 8-bit adventurer, allowing you to witness Street View through 8-bit eyes. Basically, imagine a fully functioning Google Maps on an NES."

The 2-minutes video shows what this is about and is funny (but you'll have to test StreetView yourself since they don't show it in the video).

Bloggage update: Here is a small selection of mapping tools available on the iPad. Some are from the Appstore, others simply from the web. The upshot is that while there is a variety of apps available for iPads, web maps appear to work just as well. The advent of HTML5 will especially help in rendering vector maps on smartphone limited bandwidth.

That's the name of a story discussed by Slashdot, Google Using ReCAPTCHA To Decode Street Addresses.

Their summary: "Apparently some users of reCAPTCHA have recently begun seeing photographs appear in their CAPTCHA puzzles — photos that look very much like zoomed in house numbers taken from Google Streetview. It appears that Google has decided to put the reCAPTCHA system to help clean up Google streetview images, and 'according to a Google spokesperson, the system isn't limited to street addresses, but also involves street names and even traffic signs.' A large collection of these has appeared on the Blackhatworld website."

Let me add from Google: "We’re currently running an experiment in which characters from Street View images are appearing in CAPTCHAs. We often extract data such as street names and traffic signs from Street View imagery to improve Google Maps with useful information like business addresses and locations. Based on the data and results of these reCaptcha tests, we’ll determine if using imagery might also be an effective way to further refine our tools for fighting machine and bot-related abuse online."

Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From official sources:

• On the developers blog, they introduced the Store Locator Utility Library: "This open-source library makes it simple for developers to create interactive, useful store locators."
• Last week Google announced you can visit the Amazon with Street View
• You can also now take a train through the Swiss Alps with Street View
• There's a Street View Guide to Japan’s Cherry Blossom Season too
• And finally regarding StreetView, Street View on Google Maps comes to Thailand and explore Poland on Street View
• There's a screencast on debugging a Maps API application with the Chrome Developer Tools
• Here's the official entry on the latest imagery update

From other sources:

• SS informs us of Google's work on an open source field data collection tool called the Open Data Kit: "It supports GPS data collection, the integration of images from a phone camera sensor, the capture of audio, and video. It provides a means to present multiple forms on one device, with automated connection to networks when the device is within range, and automated upload to Google’s Fusion Tables."
• The GEB has another entry on viewing satellites positions with Google Earth
• SS also shares an article on the Google Earth Engine, named Google Promotes Terrapixels for Everyone, that's a long time since we last heard of the Google Earth Engine
• Here's a new rally racing game in Google Earth, using the GE Plugin
• APB informs us that Google got a patent on “Environment” based ads