Wow! I can see my house from here!
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LumenHound
Flashlight Enthusiast
It's fun software to play around with but be advised that the images of some areas can be many years old. The images of my property show a mature Poplar tree in my backyard that I cut down about 5 years ago.
Local construction and arterial roadway expansion is a more reliable way of dating the images.
The Ruler feature is handy for checking out the distance your flashlight can throw from a known point.
Has anyone compared Nasa's World Wind program to Google Earth?
Local construction and arterial roadway expansion is a more reliable way of dating the images.
The Ruler feature is handy for checking out the distance your flashlight can throw from a known point.
Has anyone compared Nasa's World Wind program to Google Earth?
ViReN
Flashlight Enthusiast
check this out too, it's based on google earth API, www.wikimapia.com
Illum
Flashaholic
qip said:
NASA's is called the "world wind" with significantly higher detail and resolution to CERTAIN areas where google earth has not updated 10 years ago...yes 10 years ago, my house still shows with orange groves behind it, its been a neighborhood there since I moved here...
Problem with world wind is that it requires a specific video card and system config criteria inorder to run it without the PC locking, while google earth can be ran on any video card, from the radeon chips to the [POS] 32meg intel xtreme graphics
gadget_lover
Flashaholic
Some of the images are from satellites, some is from aerial photography.
As noted, none of the map systems will tell you exactly when the the picture was taken. I was looking at mapquest the other day and saw a white car parked in front of my house. If it's teh one I think it is, that car was wrecked years ago.
A co-worker discovered google maps last summer. He brought up his address and said he was checking to see if his wife was home yet. He thought the satellite was giving a live feed.
A fun game is to look for signs that date the picture. Foliage or lack of it, for instance. In my case one site has the garbage cans on the curb, which makes it monday morning.
Daniel
As noted, none of the map systems will tell you exactly when the the picture was taken. I was looking at mapquest the other day and saw a white car parked in front of my house. If it's teh one I think it is, that car was wrecked years ago.
A co-worker discovered google maps last summer. He brought up his address and said he was checking to see if his wife was home yet. He thought the satellite was giving a live feed.
A fun game is to look for signs that date the picture. Foliage or lack of it, for instance. In my case one site has the garbage cans on the curb, which makes it monday morning.
Daniel
bobisculous
Flashlight Enthusiast
Hey, that Wikimapia is cool.
I know Houston was just recently updated. The new images are still rather old, but still newer than what was there.
-C
I know Houston was just recently updated. The new images are still rather old, but still newer than what was there.
-C
gadget_lover said:
I never get tired of telling friends and relatives to go outside and "wave" while the rest of the family watches the computer... :lolsign:
The fact that the stitched together images are of obviously different seasons (Ice on lakes, one block over, green trees blocking the view etc.) never seems to phase them at all.
It's scary proof that when you consider the concept of "average intelligence", half the population is below that...
The scarier thought is that someday, it will be a live feed.. You might want to consider moving somewhere cloudy.
yuandrew
Flashlight Enthusiast
Yeah, I've played with Google Earth for a while and now I'm playing with Windows local.live.com which has a nice "Birds Eye View" function.
The pictures are from a couple years ago but local.live seems to have some of it updated recently. Last time I checked my house, the front door was opened and I was just inside the door (lucky shot) but it appears closed this time.
I just went over my High school (Chino Hills High) which was built recently. In one spot on the map; the school was fully built and appeared the way it was when I graduated in 2005. Moving the map slightly East, however, showed the school as it was in 2002 when the main building was still under construction. It appears, though, the pictures were taken sometime during the summer.
The pictures are from a couple years ago but local.live seems to have some of it updated recently. Last time I checked my house, the front door was opened and I was just inside the door (lucky shot) but it appears closed this time.
I just went over my High school (Chino Hills High) which was built recently. In one spot on the map; the school was fully built and appeared the way it was when I graduated in 2005. Moving the map slightly East, however, showed the school as it was in 2002 when the main building was still under construction. It appears, though, the pictures were taken sometime during the summer.
ViReN
Flashlight Enthusiast
i wonder, if we can use hubble to check in for closeup views
matrixshaman
Flashlight Enthusiast
Yes it's cool - I could see my hot tub and lots of things. I liked to cruise the streets by flying at a low angle in the area where I used to live - amazing resolution in some areas.
yuandrew
Flashlight Enthusiast
Well, Microsoft's TerraServer which launched in 1997 seems to be the first type of website that provides this type of images and I decided to check out my house using the "Urban Areas" tab on TerraServer and compare it with the images from Google earth. I noticed that the images both appear exactly the same judging by the shadow of the trees and where cars were parked. TerraServer did provide a date and in my case, the picture was taken on March 29, 2004.
TerraServer, on the other hand, is more difficult to use as instead of dragging the map around; you have to click "North West South East" arrows.
TerraServer, on the other hand, is more difficult to use as instead of dragging the map around; you have to click "North West South East" arrows.
AlexGT
Flashlight Enthusiast
I like using google earth to go sightseeing, I seen the statue of liberty, Taj-Mahal, the great wall of china, the forbidden city, the Eifel tower, the piramyds, nativity church, the vatican, the tower of pisa, etc.
Is there a google earth forum for interesting finds?
AlexGT
Is there a google earth forum for interesting finds?
AlexGT
Wow! I can see my dog from here!
Google Earth is a lot of fun. When looking up my house, I can see my dog! Sitting there under her favorite tree, a big beige blob watching over her domain. The picture is definitely a few years old, but it's still pretty cool.
We've used it a lot at work for planning tests and things. We were doing some range testing of a very small radio device recently and used Google Earth to show where we were in various transmission modes. Yeah, GPS is fine, but it's cool to be able to show an overhead of the test area with the distances and all marked up on it.
Was down at Fort Knox last year doing some testing, most of the base is very obscured, but the area we were testing in was quite clear (and there were certainly things there that shouldn't have been so easily visible...).
Anyway, it's a great program - useful and fun.
Google Earth is a lot of fun. When looking up my house, I can see my dog! Sitting there under her favorite tree, a big beige blob watching over her domain. The picture is definitely a few years old, but it's still pretty cool.
We've used it a lot at work for planning tests and things. We were doing some range testing of a very small radio device recently and used Google Earth to show where we were in various transmission modes. Yeah, GPS is fine, but it's cool to be able to show an overhead of the test area with the distances and all marked up on it.
Was down at Fort Knox last year doing some testing, most of the base is very obscured, but the area we were testing in was quite clear (and there were certainly things there that shouldn't have been so easily visible...).
Anyway, it's a great program - useful and fun.
Illum
Flashaholic
AlexGT said:
erm...what do you need?
I have about 600 places tagged
ViReN
Flashlight Enthusiast
idleprocess
Flashaholic
The "bird's eye view" on local.live.com is a great feature. I've used it a number of times to show people how to get places.
I expect that google will incorporate that feature in their maps software soon. I would like to see a better method of stiching those scenes together ... maybe more-continuous photographs being taken, or a sort of continuous horizontal scan? I expect that they'll figure out how to extrapolate 3D models from the photos someday (maybe overlay some radar data?) and it will be in photo-realistic 3D.
Neat stuff we're seeing. Maybe I should re-install google earth...
I expect that google will incorporate that feature in their maps software soon. I would like to see a better method of stiching those scenes together ... maybe more-continuous photographs being taken, or a sort of continuous horizontal scan? I expect that they'll figure out how to extrapolate 3D models from the photos someday (maybe overlay some radar data?) and it will be in photo-realistic 3D.
Neat stuff we're seeing. Maybe I should re-install google earth...
ACMarina
Flashlight Enthusiast
You can't even see my house on Google Maps, it's covered in trees... I guess that's what I get for living in the woods 
The county my folks live in has a DALIS project website complete with aerial photographs, though - you can see the cat in the back yard on that one..
The county my folks live in has a DALIS project website complete with aerial photographs, though - you can see the cat in the back yard on that one..
