Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Augmented Google Earth

Two of my favourite Google services are Google Earth and Google Maps. Of course I've always thought how cool it would be if you could actually walk out of your house and give a wave to someone watching your house somewhere else in the world (I'm being romantic here and disregarding the potentially horrible invasion of privacy issues). Well something similar to that may not be all that far away!

Some clever boffins at the Georgia Institute of Technology have put down the building blocks for taking real-time streaming video augmenting Google Earth to dynamically create real-time movement within the 3D mapping system. Their new 'as live' version of Google Earth shows cars driving on motorways, people walking in the park, others doing their shopping, and even a football game in progress.

The technology is still in a very early stage of development (it's the subject of a thesis) but it shows the potential for what could be done with the hundreds of live feeds available around the world.

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