Google Adds Satellite Imagery to Maps 661
Ant writes "BetaNews reports that Google quietly updated its maps service late Monday to include satellite imagery, a first in the industry... Much of Google Maps remains the same - just with detailed pictures from high-tech satellites instead of standard map graphics. Maps can be dragged to view adjacent areas, which means users do not have click and wait for graphics to reload. Zooming is also instantaneous with the help of a slider placed atop the map." The resolution doesn't seem very high, but the integration is very seamless.
Sounds like good technology for lots of uses (Score:5, Interesting)
I can imagine taking some very high resolution artwork and displaying it using this technology. I can zoom in to the max resolution or your can scroll around forever.
Anybody have any software that would take a large image file and apply a google-map-like interface to it? The software should be something as simple as:
If you are smart about your image naming conventions you shouldn't even need a powerful webserver. The whole thing could be served up via static files from a webserver with enough disk space and a big enough pipe.
I'd like to see this for things like:
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On-line Currency Exchange Rate Conversion Calculator [ostermiller.org]
Different dataset from Keyhole (Score:5, Interesting)
No idea how much older, but it can't be more than a year or so.
Re:Different dataset from Keyhole (Score:5, Interesting)
We were already talking about this this morning on our local geocaching assocation forum. Two of us (St. Paul and Apple Valley, MN) show that the images are at least 4 years old or newer.
My house was built in 2001 and it shows it there. Google doesn't know my address and gives something nearby but I still can see the house
My 3 y/o neighborhood does not even have streets. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Erm (Score:5, Interesting)
Not an industry first by many years... (Score:2, Interesting)
Great fun with satellite imaginery (Score:3, Interesting)
Rather nice if you want to plan a trip, too, as you get an idea how things look like along the way! And if the resolution gets better in distant future, who will need to do the actual trip anyway?
If a service like this really becomes popular, it has vast potential - just zoom to where you are, and you can see all web sites in the area, plus visual hints on how to get there and how does the thing look like. Now if you only could link images taken from those places directly to maps..
Re:I do not see any change (Score:3, Interesting)
Satelite photo of the whitehouse [google.com] - on Google maps
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Better Templates for Everybody - Templating system that can be used to create easily maintanable websites [ostermiller.org]
Re:Erm (Score:4, Interesting)
Indeed you're right. Multimap [multimap.com] has had aerial photos for a while... For example, this [multimap.com] is where I live! The Aerial photos are actually provided by Getmapping.com [getmapping.com]. The aerial photos aren't available for all locations, but certianly most of the UK is covered.
YMMV!
Re:I do not see any change (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Different dataset from Keyhole (Score:2, Interesting)
This reminds me of my 7th grade science teacher asking us to date an aerial map of our town. My house was there, but the pool wasn't, so I could estimate the age of the photo using the different years. But I digress.
Re:Erm (Score:4, Interesting)
Try getting directions, then change to satellite view. Your route is still overlayed perfectly over the roads you need to take, even though the images are slightly different than the vector map.
This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. If it was possible to center the Google map based on lat/lon, just imagine how easy it would be to write a script that took input from your GPS and used it to scroll the map.
different perspectives? (Score:2, Interesting)
link (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not blocking? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Erm (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:varying seasons (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sounds like good technology for lots of uses (Score:2, Interesting)
SERIOUSLY cool.
Re:Example (Score:4, Interesting)
--Phil.
Not just the U.S. anymore (Score:2, Interesting)
Here is England, for instance [google.com]
Humorously, if you scroll outside of the U.S. in map mode, you just get ocean and then back to the U.S. again. It's as if Americans had just obliterated all the other countries...
Re:Sounds like good technology for lots of uses (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I do not see any change (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Erm (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Area 51? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Comeon, 1 meter per pixel.... (Score:3, Interesting)
High-interest targets obscurred? (Score:4, Interesting)
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=constitution+ave+an
It's the same with KeyHole as well (screenshot):
http://www.allbootdisks.com/images/keyhole.jpg [allbootdisks.com]
Is keyhole doing this to all 'sensitive' targets?
Don't line up (Score:2, Interesting)
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1010+Broadway+ave,b
Re:Different dataset from Keyhole (Score:3, Interesting)
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=14511+prism+circle+
Look to the right
Re:I do not see any change (Score:3, Interesting)
You're both quite correct. See the SecurityFocus article "Secret Service airbrushes aerial photos [securityfocus.com]". Note that the link to the old vs new images has changed since the article was written - they're now here [eyeball-series.org]. You might notice a remarkable similarity between a couple of the retouched pictures and Google's White House imagery.
Re:More likely... (Score:5, Interesting)
Maps are blocking Industrial Zones (Score:3, Interesting)
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=43.198586,-77.6302
Notice the big fuzzy section. I used to work there and can tell you that that is Kodak Park (well, whats left of it as Kodak Management lays off the workforce, moves the operations to China, then demolishes the buildings- more layoffs next week).
The entire region is blurred out and unusable, so that you can't see into it.
What I'd like to know is whether or not this is common for other areas (anyone know lat/long of an oil refinery?) and other areas of key civil importance.
Otherwise maybe Kodak doesn't want them spying
Aw, crap (Score:2, Interesting)
Wow, I guess Google MAPS is completely SOL, huh?
So, what, you wanted intel-grade satellite maps for free from a company providing driving directions? That's a little silly.
And yes, I work with Satellite imagery.
Then presumably you don't need to get it from google, hmmm?
Dates to mid-2002 at my house (Score:5, Interesting)
The resolution is good enough that I can see the single stripe down the middle of a nearby two-lane highway. I can also see two cars and an 18-wheeler. The smallest visible object is a 4x8 sheet of plywood atop the shelter in my corral. I can also see my kennel concrete, which at that point is 15 feet wide, represented by 5 pixels on the saved image (you can pillage them via Moz's Page Info function). So there's the max resolution -- one pixel = about 3 feet (plus or minus some blurring).
Region of Waterloo -- 10cm Resolution (Score:4, Interesting)
http://locator.region.waterloo.on.ca/ [waterloo.on.ca]
(warning - I have only seen it work in IE).
The region of Waterloo (ON, CAN) has aerial photography at 10cm resolution (~4in) in B&W for 2000 and 2003. I've been looking for a house, and this is a really great site for checking out the state of yards without visiting them. You can see trees, fences, the size of driveways, if the house is going to be in the shadow of an apartment building . .
I honestly have no issue with 10cm resolution being available to the general public. No tin foil on my head.
Re:Erm (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Sounds like good technology for lots of uses (Score:1, Interesting)
- Resize the image to various resolutions
- Break the images into 200x200 pixel chunks at each resolution and save those chunks as individual image files
- Put a javascript interface on
Sounds like you want to have a look at this: http://iipimage.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]. They can handle large images and also have large map demo.Re:Comeon, 1 meter per pixel.... (Score:5, Interesting)
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Kramer+Junction,CA&
Scroll east to see a huge compass rose painted in desert.
Re:Come ON, Google! (Score:4, Interesting)
Comic Book Guy's answer: "As a viewer, I feel they owe me."
if you don't like the free service google offers, you said it yourself - mapquest already does it apparently. AND... it's 3 fewer letters to type in than maps.google.com. So there's your answer.
Because their X and Y scales are different (Score:2, Interesting)
airplane in flight (Score:2, Interesting)
High Security Areas Fuzzed Out (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Goolge Watermarks (Score:2, Interesting)
Look at Capitol Hill in Seattle (try 100 Broadway E, Seattle, WA). Then claim those photos are off different satellites. They might not have gotten them straight from TerraServer, but they didn't get them from DigitalGlobe either.
Parts of Mexico are already included (Score:2, Interesting)
I lived for a few years in Tijuana, Mexico, and it looks like TJ and most border towns are completely mapped at the highest resolutions, as well. I could spot the house where I stayed and everything. You have to search for San Ysidro, CA and then drag southward, though. Here's a link to the border crossing gate [google.com]. The line dividing the screen is the "iron curtain" -- The wall between the countries built by the US.
Re:Goolge Watermarks (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Comeon, 1 meter per pixel.... (Score:3, Interesting)
The Boneyard [google.com] a few miles away from my house.
Pan west... that's a crapload of planes.
Re:Comeon, 1 meter per pixel.... (Score:1, Interesting)