I remember that when I saw the first few cities ever published in Google Street View the images were really great. I enjoyed a virtual walk around the Silicon Valley. Recently Google released Street View update, which included amongst others most of Switzerland. Unfortunately the new images are stitched in a way that is far from being perfect. The virtual walk experience is not the same at all. It’s spoiled by the poor image stitching quality. See it yourself:

See the white line painted along the left side of the road? It should be continuous. So should the curb on the right side. I chose this screenshot because it can be clearly seen that the line is “shifted” in two places. Most of the time the second (farther) shift is less apparent.

I believe this it caused by Google trying to automate the process and being able to publish more views much quicker. Unfortunately image quality is very much compromised.

The bug is very widespread. You might have seen Street View images of people whose legs are a few feet away from them

I reported it to Google almost 2 months ago and still waiting for reply…

(SPIEGEL online) – … Was noch fehlt ist allerdings jemand, der die vielen Funktionen, die jetzt noch in Einzelprogrammen angeboten werden, zu einem allumfassenden Gesamtpaket schnürt. …

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/gadgets/0,1518,662380,00.html

(SPIEGEL online) – Der Markt für die Orientierungshelfer gerät ins Rutschen – und der Gigant Google könnte am Ende als Sieger dastehen. …

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/gadgets/0,1518,662159,00.html

Google Streetview hin oder her, dieser Stopmotion-Film von Google Japan, in dem man Holzspielzeug auftreten lässt, ist sehr süß gemacht.

No court date set yet, but the BBC reports Switzerland is planning to indict Google because its application StreetView is too intrusive and could violate people’s privacy.

The Swiss are concerned that people using StreetView could “see” things going on in the streets, people’s houses, schools, prisons, etc.

This reminds me of GoogleEarth. I actually found my grandma’s house using that service and it scared the crap out of me.

Maybe the Swiss are overreacting, but how much private can you expect in public, really?

For the entire article, click http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8358908.stm

I always feel like somebody's watching me...♪♫♪♫

www.dumpert.nl – Google Blurteam Fail.

da wurde ne omma vom google fahrzeug umgefahren …

środa, 11 listopada 2009

Dowód(6)

..i już jedziemy wygodnie; ta deska mnie trochę zasłania; chodzi mi o to, żebym sam się oswoił z jakby nie było publicznym robieniem ujęć; nie ma się co czaić..ludzie tu są tolerancyjni jeśli wytrzymali Cyborgi..na Placu Artystów..
..a poza tym; nie mam wyboru; nie da się robić StreetView dyskretnie..
..”będę robił takie ujęcia jak Google..” – postanowiłem kiedyś..
..więc próbuję..na miarę możliwości..

…eso es Ejea!

Pues si ¡y lo que nos gusta!
Que buena manera de inaugurar este blog de la Peña El Roce de Ejea, con un homenaje a nuestro pueblo. Y para eso nos servimos de una de las últimas novedades de Google, el Streetview, que ya ha llegado hasta nuestras calles ¡y menudo entretenimiento! Esto es como un juego, a ver quien encuantra más cosas, más datos, a la persona más conocida…
Yo por ahora ya he encontrado mi coche en la puerta de casa, y entre mis compis de trabajo hemos averiguado que era un lunes de septiembre-octubre del 2008, que se tomaron las fotos por la mañana/mediodía (hemos visto relojes con hora y temperatura, jeje). Bueno, aquí os lo dejo, ¡cuidado que es un vicio! ¡Venga a ver quien encuentra lo más gracioso!

View Larger Map

De zon schijnt en de terrasjes aan de haven zitten bomvol. De bloemenwinkel doet goed zaken deze dagen. Vanaf het terras van restaurant Taj Mahal kijken twee mannen me aan. Ik zie niet wie het zijn, want voor hun hoofden hangt een vage waas.

Breda op een mooie septemberdag, volgens Google StreetView.

35.000 kilometer
De Bredanaar heeft er ongeveer negenhonderd jaar op moeten wachten, maar nu bestaat Breda eindelijk ECHT. Wie op Google StreetView gevonden wordt, heeft bestaansrecht. Dinsdagochtend is Breda officieel toegetreden tot de aardbol.

Deze zomer reden de auto’s van Google door Nederland. Met behulp van zware camera’s hebben zij maar liefst 31.000 kilometer Nederland vastgelegd. Dat betekent dat er sinds dinsdag dertig steden virtueel begaanbaar zijn via Google Earth / Street View. Eindhoven, Apeldoorn, Tilburg, Den Bosch, Arnhem, Haarlem, Den Haag, Lelystad, Zwolle, Nijmegen en Breda maken hun debuut. Twee jaar geleden werd er al 4000 kilometer van de randstad vast gelegd. De stukjes die niet begaanbaar zijn voor de auto van Google, worden door fietsers vastgelegd.

Neem zelf een kijkje
Houdt de muis ingedrukt om rond te kijken of klik op de pijltjes om langs de Haven te lopen.

View Larger Map

Privacy
Wie de beelden van Breda bekijkt ziet dat alle gezicht vaag zijn gemaakt. Zo waarborgt Google de privacy van de mensen. Ook kentekens worden onherkenbaar gemaakt. Mensen die toch vinden dat hun privacy aangetast wordt, kunnen op de knop ‘Report A Problem’ klikken. Opvallend is dat veel gezichten naar de foto kijken. Wellicht logisch, aangezien de auto een enorme camera op het dak heeft staan.

Gedempte haven
Wie bij Google Earth inzoomt op Breda, ziet dat de haven nog steeds ‘Gedempte Haven’ heet. Sterker nog: de haven is ook nog gedempt op Google Earth. Als je vervolgens op StreetView klikt, komt het water te voorschijn. Dit komt omdat de satelietbeelden al een paar jaar oud zijn, toen de haven nog gedempt was. Wanneer er nieuwe satelietfoto’s komen is niet bekend. Google hanteert geen perioden waarin het ververst.

Gaten
Niet héél Nederland is in beeld gebracht. Op het volgende kaartje is te zien waar je al gebruik kan maken van StreetView en op welke stukken gaten vallen.

Este va a ser un post muy cortito, porque la única dificultad que encontré a la hora de ofrecer streetView en las clínicas de masquemedicos.com fue averiguar como podía saber si streetView estaba disponible en esa coordenada o no, para así pintar el enlace correspondiente que abre el visor si sí está disponible.
Puedes ver un ejemplo aqui: http://masquemedicos.com/psicologo_madrid/jesus-perez-cazorla/ Podía haber elegido otro ejemplo pero la foto de la usuaria que ha opinado sobre esa clínica me pareció graciosa.

En fin que para poder averiguar esto lo único que hay que hacer es:

//Una vez iniciada el API de google maps
 point = new GLatLng(lat,long); //lat y long son las coordenadas que quieres testear
 streetView=new GStreetviewClient();
 streetView.getNearestPanoramaLatLng(point,
      			function (latlng){
				if ((typeof latlng != 'undefined') && latlng!=null){
                                       //pintar el enlace como corresponda
				}
			} );

Espero que te sirva.

Hasta otra.

The great Google Street View is a new feature of Google Maps and Earth allowing you to view a selection and streets of the globe in a 360° horizontal and 290° degree vertical panoramic views from a set number of positions along the streets at a height of around 2.5 metres.

Something amazing about watching satellite views is that you get to see real photographs from anywhere on earth, Big Ben, The Coloseum, canyons formed when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and anything else you can think of. You can then save and share that great satellite view with your friends and add some more personal information like the first tree you climbed, or the town you first lived in.

Another thing you can do once you have discovered your sight is your able to move and rotate the satellite image showing a birds eye perspective on buildings, mountains and landmarks on the terrain. Some people have asked me if the pictures are in real time and if you run around outside your house will you see yourself? The answer is no, we would need a lot of satellites out in orbit if this could happen.

One possible problem that can happen, is your pc may not be powerful enough to run the application and show the 3D images. But if your computer can run it you have numerous options to explore

Manmade Objects
Its easy to waste hours on Google Earth zooming in and out of all the worlds major manmade objects. It has turned into a major popular time killer amongst computer users nowadays. Seeing the Great Wall of China from space, as an example, can justify its size. Simply the fact that it is visible from space and covers a good portion of the Earth.

Nature Created Landmarks
It’s also a lot of fun to browse the net for satellite images of the world’s natural wonders. There are plenty to see in the US on its own. The rainbow-colored hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon, and the snow caps of Sierra Nevada are all marvelous images, especially when shot from low flying survey planes, which provide clearer images and different views.

Google Street View
This is a great aspect of satellite sightseeing nowadays is the capability to see a street view of most major cities in the world. I’m talking of Google Maps street view option, this lets you to go to virtually any city on the map and take a virtual visit around it. The pictures used for streetview mode have been shot from hundreds of car mounted cameras throughout the world that take pictures each day to keep street view option as current as feasible. While your searching, you can find some pretty fascinating candid scenes. From a freeway car crash to a man who visited a lady of the night.

You can get so much fun viewing the worlds pictures from Yahoo, Google and Bing although Google probably has the most extensive database of real-world sights and the quickest reaction time for your viewing satisfaction. What are you waiting for, get looking down on the earth now.

Look at our Google streetview website and view some amazing satellite images

Per la promozione del loro nuovo album, “In This Light and on This Evening”, gli Editors hanno avuto un idea strana ma interessante.

Hanno infatti caricato all’interno del loro sito ufficiale, una sezione speciale in cui, utilizzando come base Google StreetView, l’utente può “camminare virtualmente” in alcuni dei più famosi quartieri londinesi.

Tutte e 9 le canzoni dell’album sono disponibili in streaming, basta cliccars su uno dei numerini presenti sulla mappa in basso a destra (i numeri corrispondono alla tracklist) ed iniziare a camminare con in sottofondo la canzone.

Alcuni, passaggi sono suggestivi. Come dice la title track…”in this light and on this evening, London’s become, the most beautiful thing I’ve seen”

I remember when SQL Server 7 was nearly ready for release, Microsoft research had a project to make a 1 terabyte database. Their project was to server up satellite images of anywhere on Earth. Basically they had 1 Terabyte of images, so that was their terabyte database. I didn’t think this was a realistic terabyte database since their weren’t that many records, just each one was an image and quite large. Anyway they put the thing up on the web as a beta, and as soon as a few people tried it, the whole thing collapsed under the load.

A year or two later Google launched Google Earth, which basically did the same thing, only more detailed. But Google Earth can easily handle the load of all the people around the world accessing it. Why the difference? Why could Google do this and Microsoft couldn’t? I think the main difference is that Microsoft hosted it on one single SQL Server and had no way to scale it besides beefing up the hardware at great expense. Whereas Google uses a massively distributed database running on many many servers all coordinated and all sharing and balancing the load. Google uses many low cost Linux based servers keeping costs down and performance high.

This week Google released Google StreetView for major Canadian cities including Vancouver, where I live. So I can virtually cruise around Vancouver streets with very good resolution including seeing my house and neighborhood. This is really amazing technology. Rather than just panning around a patchwork of satellite images, we are actually navigating in 3D around the world. Suddenly Google has produced a virtual model of the entire world at quite good photographic quality.

Think about the size of this distributed database with all these photos, plus all the data to allow them to be stitched together into 3D Views that you can navigate through. This is so far beyond Google Earth, it’s really amazing. Is this the first step to having a completely virtual alternate Earth? If you are wearing 3D goggles, will you be able to tell if they are transparent or viewing these images?

I think we are just seeing the first applications of what is possible with these giant distributed databases. I’m really looking forwards to seeing some really amazing and mind blowing applications in the future. The neat thing is that Google is starting to open source this database technology so others can use it. Are SQL databases just dinosaurs waiting to be replaced? What will be able to accomplish in our business/enterprise databases and data warehouses one we start apply and using this technology?

Now, as long as you have an address, you can view most of the locations in North America, Europe, Japan, and France (to name a few) on your computer screen in the comfort of your own home. These aren’t just drawings either – they’re real shots of neighbourhoods – license plates and faces have  therefore been blurred out.

Now that’s cool.

Since its release a couple days ago, Google Streetview has captured the imaginations of countless people.

Think of the implications of this technology and the scale of it’s operation and maintenance:

• As the world changes continuously and businesses come and go, updating Streetview will be a continuous process – will this technology become a part of our daily lives, and how far can we take it?
• What does Google have planned for the future?
• How will this affect privacy laws?
• What can you DO with such information and power? How might the technology be abused?

No matter your thoughts on the above, I believe we can all agree that this has been another amazing leap for mankind.

Check it out for yourself if you haven’t already!

If you are wondering, yes, I already Streetview-ed my own home.

=)

Google Street View in my Toronto neighbourhood is up, so I took a little time to browse around my house. It’s a bit weird seeing this stuff on the internet. For instance, here’s my old bike:

And I think this is Mojo sitting in the left side of my bedroom window. I can’t tell, it might just be sun-dapples, but it kind of looks like his white chest fur, too.

A Facebook friend pointed out this lucky shot of some kind of steam problem in a driveway back in my home-borough of Etobicoke. I wish I could have driven past and hollered, Hot enough for ya, guys? Ha ha ha not really I don’t like getting my ass kicked for being obnoxious.

And this is not exactly “internet awesome” but it’s definitely interesting: the Google Street View truck drove by the home of creepy California pedophile Phillip Garrido (the one who kept Jaycee Lee Dugard in some tents in his backyard from 1991 until August 2009). It looks like Garrido saw the Google truck cruise by his house and then, presumably worried his crime might be discovered, he got in his truck and followed the Google vehicle around the corner. His slow-mo pursuit was captured in a series of images by the truck he was following, and archived on the Google Street View of his neighbourhood. Here’s a video walking you through the shots. I wonder how many crimes GSV has inadvertently recorded?

Thanks to Emmanuel, Yohan, and Metafilter for the tips.

UPDATE: That van in Etobicoke was actually on fire! And BlogTO has a great roundup of funny Google Street View pics from Toronto.

Ich dachte, ich filme mal einen Teil des Weges von der Schule nach Hause… Ennos persönliche Streetview sozusagen. Radiosender war NDR2. Ich bin folglich nicht für die Werbung für bessere Verdauung am Ende des Videos verantwortlich.

Senza parole … meraviglioso ! Google Street View in Stop Motion … (vabbè son di parte io … Wallace & Gromit docet !).

Una piccola curiosità: questo artista (Bill Guffey) per poter dipingere tutti i paesaggi che vuole o che gli piacerebbe visitare dal vivo ma che non può raggiungere si è ingegnato e ha sostituito il vecchio metodo di pittura “en plein air” con internet, o meglio, con un’applicazione di Google, Street View, un programma che mappa tutti i luoghi della terra attraverso fotografie.

Questo come nel caso del dipinto qui sopra che ritrae una scena di Lisbona (foto qui sotto)

Altro esempio è quello che segue, che riguarda una scena sull’8 Avenue in New York…

In questo modo questo “Vincent van Google” viaggia virtualmente per tutto il mondo dipingendo ciò che vede, o,  più precisamente ciò che Street View gli fa vedere, trasformando le fotografie in dipinti a olio catturando l’essenza di luoghi che altrimenti difficilmente averbbe potuto vedere.

Potenza “diabolica” dell’era digitale.

Scena francese

Qui il suo sito.

I’ve got a long commute between work and home; it’s an hour on Chicago’s public transportation. So you’d think I’d be eager to jump on the train and get on with it at the end of the day. But yesterday I realized something: usually, I stall. I work in the Loop, and I love walking the streets of Chicago. I’ve lived here 17 years now, but I still have a tourist-like awe for the life of its streets.

So rather than hop on the train fast each night, I tend to wander. I walk State Street, or maybe Michigan Avenue, and just watch the people, buildings, the park. I love it.

When I was in college I was lucky enough to spend a summer working in Paris for a woman named Heather. She once said to me, before leaving for a short vacation, that her favorite part of any vacation was returning to Paris. Just seeing the city gave her a jolt every time. I hoped I’d find that one day, and now, I have. Like a tourist seeing it anew, I love Chicago. I’ll be writing about why on this blog.