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Sounds Bring Google Earth to Life
Strudelkugel writes "The BBC is reporting that a Californian company has created software that can layer relevant recorded sounds over locations in Google Earth. The firm, Wild Sanctuary, has thousands of hours of recordings from all over the world. Company director Dr. Krause has spent over 40 years collecting sounds from natural and man-made habitats. '... his recordings include more than 15,000 animal noises, and sounds from a huge array of habitats, including cities, deserts, mountains and the marine environment. It is the largest library in existence of natural sound, he said. He said the idea would be to zoom-in on a particular area and then have the option to listen to the accompanying sound.'"
No wait, the other thing - annoying.
Now when my relatives use Google Earth to find my house, they'll get to listen to me on the can.
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
the idea sounds nice on paper, but who will actually benefit from this?
This sig contains repetition and redundancy.
Slashdot readers including myself may frequent the San Fernando Valley area for those sounds!
30% off web hosting. Coupon code "SLASHDOT".
When I zoomed in over Microsoft's HQ in Redmond, Washington, I heard the sound of chairs being broken. I'm sure if I zoom in over the White House, monkey sounds will fill my speakers.
great, now I can get sued just for mousing-over the RIAA headquarters!
Thanks a lot guys...
Read my Very Short "Stories"
Now I can finally know what a tree sounds like when it falls and no one is around.
I'd pay money to zoom over a well-known cattle farm, let's say the King Ranch in Texas for instance, and hear an old, familiar sound:
"The cow says: MOOOOOOO"
...Yes I'm simply amused, what of it?
To have worked for 40 years on something, to believe in it, and dedicate a life to it, to collect samples of sound, or smell, or taste from across an entire planet, then along comes a tool that makes it easy to share the results with other people, to disperse the cumulative knowledge and experience of a lifetime, only to have some bored slasher dis it off after a click and a couple seconds of listening; I'm hurt just thinking about it.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Let's see,
1. We've done the toilet humour reference.
2. We've done the Microsoft reference.
3. We've done the George Bush reference
.
.
4. Oh Yeah... Profit!!!
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
America is undoubtedly the worst 1st world country when it comes to geography. We have no idea where most of our own states are, think Africa is a country and half the time don't even know what the next town down the road is named. A tool like this attached to Google Earth would help in keeping the interest of children. I think from this perspective it would be a very good teaching tool. One of the reasons I enjoyed History so much in High School was my teacher allowing me to play CivII. Adapting sounds/games into learning tools has been done and I believe it to be much more effective than text books. How many of you became quick multiplying numbers due to "Number munchers?". Entertainment for learning is the way to go.
This sounds like a natural fit with the original vision of the World Soundscape Project, especially since these are ambient field recordings. Too bad they ran short of funding and the momentum faded, I think they would have taken it somewhere like this. I like the fact that they're hoping to showcase changing soundscapes over time. It would be great if the GE community can contribute. If this stuff interests you, check out the literature on acoustic ecology.
Damn those pesky terrorists
It's HIS interest. Hopefully if he's truly passionate about it he's got thick skin anyway. The story is about a company trying to sell sound, seems ripe enough for the odd joke. It's like smell-o-vision for the ears.
Quack, quack.
I remember when I was younger microsoft released an encylopedia for kids, when ever you looked up an animal the noise it made would play (there was a button to make it replay.) It was something that did keep me entertained for hours, just going through all the different entries.
Someone else has mentioned Wikipedia, would this not be a great extension to that? Primary school teachers could access certain pages/places and play appropirate sounds. Since it seems the type of kids encylopedia cdrom that I played with as a child has been replaced by wikipedia, wouldn't it be great if wikipedia took on the two great things about those?
Encarta and "Encylopedia for kids" (by Microsoft) would often have short video sequences or sound clips to go with the articles. It was one of the best ways to gain an understanding of a process at times. Sure some pages might be quite dodgey if it was implimented but the wildlife,manufacturing,car/motorcycle history,science and engineering pages could be significantly enhanced by this sort of feature.
I'm aware of wikimedia, but why hasn't the main wikipedia design be altered to do these things already?
In Soviet Russia, Google Earth listens to you.
It's not like he did it all to try to impress slashdotters.