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Google Earth Used To Predict Electrical Problems

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-can't-it-do dept.

coondoggie writes "What do you get when you combine images from Google Earth and the brainpower from researchers at Oak Ridge National Labs? Well in this case you get a tool that enables real-time status of the national electric grid that federal state and local agencies can use to coordinate and respond to major problems such as wide-area power outages, natural disasters and other catastrophic events. The Visualizing Energy Resources Dynamically on Earth (VERDE) system, announced this week, mashes together images and stats of everything from real-time status of the electric grid and weather information to power grid behavior modeling and simulation."

2 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Wha? by ejdmoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How exactly does Google Earth predict *anything* at all?

    What it seems is someone wrote software to analyze the electrical grid, and they use the Google Maps API to visualize the geographic data.

    Yay.

  2. simple google by twotailakitsune · · Score: 4, Insightful
    This is what, the 100th idea using Google Maps/Earth? they are just using the Google Maps API. Google is more open with people using Maps without paying some big Usage fee.

    What this is really about is the VERDE program. Now if Google was doing a real time status program I would have it sit on my screen all day.