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Google Earth Adds 3-D Trees
terrancem writes "Google has populated several major cities with more than 80 million virtual trees based on an automated process that identifies trees in satellite images. The realistic 3D representations are based on actual tree species found in urban areas. But Google has also extended realistic tree coverage to rainforests in Africa, Mexico, and the Amazon."
...the streets through the forest!
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How much carbon dioxide was produced making these 80 million virtual trees?
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
I bet that with an afternoon's work they could have spring, summer, winter, and fall trees. With a little more work they could link it to the local climate and when particular species of trees change color when.
I dunno what it would be for, but to be honest, I'm not precisely sure what this is for. "Raising awareness of trees" seems pretty lame. Still, it's very pretty, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Clearly the road is still in beta.
Isn't enough that I ruined a pony, making a gift for you?
It is somewhat useful, depending upon one's use of google earth.
I use google earth to look at things.
I like looking at trees.
I think it's useful :) ...a first person shooter layer would be pretty cool too though!
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Seriously? I'd say it's useful for 90% of what Google Earth is used for commercially, i.e surveying. Trees are just as significant as buildings when it comes to mapping the land.
Just because it's not useful for you to map your trip to Bob's house doesn't mean it's not useful for others.
I.O.U One Sig.
If it was an automated algorithm that ID'd trees, I'd say no, this could be useful in other id'ing applications (maybe rocks, maybe separating natural from artificial objects or vice versa, etc).
If it was 1000 poor interns/schoolkids paid to click on 80000 trees each, then ok, you win, this was a bad idea.
0- Eamonman Proud member of DNRC
They do, you don't even have to RTFA, it's in the summary:
based on an automated process that identifies trees in satellite images
Unless they're planning to elaborate on the existing flight simulator built into Google Earth by implementing a first person shooter, I'm afraid having trees doesn't seem like a particularly useful development.
You'd call a FPS a -useful- development?
...okay...
Okay, that's a bit off-topic, but not that much when we discuss virtual globes and the likes. Here's a dismissed submission last week that I think worthy of sharing: "It's a dream come true. After MapQuest and Yahoo actively supporting the Wikipedia-like map initiative OpenStreetMap.org. Microsoft announced that they hired OpenStreetMap's founder Steve Coast for their Bing Maps team. But there's more, they committed providing orthorectified aerial imagery and more to the project. From the official announcement: "Continuously innovating and improving our map data is a top priority and a massive undertaking at Bing. That's why we're excited to announce a new initiative to work with the OpenStreetMap project, a community of more than 320,000 people who have built high quality maps for every country on earth. Microsoft is providing access to our Bing Aerial Imagery for use in the OpenStreetMap project, and we have hired industry veteran Steve Coast to lead this effort. [...] As a first step in this engagement, we plan to enable access to Bing's global orthorectified aerial imagery, as a backdrop of OSM editors. Also, Microsoft is working on new tools to better enable contributions to OSM." Microsoft already added the OpenStreetMap layer to Bing Maps last August."
Clearly, this means to me that open data has won that round and that Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ are in deeper trouble today than a few months ago.
Now to go back to Google, at the moment, but it could change anytime, they're going on a different road away from OpenStreetMap with their Google Map Maker.
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Is that the guy that Macduff attacked at Dunsinane?
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As a grad student at the University of Arizona (in Tucson) who works on campus in the summers...I'd really like to see a shade map that is indexed to the time of day and inclination of the sun to calculate the most-shaded paths around campus. That might not sound so useful, but when it's 105F out, every bit of shade makes all the difference on a 10-15 minute walk across campus.
I don't fear computers, I fear the lack of them. -I. Asimov
Yes.
As the network admin for a wireless ISP, we use Google Earth as a sort of 'first approximation' (along with RadioMobile) to do preliminary site-surveys, estimating whether its even worth our time to roll a truck for an attempted install. This looks like a great addition to an invaluable tool to me!
-- Sent from a computer.
PD should hire some of these Google guys for their tree rendering!
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With the thousands (millions?) of servers that google has, how about planting a few trees...
Firstly, that is the most misleading signature I've ever seen. Secondly, don't call me Nut.
It's worse. Google Earth is planning how to demolish your home and replace it with actual happy little trees. The images are merely forward-looking statements.
Somewhere in the afterlife, Bob Ross must be wearing an evil smile. Everything has gone according to his plan.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.