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Google Earth Incorporates Crowdsourced Balloon Images

Posted by timothy on from the inflatable-overlords dept.

garymortimer writes with this excerpt from sUAS News: "The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science announced today that community-generated open source maps — captured from kites and balloons — have been added to Google Earth. The 45 plus maps are the first aerial maps produced by citizens to be featured on the site, and are highlighted on the Google Lat Long Blog. The Public Laboratory is an expansion of the Grassroots Mapping community. During an initial project mapping the BP oil spill, local residents used helium-filled balloons and digital cameras to generate high-resolution D.I.Y 'satellite' maps documenting the extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — at a time when there was little public information available. Expanding the toolkit beyond aerial mapping, Public Laboratory has been growing into a diverse community, both online and offline, experimenting with new ways to produce information about our surroundings. The lab's DIY kits cost less than $100 to assemble."

20 comments

  1. So, can I poison the data? by fph+il+quozientatore · · Score: 2

    It would be fun to forge false maps that show, for instance, an alien landing and submit them to Google along with a bunch of real images. Just sayin'...

    --
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    Hell Segmentation fault

    1. Re:So, can I poison the data? by SJHillman · · Score: 2, Funny

      Or replace Redmond with Mount Doom?

  2. Balloon Images? by Higgins_Boson · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Sorry, but if I want to look at balloons I will either stare at the wife's chest for awhile, or I will go out and buy some balloons. I don't need no stinkin' "Google Earth" for that.

    1. Re:Balloon Images? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You managed to marry a FleshLight?

    2. Re:Balloon Images? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      He didn't say it was his wife.

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      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    3. Re:Balloon Images? by Higgins_Boson · · Score: 0

      Nah, I managed to marry your mom. Now why aren't you in school, son?

    4. Re:Balloon Images? by Higgins_Boson · · Score: 1

      I love you pretentious fuckwads who moderate comments because you have no life, no sense of humor, no anything outside of the scant traces of light that manage to seep through your parent's basement window.

      Modded troll?
      Modded flamebait?
      Modded off-topic?

      Get bent, dipshits. None of those even fits with what I typed out. It isn't trolling, it isn't flamebait and it sure isn't off-topic, since it talks about balloons AND google earth, both of which are in the article summary as well as the article.

      So, yeah, go fuck yourselves... at least that will distract you long enough to stop ruining slashdot.

  3. Citizens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If these are the first maps produced by citizens (of the USA, I assume?), does that mean all of Google's own map-makers are foreigners on H1-B visas?

    1. Re:Citizens? by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      No, the very clear implication was that they bought their other images from commercial entities instead of getting them individual citizens.

  4. What about open street map? by bigredradio · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's great that they are accepting images from "civilians", but it would be better if they were to collaborate with projects such as Open Street Map and really share data.

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    Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
    1. Re:What about open street map? by Shoe+Puppet · · Score: 2

      Indeed. Google Maps is horribly outdated in some places I care about but I haven't found any OSM (Android) app that even comes close in usability to Google Maps.

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      (+1, Disagree)
    2. Re:What about open street map? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some of the open maps I looked at are nearly 15 years out of date...

    3. Re:What about open street map? by element-o.p. · · Score: 1

      GPS Essentials for Androids is considering a move to OSM. They sent me a notification a while back asking about using OSM rather than Google Maps, and would it be worth paying for this ability rather than using the Google Maps. IIRC, their primary motivation was having the ability to use the maps off-line.

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    4. Re:What about open street map? by cabraverde · · Score: 1

      it would be better if they were to collaborate with projects such as Open Street Map and really share data.

      ... like Microsoft have been, for example. Open Street Map contributors have been given permission to trace features from Bing's areal photographs since 2010. No such goodwill from Google.

  5. Global Warming-why do the facts always contradict? by PortHaven · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    "common theories of stellar evolution predict that the sun was only 70 percent of its current brightness when it first lit its fusion engine 4.5 billion years ago. The sun has been steadily growing brighter since then and will continue so into the future, eventually evaporating away Earth's oceans."

    So the conclusion of scientists is that the earth is continually getting warmer. Okay, go that...

    "In some simulations, methane and carbon dioxide combine to make a photochemical smog that would have chilled Earth even further."

    Wait, I thought CO2 was that all-warming all covering gas. You know, the one that is less of a green house gas than water. But is hyped as the big difference.

    http://news.discovery.com/space/was-earth-a-migratory-planet-120418.html

    Granted, I would like to see what affect a few super volcanoes might have in blanketing an ice-covered earth with ash. I'd wager that would also resolve the issue more simply.

    Must also add this is the first time I've heard Immanuel Velikovsky's in a print article in years.

    That said, I tend toward leaning toward a catalysmic world model. I think the fact that we see such a record of impacts on the moon, and other planetoids while at the same time not seeing many in this day and age point to a more dynamic past. Combined with the fact that there is a bunch of debris instead of a planet between Mars & Jupiter.

  6. openstreetmap.org? by dmt0 · · Score: 0

    Why would people contribute to a commercial product made by a for-profit corporation instead of a community effort like openstreetmap.org?

  7. hydrogen not helium by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why use helium which we are quickly running out of instead of something far more abundant like hydrogen? I know people are still nervous about the Hindenburg, but this thing isn't carrying passengers. It is just a small weather balloon.

  8. Kit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where can I get one of these kits? The article doesn't specify.

  9. For android: Osmand is the best by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IMHO, Osmand is currently the best. It's still under heavy development, and doesn't have an interface as polished as google maps, but it also provides features that google maps doesn't have. The major feature is offline map display and routing, and you can save on your phone a whole country, or even continent.

  10. OpenAerialMap and the official announcement by Lord+Satri · · Score: 1

    Actually, such imagery should go to OpenAerialMap.org, not OpenStreetMap (which is for vector data).

    Also, this story has not mentioned yet (afaict) the official announcement: http://google-latlong.blogspot.ca/2012/04/balloon-and-kite-imagery-in-google.html

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    Animoog.org