Google has licensed technology that will enable Google to map out 3-D versions of cities world wide.
According to a Mercury News report, the technology was developed by a team of Stanford University students and was used to run a robotic car that won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge.
Although Google is the market leader in mapping, to date it has lagged behind Microsoft’s Virtual Earth in terms of 3-D functionality.
The new technology will allow photo-realistic 3-D maps of cities creating the possibility that the 3-D data could be used as a basis to launch a virtual world, or licensed to existing online worlds such as Second Life.
The technology differs from the existing 3-D rendering in Google Earth; the licensed technology will allow Google to model 3-D cities using computer power alone and without the need for developer input.
An official announcement is expected at the Where 2.0 conference May 29-30.
hmmm…..Could Google be considering its own version of Second Life - an invite only service to appeal only to the cream of the tech world???????
Seach Engine Web,
What I’d really love is for someone to mash up this sort of 3D data into Microsoft Flight Simulator
it’s interesting that you describe Google as being the market leader in mapping. Perhaps by the standard of owning the consumer market eyeballs, yes. But Google’s success with Maps has in a sense driven mapping back to the stone age. Mapping companies such as ESRI have been producing much more powerful (but less accessible) applications for decades.
The best example of this is how disparate data sets, available through mashups, are only available from different websites, isolated from one another. If I want to compare, say, beer stores and subway stations, I can’t do so directly, if these data sources are provided by different mashups. I think this isn’t really Google’s fault. They didn’t anticipate the surge of mashups, and weren’t prepared for the onslaught. What we really need, though, is for Google or Microsoft to make the big leap and allow us to seamlessly and effortlessly combine arbitrary data from arbitrary sources in a single map.
Garth
apologies and you are right, was talking from a market share perspective as opposed to the tech side.
it’s interesting that this came from a DARPA challenge. Once Google refines this technology, this could easily be drone navigation technology
Google is getting better and better. Amazing! Google maps is easy in use and with this new photo-realistic 3-D maps we get more fun with goooooogle.
But I hope that the time in loading the maps is not going higher and higher. And the performance of the browser ist not getting worse.
Garth
don’t say sorry for being blunt. You clearly chose demeaning and insulting language. The unnecessary rudeness is almost startling. The only way this is excusable is if you are autistic and simply don’t understand social conventions. Otherwise, I suggest making an attempt at civility.
google is not the market leader (number of users, pageviews, etc) in maps, mapquest (still) is. google has the best growth rate though
Um that second post wasn’t me.
Maybe to expand on what I just posted: are there many occurrences of peoples’ identities being forged in TechCrunch discussions? Obviously if somebody were to read the 2nd post up there they might a bad impression of me. Perhaps it is time to require registration for commenting?