Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Mapifier: 商务与电子地图
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Thursday, December 24, 2009
Twitter收购Mixer实验室：旨在增强Twitter地理定位API服务
编译：pestwave
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Twitter刚刚宣布已经收购GeoAPI.com的母公司Mixer实验室。GeoAPI是一个允许开发人员方便地在应用中添加地理数据的服务。几周前Twitter刚推出了自己的地理标签API服务。尽管有一些Twitter客户端已经开始支持Twitter的地理标签API服务了，但很少用户使用这个功能。
据Twitter创始人Ev Williams称，公司将把Mixer实验室现有的成果和TwitterAPI进行整合，帮助地理定位应用（如Birdfeed, Seesmic Web, Foursquare, Gowalla, Twidroid, Twittelator Pro）的开发者开发新的功能。
值得 注意的是Mixer实验室的GeoAPI和Twitter没有关系。GeoAPI提供类似反向地理坐标定位的工具，可以把GPS坐标转化成人类可以识别的 信息，并且可以在Flickr、Twitter和Youtube上找到和地点相关的媒体文件和状态更新。Mixer实验室还提供一套iPhone软件开发 工具。从Twitter发布的消息来看，GeoAPI会继续原来的工作，直到Twitter找到最佳的办法整合两个API服务。
编译：pestwave
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Monday, December 21, 2009
Going for gold with Google Earth
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The 2010 Winter Games are just around the corner, and at Google, we're getting pretty excited.
Last week we shared some maps of local experts' favorite locations in and around Vancouver with the help from our Google Canada team. Today we've introduced photorealistic 3D building models for all nine venues of the Winter Games. Producing these models is a multi-step process involving both aerial and ground-based imagery.
Before we could begin we needed to obtain high quality aerial imagery for the Vancouver region. The new aerial imagery, now available in Google Earth and Google Maps, is pretty amazing, and provides a close-up look at this beautiful region. We then obtained ground-based photos of all nine venues. The combined ground-based images and aerial imagery are then used to construct highly detailed photorealistic 3D building models for the venues. All the models were developed by hand using SketchUp. As you'll see, we modeled everything from the gondolas to the spectator bleachers. We even included 3D trees to add a bit more realism. We'll be making a few more improvements prior to the commencement of the Games, but you can begin touring this beautiful area of the world via Google Earth today.
My personal favorites are the Whistler and Cypress Mountain ski areas. Whistler will host the alpine skiing events, and the Whistler Sliding Centre will host bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton events. Cypress will host all of the freestyle skiing and snowboarding competitions: moguls, aerials, ski cross, half-pipe, snowboard cross and parallel giant slalom.
Whistler Creekside, Vancouver, BCPosted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager
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Thursday, December 17, 2009
Finding your way in India with landmarks
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In the past few months, you may have noticed that Google Maps directions have been using some new phrases such as "Take the 2nd right" rather than just "Turn right". We're using phrases like this because they're natural concepts that relate to the way we think about navigation in real life. They're the way a friend might give you directions. This week we're taking this concept further for users in India, using landmarks to help drivers get their bearings.
Posted by Dave Walker and John Leen, Software Engineers
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Go thataway: Google Maps India learns to navigate like a local
Posted by Olga Khroustaleva, User Experience Researcher, Google Maps
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To solve this problem, this week we launched an improvement to Google Maps India that describes routes in terms of easy-to-follow landmarks and businesses that are visible along the way. We gathered feedback from users around the world to spark this improvement to our technology, and we thought we'd give you a glimpse at our thinking behind this launch.
We knew from previous studies in several countries that most people rely on landmarks — visual cues along the way — for successful navigation. But we needed to understand how people use those visual cues, and what makes a good landmark, in order to make our instructions more human and improve route descriptions. To get answers to these questions, we ran a user research study that focused specifically on how people give and get directions. We called businesses and asked how to get to their store; we recruited people to keep track of directions they gave or received and later interviewed them about their experiences; we asked people to draw us diagrams of routes to places unfamiliar to us; we even followed people around as they tried to find their way.
We found that using landmarks in directions helps for two simple reasons: they are easier to see than street signs and they are easier to remember than street names. Spotting a pink building on a corner or remembering to turn after a gas station is much easier than trying to recall an unfamiliar street name. Sometimes there are simply too many signs to look at, and the street sign drowns in the visual noise. A good landmark always stands out.We also discovered that there are three situations in which people resort to landmarks.
The first is when people need to orient themselves — for instance, they just exited a subway station and are not sure which way to go. Google Maps would say: "Head southeast for 0.2 miles." A person would say: "Start walking away from the McDonald's."
The second situation is when people use a landmark to describe a turn: "Turn right after the Starbucks."
The third use, however, is the most interesting. We discovered that often people simply want to confirm that they are still on the right track and haven't missed their turn.
Giving people this sense of confidence while they explore an unfamiliar territory became one of the goals of our redesign. Over the course of several months, the team brainstormed various ways of presenting the information contained in Google Maps in a way that would be useful for people. We then settled on a design that added some landmarks to describe the turns and confirm the route.
The next step was to put this design to a test with drivers in Bangalore, India. The results were eye-opening. While we were on the right track with introducing landmarks, we still relied on street names too heavily. Drivers wanted more confirmation. They wanted to compare what they saw on Google Maps with what they saw from the driver's seat, every step of the way.
We added more landmarks along routes and reduced the visual prominence of street names, and the result was our final design:
Now Google Maps India gives you directions like a local would. Happy wayfinding!
Posted by Olga Khroustaleva, User Experience Researcher, Google Maps
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图森和克利夫兰加入 Google Earth 3D 城市行列
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亚利桑那州图森和俄亥俄州克利夫兰也在Google Earth里3D化了， 你可以下载这个KML文件去探索一下，别忘了打开3D图层哦。
© musiXboy 发表于 谷奥——探寻谷歌的奥秘 ( http://www.google.org.cn ), 2009. | 没有评论 | 永久链接 | 关于谷奥 | 投稿/爆料
Post tags: 3D, Google Earth
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Google Earth 09 年最后一次卫星图更新，包含大陆大部分沿海地区和银川市
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Google宣布了他们09年最后一次卫星图的更新，这次包含了中国大陆大部分沿海地区，内陆地区只有银川市（如上图,，红色区域内），你可以下载这个KML在Google Earth里了解更新区域，或者利用iGoogle的gadget查看更新区域（需要安装Google Earth插件）。
© musiXboy 发表于 谷奥——探寻谷歌的奥秘 ( http://www.google.org.cn ), 2009. | 1 条评论 | 永久链接 | 关于谷奥 | 投稿/爆料
Post tags: Google Earth, Google Maps
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Earth Engine, powered by Google
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I'm here in Copenhagen this week, at the COP15 International Climate Change Conference. Whether you're attending in-person, or reading news headlines from home, you can't miss the fact that addressing climate change requires the world to solve a mind-boggling mix of science, policy and political issues. These are formidable challenges, but new technologies can help provide solutions for these complex problems. For example, one of the most promising areas of compromise has been an accord to compensate countries for preserving forests and other natural landscapes that play a crucial role in reducing emissions. Implementation of the agreement, known as Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD, will require the ability to accurately track deforestation at a regional and global level.
Despite the widespread availability of global satellite imagery through products like Google Earth and Google Maps, it hasn't been easy for tropical nations to understand the state of their ecosystem, and to quantitatively monitor changes in forest coverage or other key indicators. That's why I'm proud to announce a new computational platform for global-scale analysis of satellite imagery: Earth Engine, powered by Google.
At an event today hosted by Avoided Deforestation Partners, global leaders from the President of Guyana to the Prime Minister of Norway expressed their support for REDD. Earlier today, the U.S, Australia, France, Japan, Norway and Britain pledged $3.5 billion over the next three years to protect rainforests. At the event, I demonstrated a prototype forest monitoring application built on top of Earth Engine that we developed together with the Carnegie Institution for Science, IMAZON and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Traditional forest monitoring is complex and expensive, requiring access to large amounts of satellite data, lots of hard drives to hold the data, lots of computers to process the data, and lots of time while you wait for various computations to finish. Our prototype demonstrates how Earth Engine makes all of this easier, by moving everything into the cloud. Google supplies data, storage, and computing muscle. As a result, you can visualize forest change in fractions of a second over the web, instead of the minutes or hours that traditional offline systems require for such analysis. The prototype applications running on Earth Engine aren't yet available to the public, but you can see screen shots in our earlier blog post.
We want to ensure this technology is widely available when it's ready, so today I formally announced Google.org's commitment to provide our Earth Engine free to tropical countries to support their forest monitoring programs. I believe that this is just the first of many Earth Engine applications that will help enable scientists, policymakers, and the general public to better monitor and understand the Earth's ecosystems.
Posted by Brian McClendon, VP Engineering
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Monday, December 14, 2009
新投影对地球的新认识
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一项由埃因霍温技术大学计算机科学家杰克.范.维科（Jack van Wijk）创造的新投影技术为地理学带来新的观点，使得人们可以绘制出以便加以比较的依次排列的大陆地图；或者海洋连成一体的地图
科学家表示此项技术的想法极其简单：将地球仪表面分割成不同小块，如同立方体可以展开为一个平面一样。历来地图投影领域这样的实践并不少见，维科教授要做的是把多边形数量从几个增加到上千个以无线逼近球体，他也创造了无穷多面体（myriahedral）这样的词来描述我们的地球
无穷多面体逼近球体
变形的现实
数学上而言将球体平整的展开是不可能的，这一点也一直困扰着制图者们。假设要将一块橘子皮铺平了，皮面必定会变形或者裂开。已有一些投影让陆地面积大小变形而大体保持形状不变，如熟悉的麦卡托投影将格林兰岛和南极洲的面积大大夸大了；再如相对的Peters投影保证了陆地面积大小的相对正确却牺牲了陆地的形状
麦卡托投影保住了陆地的形状但以陆地面积大小不准确为代价
Peters投影保住了陆地面积大小却以形变为代价
理想的地图是集合了以上特性的，但实现起来只有在球面里加入间隔从而也导致地图上出现杂乱无章的空白间隙，维科教授的方法正是解决了这种无序的间隙的投影法
典型地图
维科教授为每个多边形的边界赋以权重以表示其重要性，该权重也直接影响到成图时的切割或折叠位置。微调权重，得到的地图会完全不同
假设我们要突出陆地的重要性，就可能生成这样一张陆地横排着的地图；
由于切割的间隙很多陆地既无形变也保证了其面积大小无误
反之要突出海洋的重要性则可能绘制一张被打碎的陆地线包围的大海洋地图
同时，陆海分离地图的绘制也变为可能
水陆分离
获奖
英国地图制图协会下属的《制图学杂志》为维科教授颁发了一年一度的亨利约翰斯奖——以认可人们在地图绘制领域的杰出表现。教授这边将获奖归功于外界：地图学家找到将地球投影的单一公式，而我们计算机科学家则用算法更恰当的描述了这一工作
以上来源
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Friday, December 11, 2009
The Motor City goes 3D
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A few of us on the SketchUp team either have roots in Detroit or grew up there, so we're especially happy to announce that Detroit, Michigan as been added in 3D to Google Earth. From sports venues like Joe Louis Arena (home of the Red Wings) and Comerica Park (new home of the Tigers), to great watering holes and eateries, like The Old Shillelagh and the legendary Lafayette Coney Island - home of the world's best 2am coney dog - they are all there in 3D.
Being able to cruise through Detroit in 3D reminds us of how much history this great US city has. We're excited that users around the world will now be able to discover this city virtually, for themselves.
Posted by Chris Dizon and Steve Dapkus, Google SketchUp Team
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Google Earth 中火星图像更新
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Google LatLong Blog宣布他们更新了Google Earth中的火星图像数据。新的数据分辨率为25米/像素，来源于欧洲空间局火星快车号上装载的高分辨率相机，现在我们已经可以在电脑上看到几乎一半的火星表面了。
用户可以下载这个KML文件来查看具体的更新区域，其中被红色标注的地区在这次进行了图像更新，而白色标注地区则进行了地形更新。
要在Google Earth中游览火星的话，只需要点击Plane图标，选择Mars即可。
via googlelatlong
© gkp 发表于 谷奥——探寻谷歌的奥秘 ( http://www.google.org.cn ), 2009. | 没有评论 | 永久链接 | 关于谷奥 | 投稿/爆料
Post tags: Google Earth, Google Mars
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Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Google Earth 里也增加了 Place Pages
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几个月前Google Maps新增了Place Pages功能，将所有地标信息汇总在一个页面里显示，今天Place Pages也来到了Google Eath，你可以在其中看到某一处周边的饭店、地标性建筑、历史古迹、公交车站等等，你甚至可以将你的照片加入到这个页面里。
点击More之后，可以看到更多的图片，更多的评价，这尽管只是一个小改进但大大增加了你可以在Google Earth里了解到的地理知识。
© musiXboy 发表于 谷奥——探寻谷歌的奥秘 ( http://www.google.org.cn ), 2009. | 没有评论 | 永久链接 | 关于谷奥 | 投稿/爆料
Post tags: Google Earth, Google Maps
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Tuesday, December 08, 2009
加州利用“谷歌地球”预测气候变化（图）
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Google Navigation is a Total GPS Replacement—As Long As You're Connected
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My wife bought me a Garmin GPS for Christmas last year. After showing her Google Navigation on my G1, she asked if her gift is obsolete. Sorry to say but, for anything but long-distance treks, Google's Navigation is good enough.
I've been using Google Maps Navigation on an HTC G1, which is not the higher-powered, bigger-screened Droid it was designed for. That said, Navigation has delivered that "I'm living in the future" feeling that makes you start mentally marking down the margin you paid for your gadgets. It combines a slew of services Google has recently refined—overhead maps and street-level images, voice recognition, local searches with plain English queries, and traffic data from real drivers—and presents them in an interface that's surprisingly inviting and useful, given Google's tendency for the Hey It Works school of design. More than anything, though, it's free, the data it serves up is free, and it'll always remain up to date for free.
That's not to say that my Garmin, a Nuvi 350 model bought for about $100, doesn't do its primary job, and do it well once it's working. But Google's free offering has made my phone the go-to gadget for navigating across the city or on same-day car trips. For long drives across regions without great cellular coverage, you might still want a stand-alone GPS unit. Navigation downloads all the map data over your phone's data connection, while most GPS devices store gigabytes worth of map data locally.
Update: A Google rep wrote to us, stating that while Navigation requires a data connection to plot its routes, search, and make detours and re-routes. But, once you've been driving a while, "as long as you don't stray from the route, you will continue to get voice guidance even without a data connection."
Assuming Google intends to make Navigation available on any future Android phone, and maybe iPhones as well, GPS navigation devices are going to have to develop features that add cleverness and value to compete for the crowd that's just looking for the local Marriott.
Using Google Maps Navigation
From the video tour Google offered up with the Droid launch, it's easy to assume that Navigation offers a turn-by-turn experience inside its Street View images—kind of like driving through a first-person shooter game with a thick blue line. It's disappointing when you realize it doesn't do live turn-by-turn in Street View; instead it only gives you the handy view when you click to see an upcoming turn or intersection. Still, Navigation's driving view is just as good as a GPS unit's, and at times even a little better.
The big advantages Google pushes have to do with local information. Inside the app itself, that means putting Google's "Layers" on top of your standard three-quarter view of the streets. You can have live traffic indicators overlaid on your streets, see your maps in satellite pictures, or have nearby restaurants, gas stations, banks, ATMs, and hotels show up. While you're navigating, you can also tap the voice search button and find something nearby that you're looking for. High-end GPS models likely offer similar voice-activated search, but likely not at the speed and with the range of results Google provides.
What really impressed me, though, was the actual turn-by-turn experience. The map automatically zooms in and out as your speed fluctuates, giving you a tight, precise view of where you're supposed to turn when you're slowing down for an off-ramp or intersection, but pulling back when you're cruising the highway and looking for the bigger road changes. The digital voice reading your directions is ever-so-slightly distorted compared to others I've heard, but you can understand it without problems. If you can't live without your digitized British female tour guides, well, I understand.
Data pulling, road refreshes, and GPS location awareness were definitely at par with my stand-alone unit, even on an EDGE connection, beneath a city's taller buildings. This will vary from city to city, and from phone to phone, of course—but I'd consider using a hacked G1 in Buffalo, NY a fairly good test of both location and lag-ridden hardware. Since Navigation runs as a background process, you can take phone calls over your speaker or through a Bluetooth headset, and Navigation will cut in (on your audio only) when it's time to make a turn. You can also switch out of Navigation's view to perform other tasks, if you feel like callously endangering the lives of everybody on the road around you with certain distraction and delayed response time.
Navigation does warn you about that distraction danger, by the way, when you first launch it, but only that one time. Whether that's an advantage over GPS units' regular reminders depends on your point of view. Actually, let's go ahead and assume you like fewer nag screens.
If you're driving somewhere without EDGE or 3G data coverage on your carrier, Maps Navigation will eventually run out of maps to show you. There might be local maps packs to pull down in the future, and wireless data coverage might eventually bridge its gaps over the last mile. If rural coverage is a non-starter for you, you weren't likely to buy a smartphone anyways. Otherwise, Navigation probably does everything your stand-alone GPS unit does.
Using a GPS device
The GPS device I'd been using for the better part of a year, a Garmin Nuvi 350, is far from the top of the line. Most readers will be familiar with how one works, even if they haven't owned one, so I'll just say what's different and unique.
The obvious advantages are that you're not draining, or at least continually charging, your main cellphone's battery, and that a GPS unit can dish out directions almost anywhere, without any need for a wireless data connection. Depending on your phone, the screen on a GPS unit may be bigger, and, on my Nuvi, at least, the "Night Mode" that pops on at a dynamic sunset time is certainly very helpful. GPS units also come with all the hardware they need to mount to your window or dashboard, and for those afraid of their own distractions, don't ping you when new email or text messages come in.
The chart
Enough jibber-jabber from one geeky tester. Here's the head-on comparison between my GPS and my hacked G1 Navigation system. Click to enlarge, unless you've got Superman eyes.
For an alternate take on Google Maps Navigation by the (admittedly more GPS-savvy) Gizmodo crew, read Wilson Rothman's Maps Navigation feature review.
I have far from the perfect phone or GPS unit to make my judgments in the ideal realm, but I also consider myself a regular old consumer (as opposed to a latest-and-greatest gadget guy). Could you abandon your stand-alone GPS unit, or take it off your wish list, for Google's Navigation? Give us your take in the comments.
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