Google Takes 3D Maps To The Next Level With Announcement

Today Google has announced new technologies for Street View and offline viewing for Google Maps on Android as well as a revolutionary new capture technology to enhance buildings and other geographic details in Google Earth.

Many speculated that Google would come out with some sort of “Big” announcement in the wake of Apple’s departure from using Google’s mapping service in favor of their own in iOS 6 and beyond.

“Since 2006, we’ve had textured 3D buildings in Google Earth, and we’re excited to announce that we’ll begin adding 3D models to entire metropolitan areas to Google Earth on mobile devices in the near future. Google said on their YouTube page”.

Check out the Google Video for a brief overview:

Instead of using the mapping community and google employees to model the buildings this new technology will be completely automated using a special algorithm in conjunction with the high-resolution fly over images.

“Thanks to new imagery rendering techniques and computer vision, we’re able to create 3D cityscapes, complete with buildings, terrain and even landscaping, from 45-degree aerial imagery”.

By the end of the year, Google aims to have 3D coverage for metropolitan areas as large as a combined population of 300 million people across multiple cities and municipalities.

The new versions of Google Earth available soon on Desktop, iOS Android platforms.

http://earth.google.com

Via Google