Entries tagged with maps - Channel 10

ReportStorms: A Virtual Earth-Powered Weather Site

sarahintampa — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Chris Pendleton reports that the web site Weather Central has just launched a new beta community site called ReportStorms.com. This crowd-sourced weather watching community lets you report on the storms in your area by right-clicking on the map provided and entering in the storm info. On the “Report Event” pop-up, you can fill out the date, time, and what kind of event you’re reporting (wind, hail, tornado, flooding, etc.). You also have the option to upload photos or videos that you recorded of the storm. If you want to just see the best stuff people have uploaded, the box at the top right of the screen features quick links to storm reports, videos, and images.

Elsewhere on the ReportStorms site, registered users can share info and discuss weather-related news in the site’s forums. It’s citizen journalism for weather reporting and a social community all in one. Weather enthusiasts everywhere will love this one.

Track Hurricanes at MSNBC

sarahintampa — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:44:00 GMT

As we enter into hurricane season, there’s no shortage of sites and tools for monitoring the latest news, viewing satellite imagery, and getting other storm-related information online. As I write this, I’m watching as Hurricane Gustav pounds the still-recovering Gulf Coast of Louisiana and already there’s another storm, Hurricane Hanna, on its way to Georgia (well, possibly – you know how these things go).

This season, weather watchers can track these and all other future storms using the new MSNBC Hurricane Tracker. Built on top of Virtual Earth, you can pick a storm to track from the dropdown provided (the link reads “more”) to see its path displayed on a map alongside other information like wind speed, ground speed, and pressure. Circles representing the eye of the storm are color-coded to denote how strong the storm is (Category 1 – 5) and when you hover your mouse over them, the exact GPS coordinates display. The bottom left side of the screen has a graph that shows a progress of the storm over time. You can also zoom in and out, pan, and rotate the map to get a better look. The Hurricane Tracker is a really handy tool to use to see exactly where the storms are and where they are headed, too.

For anyone in the path of any of these storms, we hope you take precautions and stay safe. Good luck!

trueSpace: Realistic, High-Res 3D Modeling for VE and Live Maps

sarahintampa — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:53:00 GMT

Back in February, Microsoft acquired a company called Caligari mainly for their 3D modeling and animation software, trueSpace. As of now, trueSpace is available for download – for free. With trueSpace, you can create high-resolution models, landscapes, buildings, and more for Virtual Earth and Live Maps. After creating these models, they can then be uploaded from trueSpace directly into Live Maps as a collections item. Why is trueSpace important? Well, for one, this is not sketching software – these aren’t drawings, but detailed, rich and realistic models. For example, take this Starbucks model (image to the left - see the full video on Chris Pendleton’s blog). This could either be a 3D model of the actual store or a mockup of one they’re thinking of building. That mockup could then be aaded to Live Maps in order to get feedback from the community. Even better, trueSpace supports importing of models drawn within other 3D software environments, including AutoCAD, Illustrator, and more. (The full list is here). For more details on how to use trueSpace, Chris has a great walkthough on his site. To register and download trueSpace, click here.

New Video Series Shows the Tech in Virtual Earth

sarahintampa — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:21:00 GMT

There’s a new video series available on our sister site, Channel 9, that delves into the tech behind Virtual Earth. The series is called “Behind the Maps,” and it will show you how the data and imagery in Virtual Earth goes through the whole process from camera to web and beyond. You’ll learn about the high-resolution cameras used – like the incredible UltraCam, how imagery is captured from a plane, how imagery is processed, and more. Of course, you’ll get to learn more about the Virtual Earth platform itself and its 3D control that delivers the imagery to your browser window. The first video is up now and will feature an up-close look at the UltraCam – check it out!

Ask Maps Are Now Virtual Earth

sarahintampa — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:21:00 GMT

Big news! Chris Pendleton is reporting that Ask.com has decided to forgo their mapping service in favor of the Virtual Earth platform. If you go to maps.ask.com now, you’ll see a Virtual Earth map. Chris notes that this choice is common among portal sites who realize that the upkeep involved in running a mapping service requires a lot of infrastructure, frequent imagery and photography acquisitions, data updates, etc. So, instead they’ll often turn to another service like Virtual Earth, for example.

But now, with Ask’s maps gone, Jordan from Marketing Pilgrim mentions that he’s going to miss the walking directions feature which the maps provided. Well, as it turns out, Chris had already shared some sample code for walking directions in VE – it looks like it’s just a matter of someone building an app to support this. (img via Chris Pendleton)

Virtual Earth Team Launches "GoVE"

sarahintampa — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:13:00 GMT

The Virtual Earth team has just launched a new program called GoVE which lets state and local governments, municipalities, and aerial photographers share their own imagery with Microsoft and get it published on Virtual Earth. After checking out maps.live.com to verify that the imagery they have it news and has a higher resolution of what's currently being offered online, the organizations can then contact the team by sending an email to DeepZoom thing and just recently, I located the blog belonging to the folks behind that project. Here, an older entry shows off a photo mosaic made with VirtualEarth tiles. John O’Brien created this image of the Sydney Opera House from maps.live.com using a bunch of tiles from the road and aerial views of the Live Maps image using images found in his PC’s cache. Then, using a tool called AndreaMosaic (it works on 64-bit, too!), he created the mosaic you see at the left of this post. If you want to make your own mosaics, too, there’s a tutorial here on how to use the AndreaMosaic software.

April's Virtual Earth Updates

sarahintampa — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:21:00 GMT

The Virtual Earth team had a busy April, adding 22 TB of data throughout the month to bring us even more Bird's Eye and aerial imagery to Virtual Earth/Live Search Maps. The update included new images in both formats for certain areas worldwide, and Bird's Eye images added for major cities in Canada (Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Victoria, Edmonton, Vancouver), Australia (Gold Coast, Sydney, Hobart, Wollongong), and parts of Europe (UK, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Greece). However, my favorite new images from this update are the Bird's Eye images of the Sydney Opera House. By using the rotate buttons in VE, I could see the Opera House from angles that you usually never see in photos of the iconic landmark.

I'm constantly impressed by VE's imagery - even my house (which is outside of Tampa in Pasco County, Florida - an area that doesn't often get updated), shows up in both aerial and Bird's Eye view with recent images (I can tell because of our brand-new landscaping in the yard), while other mapping services still show outdated images of my neighborhood. Check to see if your house has a Bird's Eye view of it yet - you'll be impressed! (via LiveSide)

New release of Virtual Earth

Laura — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:22:00 GMT

This application just keeps getting better and better. My favorite part about this, is the 3D modeling feature in the authoring section. I love the way the tools we use to make our lives easier are more and more turning into mini-games. Besides that they've done a seamless blend of 3D imagery with Live Search. There's a ton more stuff to help you learn things and get from point A to point B in style. Take a look.

3-D Models in Virtual Earth

sarahintampa — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:26:00 GMT

This week a new application for Microsoft Virtual Earth launched. 3DVIA is an online app that lets you create 3-D models and share them through Virtual Earth and online communities. To use 3DVIA, you first need to "install 3D", the option available under the "Explore" section of http://maps.live.com. Then you can download 3DVIA from here or just click "Add a 3D model" from the "Collections" menu. Using the 3DVIA app, with a few clicks, you can design a 3-D model of your home, your favorite building, or any structure you want. You can give your creation different visualization options, textures, and colors to make it your own. The models you create can then be uploaded to Virtual Earth, after specifying an address or neighborhood, so you can see your model in "real life." Your 3-D models can also be added to various collections and shared with friends in web communities, like the groups over on the 3DVIA website. Time to build!

Twitter Earth mashes micro-blogging and gorgeous maps

Jesse — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:52:00 GMT

Hot on the heels of the new version of Live Maps comes Twitter Earth. As Brady Forrest mentions on O’Reilly Radar, and as the name so deftly implies, the site mashes the latest updates from the Twitter public feed with the new and improved data from the Virtual Earth team. As Larry mentioned, Firefox browsers can now take advantage of the gorgeous 3D data provided by the team. So go forth you Twitterholics with dual displays: Open up Twitter Earth on one side and twittervision on the other, and enjoy your own geo-located, micro-blogging competition! Which site gives you the superior experience and why?

Virtual Earth 3D Launch Party....what people are saying

Laura — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:42:00 GMT

If you haven't checked out Microsoft's Virtual Earth yet, you definitely should. I swung by their offices and got a preview of it about a month ago and I was utterly impressed. In fact, I liked it so much that I headed down to San Francisco to celebrate with the team and some esteemed journalists at their launch party. While I was mixing and mingling I decided to bust out the camera and get on tape some peoples first impressions about Virtual Earth 3D. Take a look and see what other people are saying and then try it out for yourself and let me know what you think!