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Google Earth animated with real-time human and vehicular traffic

Google is in the news yet again; this time for Google Earth! Students from the Georgia Institute of Technology have used motion capture data and CCTV video feeds to animate Google Earth with live feeds! It's crazy that this is possible, but cool at the same time!

Mmm, real time dynamic maps of the Earth. It seems nowadays that supervillainy just isn't as hard as it used to be. Back in the days of Hugo Drax, you had to be a filthy rich eccentric to ever get to spy on the whole world, whereas today all you need is Google Earth and some Georgia Institute of Technology students. Using motion capture data and the veritable litany of CCTV cameras people have surrounded themselves with, the team have succeeded in mapping and animating the real time movements of cars, people and clouds. A proper unveiling is coming up at a symposium next month, by which point they might have added weather patterns, birds and river motions to that list, but for now you can enjoy the video demo after the break.

Engadget

Posted by | Wed, Sep 30, 2009 - 09:54 AM