Kirk would approve
Posted 02.12.2010 at 5:48 pm
7 Comments
Liquid Galaxy
Fly me to the moon, but swing by San Francisco first
Google
Someone at Google apparently took pity on the poor users who can only explore Google Earth on their laptops. Jason Holt used his 20 percent project time to create a wraparound view of a modified Google Earth engine, and splashed it across 8 LCD screens in an immersive viewing booth. The result provides a view not unlike that from a starship's bridge, and allows users to seamlessly explore a virtual environment of the Earth, moon, and Mars -- an experience that Google has dubbed "Liquid Galaxy."
This TED 2010 video showcases Holt running his demo on eight Linux machines and navigating with a six-axis mouse. He also makes use of voice-issued commands to zoom out from San Francisco, California and travel across the globe to check out India's Taj Mahal. We personally can't wait to see the same display with an augmented Google Earth that includes people, cars and clouds.
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And when we have projectors or film screens on every inch of our homes, I want this in my bathroom.
Of course the projectors will also indefinitely be camera's for big brother's pyramid scheme.
There's coffee! (Says the man in the background)-Kris Johnson
It irks me how these articles tend to miss the most obvious questions. What are the weapons capabilities?!
Pretty awesome stuff. I can imagine that science museums (even schools) are going to want something like this. What a great way to visualize the world. Every classroom should have this capability.
nice reference to 1984
@MarcusM
I Agree completely! As virtual Earth becomes more powerful (even now) it will be an amazing tool for guided tours and information. If you could piece together tours of a high enough caliber you might be able to make some money off that idea ;)