geek stuff 27 Apr 2006 10:44 am

Build your own Earth

Okay I’m not nearly as much of a Google (the company) whore as some people, but I do think they do some really cool stuff and they give us lots of fun toys to play with. Now they’re giving away another, a 3D modeling tool called SketchUp. I haven’t actually downloaded and played with it yet, but I did notice a few things from watching their little tutorial/intro video that make me think of how clever this move is, and that’s what I’m here to write about.

So, the premise is this. Basically, people play with this 3D modeling tool, and they see that they can place their models in Google Earth. “Oh, that’s cool,” they say, and then they are told that they can share it with everyone else by uploading it to Google’s 3D Warehouse. The end result? A more detailed Google Earth for everyone else. All you have to do is install this “network link” into Google Earth and any georeferenced (ie, placed on the right spot on Google Earth) model in the 3D warehouse will automatically be available to you. So now when you’re viewing an area, you can view/download any of the georeferenced models available for that area.

But where’s the clever part in all of this? Well, if SketchUp is really as easy to use as the video purports it to be, pretty soon you have amateur modelers providing decent quality facsimiles of landmarks all over and georeferencing them for you and sharing them. Instead of having to pay modelers to do all this work and researching what might need to be modeled, instead you harness the general population and their own favorite places and encourage them to do the work for you. With the network link, you don’t get forced to see some crappy models either, you can pick and choose what you see. And I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point they start incorporating some of the user-submitted models into the building data layer in general. After all, they have to fix the St. Louis Gateway Arch at some point, and someone already made a better model for it.

Google’s “building data” version:
Google Earth's "building layer" rendition of the St. Louis Arch

User-submitted SketchUp version:
User-submitted SketchUp rendition of the St. Louis Arch

4 Responses to “Build your own Earth”

  1. on 28 Apr 2006 at 9:31 am 1.setuid_w00t said …

    What about defacement?

    Personally, I think it would be funny to model the statue of liberty as a giant cock for example. Others might not find this amusing.

  2. on 28 Apr 2006 at 9:42 am 2.ddipaolo said …

    Funny you should say that. Meg and I were just talking about that (defacing places with a large phallus) last night. The truth is you don’t get stuff PUSHED on to your Google Earth screen, you just get a list of things that you may want to download because they are placed in the area.

    Then when looking around NYC I saw this crazy thing:

    http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/9427/hoppi8je.jpg

    It’s named “Hoppi the Avabuddy” and floating right over Liberty Island.

  3. on 28 Apr 2006 at 10:21 am 3.ndegruchy said …

    Someone should put one of those alien ships above the white house ala ID4

  4. on 28 Apr 2006 at 6:08 pm 4.Meglet said …

    That bunny scares me.