Google earth

Google Earth is a software of the company Google allowing a visualization of the ground with an assembly of Photographie S air or satellite. In the past produced by Keyhole Inc. (it was then completely paying), this software makes it possible for any user to fly over the Earth and of zoomer on a place of its choice. According to the geographical areas, information available is more or less precise. Thus a New Yorkean will be able to locate its preferred restaurant thus that to obtain a sight in 3D of the buildings of the metropolis whereas the resolution of the photographs of a good part of the Earth is very weak. The cover, according to Google should improve quickly. Modeling in 3 dimensions of constructions was carried out using the software SketchUp. Director 2007 of " Google Earth and Maps" is John Hanke.

The software has a paying free version and versions for the professionals.

General information

Initially known under the name of Earth Viewer , Google Earth was developed by the company Keyhole, Inc. who was repurchased by Google in 2004. The product was famous Google Earth in 2005 and is since available for the personal computers equipped with Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP, Mac OS X 10.3.9 or superior, Linux (since June 12th, 2006), and FreeBSD. In addition to to have continued the development of the customer started with Keyhole, Google also integrated the imagery of the database of Earth into their software of cartography in line (Google Maps).

Several big cities can be observed with a sufficiently high resolution to be able individually to distinguish each building, house and even car. In certain cities such as Paris, London, Washington and Seattle, it is even possible to distinguish people in the street. The resolution of maximum observation of the geographical places depends on their interest, however all the surface of the Earth was photographed with a resolution of at least 15 meters. The places which were photographed with the best resolution (6 inches) are the following: Las Vegas in the State of the Nevada, Cambridge in the Massachusetts and the county of Fulton in the State of New York. Google Earth also makes it possible to go directly to a place while entering its postal address (the United States, Canada and Europe only), its coordinates or into sailing manually.

The Google Earth software also is provided with the topographic data gathered by NASA at the time of the mission SRTM, which enables him to post the surface of the Earth in 3D. For example, the Large Canyon and the Mount Everest can be observed in 3D contrary with other software of cartography allowing only observations 2D, i.e. since the sky and perpendicular to the ground. Google moreover added one layer on the surface of the Earth which models in 3D the buildings and important buildings of the more American big cities.

Many people using these applications add their own data and make them available via several sources like BBS or the Blog S quoted in the external bonds low.

Google Earth is available in free version, and laid off versions with regular commercial practice. It is available for Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux. The December 8th 2005, a beta release intended for the operating system Mac OS X was diffused on Internet whereas it was still under development.

See also Keyhole Markup Language (KML).

Buildings in 3D

After its acquisition of Keyhole, Google added to the software a function allowing to post buildings in 3D modelled by blocks of gray color. Thus thanks to the furnished informations by Sanborn Citysets, it is possible to observe 38 American cities (September 2006, to see the FAQ official. The March 14th 2006, Google repurchased @Last Software (undertaken at the origin of the software SketchUp) which created a Plugin to make it possible to obtain one returned 3D in Google Earth.

Only some American cities are concerned with this function, although since a recent update it is also possible to observe in 3D the buildings of the Japan entire thanks to ZENRIN which provided the data necessary. The cities of North America concerned are the following ones:

Buildings are also visible in 3D for some other cities of the world by making use of programs coming from other Web sites. There exists also a project intended to model the buildings of the town of London (see Google Earth London under development). It is also the case for Paris, where the Eiffel Tower, the Ile of the City, the Louvre, the district of Defense or the house of Radio France are recently visible in 3D.

Specifications

Version Mac OS X

The January 10th 2006, Google left a version intended for the operating system Mac OS X, downloadable starting from the Web site of Google Earth. Excluded the few remarks made a little further in this article, the Mac version seems to be stable and finished, with practically all the same functionalities as the original version for Windows. The August 8th 2005, a version Mac functional calculus as some captures of screen are escaped and were diffused on Internet, that is to say about a month before its exit. However this escaped version appeared really unfinished owing to the fact that inter alia the menu of assistance and the posting of the license were not operational, revealing sign owing to the fact that this version was well intended only for one internal use with the Google company. The latter did not make of remark on this event.

Currently, it is necessary to have the version 10.3.9 or 10.4 of Mac OS X to be able to use this Mac version of Google Earth. Moreover more currently, no version “Pro” or “More” exists in stable version, and there is not either of navigator embarked (Boussole in top on the right) and nor of direct interface towards Gmail. Some bugs also appears on the level of the bar of menu (in particular during a swing towards other programs), on the level of the bubbles infos and on the level of the impression.

The last version (4.0.2722, left the January 5th 2007) is currently available as a beta release and brings new functionalities with inter alia a new user interface and the possibility for the users of Mac OS X of passing to the version “More”. (sources on www.macupdate.com).

Linux version

Google Earth appeared on Linux with the version 4 beta, as a native product using the software Bibliothèque Qt. It is downloadable free for a personal use.

Resolution

The resolution of the image provided by the Google Earth program depends above all on the geographical place. Indeed, the resolution is not homogeneous on all planet and, generally, the great agglomerations are much more detailed than rural environments. The precise place where the image has a maximum resolution finds with the coordinates. It is about the Campus Google, the premises of the undertaking, where one can observe the logo of the search engine to the accesses of a swimming pool with a resolution of 1 inch per pixel (approximately 2,58 cm/pixel).

Criticisms

routes

To calculate its route or to even seek an avenue is impossible on all Africa since google earth. August 1st

Polemics

There exist many polemics with respect to this software, as for the possibility of obtaining stereotypes photographs of significant zones : military, nuclear installations…

Alternatives

  • For the Metropolitan France the GéoPortail is an alternative proposing a better precision for certain small agglomerations, and a contrario less low definition on the majority of the big cities and their neighborhoods.
  • World Wind published by NASA is a similar program. This software and the images which it watch are in free License.
  • Windows Live Local of Microsoft does not have a cover as extended as Google Earth , but proposes a resolution much more detailed in certain big cities, by using the zoom " bird eye" (literally seen bird ).

Curiosities

The Google Earth program also offers a multitude of curiosities, which they are signs esoteric drawn on the ground or buildings to strange architecture. Here a nonexhaustive list of curiosities of Google Earth:

Versions available

Google Earth is available in 3 versions for Windows and for Mac OS X:

  • Free Version : free version available for all.
  • Google Earth More
  • Google Earth Pro : version undertaken
The version 4 beta is now available for Windows, Linux and Mac. The interface was reduced and the French language is available.

" Simulator" flight;

In version 4.2 of Google Earth, a flight simulator is included like a more or less hidden functionality. A combination of key is necessary to see this functionality from where the possible use of the term Easter egg compared to this functionality. See description on the official site and this article explaining how to use this functionality

Appearances

  • In Hyper tension , an American film of 2006, animated images drawn from the Google Earth software appear regularly with the screen to locate the action.

  • CNN, the chain of American television news often uses the Logiciel to locate a place.

Reference

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