Sunday, February 10, 2013

The Google Maps of the Week


How do you know that a road is safe for cycling before you have ever ridden on it?

Cyclodeo helps solve the problem by letting you view a video of a suggested cycling route before you undertake your journey. The application uses Google Maps and videos of a cycling route to allow you to watch the route before setting out.

The videos are even synced to the Google Map of the route so that you can click anywhere on the route and the video automatically jumps to the footage at that location.


This is very impressive. The DTS Dallas Theological Seminary has used polygons to create the effect of 3d buildings on its campus map.

The effect is partly possible because of Google Map's 45 degree aerial view. This bird's eye view imagery is perfect for creating polygons for the roofs and the visible walls of building, which combined create the visual effect of a 3d building.

The DTS campus map has also made the 3d buildings selectable, so you can click on each building to find out which department is housed there.


Zeptoblaster also deserves an honourable mention this week. This Google Earth browser game may not be perfect yet but its collision detection system does hint at a future for Google Earth as a 3d gaming platform.

Zeptoblaster itself is a two player game that involves hunting down your opponent and blowing them to smithereens. You can jump to anywhere in the world in the game. So you can fight your battle around the Egyptian pyramids, in the Colosseum in Rome or anywhere else in the world that takes your fancy.

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