Google Earth Adds 3-D Trees 95
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the still-waiting-for-4d dept.
from the still-waiting-for-4d dept.
terrancem writes "Google has populated several major cities with more than 80 million virtual trees based on an automated process that identifies trees in satellite images. The realistic 3D representations are based on actual tree species found in urban areas. But Google has also extended realistic tree coverage to rainforests in Africa, Mexico, and the Amazon."
Carbon dioxide (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Yippie. (Score:3, Interesting)
It is somewhat useful, depending upon one's use of google earth.
I use google earth to look at things.
I like looking at trees.
I think it's useful :) ...a first person shooter layer would be pretty cool too though!
Re:Yippie. (Score:2, Interesting)
If it was an automated algorithm that ID'd trees, I'd say no, this could be useful in other id'ing applications (maybe rocks, maybe separating natural from artificial objects or vice versa, etc).
If it was 1000 poor interns/schoolkids paid to click on 80000 trees each, then ok, you win, this was a bad idea.
Shade map? (Score:3, Interesting)
As a grad student at the University of Arizona (in Tucson) who works on campus in the summers...I'd really like to see a shade map that is indexed to the time of day and inclination of the sun to calculate the most-shaded paths around campus. That might not sound so useful, but when it's 105F out, every bit of shade makes all the difference on a 10-15 minute walk across campus.
Maybe boring for you guys, but not for everybody (Score:3, Interesting)
How about planting a few trees? (Score:4, Interesting)
With the thousands (millions?) of servers that google has, how about planting a few trees...