What is special about Geospatial?

Yesterday the first news came up that Graz and Vienna are now available in 3D. Virtual Earth was enhanced with the datasets of these cities.

The 3D information is derived from areal photographs recored in different angles.

Written and Submitted at CUAS, using their Network Infrastructure.

Today Microsoft has updated their Webmapping service Virtual Earth to version 6.1. In this actual version lots of new functions were integrated. Now the service should be working also on Safari and Internet Explorer 8 Beta. New photographies are integrated and the 3D function is improved. Additional useres can generated their own maps and share them with other internet users.

A shot summery of important changes:

• 3D
  • More realistic due improved textures and 3d Trees.
  • Improved Representation of Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; Dallas, TX; und Denver. Another 250 cities should follow shortly, hopefully also Vienna.
  • Make your own 3D routes with 15 to 30 fps.
  • Improved Support of Birds-Eye
• Birds-Eye
  • Hybrid-View with Birds-Eye to view street names.
• Platform Browser Support: Support of Safari 3 und IE 8.0.
• Collections: Upload your personal map on Virtual Earth and publish it on Virtual Earth Collections. For this use MapCruncher from MS research, which you can download here. An Example: Crunch sample including Seattle Transit
• New Routing functionality
  • Walking-Direction
  • Routing considering traffic. Using ClearFlow-Technology to integrate traffic information from traffic.com. Example: SeaTac to UW
• Improved Language Support for Walking-Routes/Routes in 15 Languages including: German, English, French, Spanish, Portugese and Italian.
• Geocoding: The new reverse Geocoding-Support enables to convert Longitude and Latitude into an Adress.
• Improved Search: New data from Zagat and Yep included, two sources for restaurants. Example: Reviews of Papa John’s in Redmond
• SDK-Update: New functions for developers with the SDK.

[via winfuture.de]

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

Microsofts Virtual Earth recently has updated their image data. Now all austrian host cities of the Euro 2008 tournament can be viewed in high relolution bird’s eye view (e.g. Klagenfurt, Innsbruck). But this is no real 3D city model. For the next update (maybe mid of April) it is planned to make Vienna available in 3D. The software company Microsoft wants to integrate the location of the Euro 2008 finale as 3D city model in their online mapping platform Virtual Earth. Vienna will then be the first city in central europe availabe in 3D.

[via derStandard]

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

The ORF (Austrian Broadcasting) has recently shown an documentation about Vexcel Imaging Graz, and their technology to make areal photographs and calculate altitude for designing 3D city models. Vexcel was aquired by Microsoft and their technology is used by Microsoft’s Virtual Earth Service. You can see the clip here, but unfortunately the language is German.

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

 Recently a 35.13 terabyte data update in Virtual Earth happend. Some Austrian Cities like:

• Innsbruck
• Klagenfurt
• Linz
• Salzburg
• St. Pölten
• Villach
• Wels

were also affected. They can be seen now in high resolution. With the “Bird’s Eye View” these Austrian cities can be seen whith an angle of about 45 degrees, where streets, house claddings, trees and parks can be identified. The user can change the viewpoint and the selected area can be seen from all cardinal points.

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.