Anti-occupation protest on Street View?

in. Inspired by similar protests worldwide, activist Eran Vered is initiating a demonstration in front of Google's Street View cars.


"Google Street is coming to Israel," the initiative's Facebook page states. "In this group we'll coordinate groups for the camera's patrol routes and wave signs against the occupation."

Last week, the Justice Ministry approved Google's request to feature panoramic views from various positions along Israel's streets in its Street View service, subject to condition aimed at protecting the Israeli public's privacy.


The images, taken by special camera cars, will be combined into a panoramic view presented on the Google Maps and Google Earth software, and surfers will be able to take a virtual tour of the country's streets.


How will the protestors find the cars? As part of the Justice Ministry conditions, two weeks before it starts shooting, Google must publish newspaper ads detailing the cities its cars will patrol on the first three months. Upon the start of the shooting, the company will be obligated to publish the names of the cities the cars will patrol in the coming month. Its website will be required to post regular updates on the cities Google is active in and the cities it plans to patrol in the next five days.


In addition, the vehicles will be clearly labeled as Google Street View camera cars.



The protestors will appear in the images, unless Google decides to reshoot those areas so as not to expose the demonstration. The company, which will be forced to blur the protestors' faces in accordance with the Justice Ministry's demand, may also blur the signs – making the protest ineffective.


Almost 500 people have joined the initiative's Facebook page so far, and some of them have been discussing the issue selected for the protest on its wall.


Web activist Edo Amin wrote, "What does the occupation have to do with the Tel Aviv map? I'm afraid it'll just promote the image of the leftists with the round glasses from Tel Aviv.


"My suggestion: Take this excellent idea and implement it for the wide-scale social justice struggle. If Google's cameras spot protest signs for social justice – not just in the hands of protestors, but also on stores, cars, etc – it will convey the message that the people support the protest."


Koranit Stoler responded, "Just like the social protest has everything to do with Tel Aviv. We are Israelis, and so the occupation – like the social protest – is our business. There's no reason not to bring social protest signs as well (I would even recommend it), but definitely not instead of the anti-occupation ones.

"Who do you think uses Google Street View? Do you really feel in such great danger of being accused by them because you are a person with glasses from Tel Aviv?"

Article source: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4115807,00.html

Google Maps — Now With Voice Search

Voice search all began for Google several years ago with the now-shuttered, free directory assistance service GOOG-411. After the underlying infrastructure had matured Google introduced it on Android devices and in its iPhone apps. More recently, in July, the company put the same voice search capability on Google.com on the Chrome browser for the PC.


Now it’s extending that functionality to Google Maps.

While voice search on mobile devices is widely used it’s not clear whether many people are yet searching with voice on their PCs. (Insert Star Trek joke here.) In October 2010 Chitika found that voice search was responsible for 7 percent of Google mobile queries on the iPhone and 25 percent on Android devices.

This afternoon I got around to testing voice search on Google.com and in Google Maps. I performed a bunch of queries (category searches, business name lookups, super specific long tail keywords, etc.). I did some with a headset and and some without on both sites.

Overall, voice search performed well and better than I expected. There was little difference in performance in Maps vs. Google.com. However you can do a much broader array of lookups on Google vs. Maps because of the greater breadth of the underlying database.

There were a number of cases where it had trouble, however. For example my dentist in San Francisco is named Thomas Madill and it couldn’t get the name right despite multiple attempts on my part.

Article Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-maps-now-with-voice-search-90848

Google Earth puts Amazon rainforest on the map

TWO women washed clothes in the dark water of the Rio Negro as a boat glided past with a camera-laden Google tricycle strapped to the roof, destined to give the world a window into the Amazon rainforest.

A "trike" typically used to capture street scenes for Google's free online mapping service launched last Thursday from the village of Tumbira in a first-ever project to let web users virtually explore the world's largest river, its wildlife and its communities.

The project was the brainchild of Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS), which two years ago went to Google Earth with a vision of turning "Street View" into a river view in the lush and precious Amazon Basin.

"It is incredible; all those months of planning and then having this technology here," FAS project leader Gabriel Ribenboim said. "It is very important to show the world not only the environment and the way of life of the traditional population, but to sensitise the world to the challenges of climate change, deforestation and combating poverty."

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Trikes have cameras that continuously snap images in every direction. The pictures are woven into Google Maps and Earth services so people can virtually peer about as if they were there.

Satellite positioning equipment on trikes pinpoints where images are gathered.

One trike travels by river, documenting the journey, while a second is ridden, or pushed if necessary, through riverside communities.

Members of a Google team last Wednesday began teaching FAS members and local residents how to use the trikes and a special tripod-mounted camera tailored for capturing insides of schools, community centers and other public spaces.

The camera, with a fish-eye lens to take panoramic images, will also be used to recreate walks along rainforest trails.

"We want the world to see that the Amazon is not a place only with plants and animals," FAS chief executive Virgilio Viana said.

The first phase of the project is expected to take three weeks.

The goal is to capture a 50km stretch of the Rio Negro, and along the way train the local team that will keep the imaging gear to broaden the mission.

Article Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/google-earth-puts-amazon-rainforest-on-the-map/story-e6frgakx-1226119914874

Ten easy steps to learn about a place with Google Earth

When I show people how to use Google Earth effectively to learn about places they see, they are usually amazed how quick and easy it is to do it. So, I thought I would share 10 easy steps used to learn about a place I read about today at GoogleSightseeing.com. They were writing about the extensive canal system across Germany - something I was not really familiar with. I was fascinated by their fourth entry which described the Magdeburg Water Bridge, which they said is the longest aqueduct in Europe. Here's the placemark they provided [Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.] to a view of the bridge in Google Earth. Watch the short video below to see 10 steps I took to learn more about this place in GE:

You can watch the steps I took in the video above.

First I found something interesting through a blog post at GoogleSightseeing.com. Alex posted some details in his post, but I find it more interesting to discover with Google Earth.
So, I followed the link to view the location in Google Earth.
The first thing I do in Google Earth is turn on the "Places", "Photos" and "More" layers in Google Earth.
The blue icons represent photos taken by many people around the world found at Panoramio (millions of photos are mapped into Google Earth).
I quickly found a ground level photo which showed the bridge (there were even aerial photos in this case).
Found a nice photo from the bridge itself as well.
The white icon from "More" layer represents a Wikipedia story. Here you get a good description of the Magdeburg Water Bridge and a link to the full article with even more details.
You can use the Google Earth navigation gadget in the upper right to turn and tilt your view to get other perspectives of any site.
Zoom out a bit and turn on the Roads layer to get a handy map of the area.
Zoom out even more and turn on the Borders and Labels layer (you might want to turn off the other layers at this point). This gives you a broader perspective. (Tip: you can also turn on the "View->Overview Map" - or hit "CTRL-M" to get a fast broad perspective map).

These are just some really basic steps I often take when trying to learn about a place. Another useful layer is the Google Earth Community layer, found inside of the "Gallery" layer. Although, for some popular places you may find dozens of placemarks by people who have posted about their favorite places - almost too much information. There are many other collections and tools (written about on this blog) for learning all kinds of things like weather, conditions of the environment, real estate prices, history, etc.

The world is a big place, and these techniques won't work for every single place on the planet. But, if you try them out, you will probably be surprised just how much you can learn (and how many hours you can spend learning about places you've always wanted to visit).

Article Source: http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2011/08/ten_easy_steps_to_learn_about_a_pla.html

Audi Connect: Mobile computing in gear

Please excuse any typos here. My fingers are still tingling from an incredibly fast wireless device I tested recently.

This one costs nearly $60,000, plus $30 a month for a data plan, and it weighs 4,045 pounds.

It's the 2012 Audi A6 sedan that went on sale in July.

Audi provided a fully loaded model with a supercharger, eight-speed transmission and a wireless system that turns the car into a rolling Wi-Fi hot spot that connects up to eight devices at once.

The wireless system - called "Audi Connect" - is available with a $4,220 option package on the A6, which starts at $41,700.

Earlier this year, Audi became the first carmaker to offer a factory-installed hot spot. Previously, cars connected to information services via satellites, embedded wireless devices or drivers' phones.

Audi's A6 and A7 are also the first cars to use Google Earth in their navigation systems. They display the search giant's aerial imagery and use its local search to provide details on restaurants, hotels and other points of interest; there's even a touch-screen input system.

"The system is only available on a few models right now - it's coming to the A8 soon," said Devin Carlson, general manager of Audi Jacksonville. "The A8 is the Audi flagship and the other two models are just slightly below that, and at that price point, customers are looking for something special. The Google Earth navigation is super-cool; customers love it right away. It's a unique tool available only with Audi - 60 percent of our models are equipped with it."

Automotive electronics are going through a surge of innovation, parallel to what's happening with smartphones and Web tablets.

The number of cars shipping with factory-installed telematics systems will leap from less than 10 percent last year to more than 62 percent in 2016, according to an ABI Research report in January. Analyst Dominique Bonte said in the release that carmakers are "borrowing the hugely successful application store paradigm from the mobile industry" to release products more quickly and at lower costs.

Audi is extending its wireless technology from higher-end models down through its product line.

"This technology gives Audi a huge advantage over some of the other luxury cars," Carlson said. "It meets - and even exceeds - the expectations of the luxury client. They expect the best engineering and the best technology. They look for innovation; it has to be cutting edge, because these buyers expect that."

There's convenience in having a connected car, but there are other options, including new phones that function as Wi-Fi hot spots and portable, puck-sized modems that connect multiple devices to the latest wireless networks.

The Audis connect to T-Mobile's 3G wireless network, using a SIM card that fits into a slot on the dashboard. After a six-month trial period, "unlimited" data plans cost $30 a month or $324 for a prepaid yearly plan. T-Mobile doesn't specify a usage limit, but the contract says the carrier reserves the right to throttle your data throughput in a given month if usage is excessive.

The taut and sprightly A6 showed two to five bars of 3G coverage while driving around Seattle and the neighboring city of Bellevue. The Speedtest website, which gauges connectivity speed, measured download speeds of 267 to 798 kilobits per second.

Most important, the A6 passed the Netflix test: In an experiment, a passenger could watch a movie streamed to an iPad over the Wi-Fi connection while the car was being driven. It took a while to get started, but then played without a hiccup at a decent resolution.

Google Earth imagery is fun but nonessential. The navigation system gives you the choice of displaying regular maps or Google's aerial photos on a 7-inch diagonal color screen that slides out and flips up when you turn the car on. The computer uses an Nvidia processor and middleware from Ottawa-based QNX.

Spinning a control knob on the console, you can zoom out to see the entire globe or down to a particular block. Audi and Google are working together to eventually display "Street View" street-level images as well.

The aerial imagery is realistic enough that you may be fooled into thinking it's a live image, but your car's not on the screen, and things outside the window don't look exactly the same. It also made one of my passengers feel a little queasy, watching aerial images scroll around as we drove.

Applications on the system include a Wikipedia search and news feeds, which can be customized via an Audi website. It also provides real-time weather, traffic and nearby gas prices. The system is also used to choose music from the radio, an attached device or the car's hard drive, but it won't play video content.

The primary control is a large knob on the center console that you twist and press. It's encircled by 11 buttons - four for navigating on-screen menus and four for launching primary functions: navigation, radio, hands-free calling and stored digital media. There's also a back button, one for car settings and one that calls up on-screen menus.

Nearby there's another knob and buttons for controlling the music volume and track selection.

The touch pad on the console is about the size of a credit card. When I first heard about it, I thought it would be like a touch-screen PC or phone that reads handwriting, but it only reads one letter at a time and works best if you write carefully with capital letters. It reminded me of the game where you write with a finger on someone's back and they guess the words.

You can also select letters using the knob and an on-screen menu. Either way, it's too tedious to use while driving.

The touch pad can also be used to enter radio stations or navigate maps with a fingertip, but I kept changing stations when trying to use the map, and ended up mostly using the knob.

That's not all. The system also works with voice commands and buttons on the steering wheel.

Fortunately, there are detailed instructions: The A6 manual is 295 pages long, plus a 106-page supplement for its Multi Media Interface.

That's another way connected cars are just like computers and smartphones: By the time you've figured out all their tricks, a more powerful model will be on sale. Audi is testing a new version that connects to faster 4G LTE networks, for instance.

"This technology absolutely separates Audi from the rest of the pack," Carlson said. "In this [U.S.] market, Audi is up-and-coming as a luxury car. The rest of the world already knows it as tops in the luxury division. New technology is what the brand is all about. When the customers see it all, they're astounded. And it's only going to keep on getting better."

Article Source: http://jacksonville.com/autos/2011-08-12/story/audi-connect-mobile-computing-gear

'Collecting' Swimming Pools And Stadiums: Art Made From Google Maps

How many baseball diamonds are there in Manhattan? According to Jenny Odell, 116. And how does she know? Because she's put in the time scouring satellite images of New York City's surface on Google Earth, collecting every sighting of a field, compiling and displaying them all at once like so:

Odell, who was born in the Californian town of Mountain View, where Google would eventually set its roots, calls her project "Satellite Collections."

She is drawn to the parking lots, pools and silos she finds while scanning the satellite images because, she writes in an email, "they're things we often overlook or take for granted as part of our environment; but somehow, from a satellite point of view, they reveal themselves to be (somewhat) ubiquitous signs of human civilization, popping up in certain places while the surrounding area may simply be desert or mountains. From this perspective there's something very fragile and nostalgic about them."

It's funny to think about our humanity distilled and separated into discrete little clusters, neatly organized — the very act of categorizing itself a universal tendency among humans. These familiar landmarks are plucked from their native environments to float, context-less, with others of their kind. Sometimes it takes a minute to recognize the forms in Odell's compilations.

"Satellite Collections" is one of several art projects that have used the visual data supplied by Google's Maps and Earth applications. Clement Valla's gallery of warped bridges and roads culls artifacts of the program's automated image stitching. Michael Wolf's photo essay of odd moments caught by van-mounted Google Maps cameras controversially won an honorable mention in the photojournalistic World Press Photo contest. And then there are websites devoted to Google sightseeing, where people share the most interesting finds of their virtual exploration.

Odell usually likes to "wander" through the maps, turning labels off so she loses track of where she is. "It's a lot like being in a plane," she writes, "flying over your own country but not actually being able to tell where you are or exactly what you're looking at. I like the idea of the Earth as an endlessly readable surface."

You can see more of Jenny Odell's work on her website. What other art projects have you heard of that use Google Maps? Do you have a project of your own that you'd like to share?

Article Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2011/07/29/138766174/-collecting-swimming-pools-and-stadiums-art-made-from-google-maps