tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157647922009-11-23T10:14:58.915-08:00Virtual globes are three-dimensional representations of the earth and universe. A few examples of virtual globes are: Google Earth, NASA World Wind, ESRI ArcGIS Explorer, and Skyline's TerraSuite. This blog is maintained by Josh Bader, Alan Glennon and Karl Grossner at UCSB's Department of Geography to facilitate discussion on virtual globes and related technology. Contact: glennon at gmail dot comAlan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.comBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-73911533322719814112007-04-12T22:12:00.000-07:002007-04-19T01:10:16.046-07:00

Paper Session:4510 Virtual Globes: GIS for the Masses?is scheduled on Friday, 4/20/07, from 4:00 PM - 5:40 PMRoom: Franciscan A, SF HiltonSponsorship(s):Cartography Specialty GroupGeographic Information Science and Systems Specialty GroupOrganizer(s):Josh Bader - UCSB GeographyJ. Alan Glennon - UCSB GeographyChair(s):Josh Bader - UCSB Geography4:00 PM Defining a Digital Earth SystemAuthor(s): *

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-48959029699299239672007-04-12T22:09:00.000-07:002007-04-12T22:10:53.297-07:00

Spatial Technology Gallery:a special event at the 2007 Association of American Geographers Annual MeetingWhen:Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 7:00pm-9:00pm,Where:Conference Room Yosemite B, Hilton San Francisco, located at 333O'Farrell Street San Francisco, CA 94102What:On Wednesday evening, a select group of researchers from academia, government labs, and industry have been invited to demonstrate

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1158179572068464442006-09-13T13:27:00.000-07:002006-09-13T13:32:52.106-07:00

Just like last year, we are organizing a virtual globe session for the American Association of Geographers conference. Last year's session was very successful and we hope the 2007 version will match it. Here is the call for papers: Call for Abstracts "Virtual Globes: GIS for the Masses?"Session ID: 3232 Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, April 17-21, 2007, San

Josh Baderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766795421896208484noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1156471050198502502006-08-24T18:43:00.000-07:002006-08-24T19:50:43.786-07:00

Originally coded as a Sci Foo party favor, follow this link (turnhole.com/rapid) to see my proof-of-concept implementation of a mobile Google Earth KML maker. I've been meaning to add error handling to the code, but have been busy on other things. Since it's too much fun to keep to myself, I thought I'd throw the idea and code into the wild, and see what the world does with it. Enjoy. ~Alan

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1156242401337341282006-08-22T02:29:00.000-07:002006-08-22T03:33:40.036-07:00

While coding a spreadsheet-to-KML parser for the online spreadsheet EditGrid, I noticed that they created one themselves. You'll need to register for a free account to access the tool (via My Workspace -> Add-ons -> Grid2Map). The EditGrid developers have also exposed the source code! Two weeks ago, Ogle Earth blogged about users calling individual EditGrid cell values from a Google Earth

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1155938391087400032006-08-18T14:36:00.000-07:002006-08-18T14:59:51.126-07:00

Concerning indoors spatial data, Mike Goodchild mentioned CityGML. References to interior models, which the University of Bonn initiative tags "LoD4" (level of detail 4), are not obvious on the main entry page, but are described in their presentation slides (pdf) and articles. Besides the CityGML site itself, Directions Magazine has an overview of the effort.

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1155857721747794462006-08-17T16:24:00.000-07:002006-08-17T16:39:33.066-07:00

As usual, the blog train rolls on: this blog posted about an entry on this blog and now you're reading it here. Anyway, the point is that Google Maps for Mobile now supports KML (link).Changing topicsConcerning Photosynth, one interesting avenue may be the inside of buildings. As I ate lunch today, I thought about some work I did on 3D cave mapping in 1999. It involved me taking images and survey

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1155788552475813222006-08-16T21:18:00.000-07:002006-08-16T22:00:42.386-07:00

All the standard sources have covered Microsoft Photosynth, but I wanted to mention a few additional links. For those who have not heard about it, Photosynth is a Microsoft Live Labs product that takes a collection of photographs, finds similarities, and arranges them in three-dimensional space.As Stefan Geens at Ogle Earth points out, the technology "certainly looks like a prime candidate for

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1155773557605793912006-08-16T17:02:00.000-07:002006-08-18T14:36:45.326-07:00

Rumor:AGI might adopt NASA World Wind as its visualization engine.Acknowledgements:Also, referring to my previous entry about conferences, I'd liketo express my appreciation to the people that fed me, housed me,and invited me to hang out with "the cool kids" over the last week. These include:Declan Butler and Nature (for Sci Foo)Chris DiBona and Google (for Sci Foo)Tim O'Reilly and O' Reilly

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1155768944336615082006-08-16T15:50:00.000-07:002006-08-16T16:01:26.010-07:00

I have not watched this video yet, but am posting it for my own notes. I thought others might be interested in it too.Spatial query processing utilizing Voronoi diagrams (video)Mehdi Sharifzadeh, USC Ph.D. Student, Presented at the Googleplex, August 10, 2006.

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1155766871631557012006-08-16T14:35:00.000-07:002006-08-17T02:45:33.360-07:00

While mostly I've been hunkered down coding, the brief pauses have been outstanding -- particularly the ESRI User Conference and Nature's Sci Foo. ESRI User ConferenceOther geobloggers have talked about the ESRI User Conference, but I'll add my two cents from a virtual globes perspective. First, I should disclose that I was only at the conference for two days, and did not attend any of the ArcGIS

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1154630787227447922006-08-03T11:32:00.000-07:002006-08-03T11:46:27.246-07:00

Sony announced a GPS gadget that triggers from your camera's hot shoe. The device records location and time, to be later synchronized with your photograph. Here's a link to a story at Digital Photography Review. The device will go on sale next month for about $150.00.Of course, if you have a logging GPS, you can do this already by synchronizing the timestamps on your photos with the time/location

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1154594061057818042006-08-03T01:15:00.000-07:002006-08-03T03:08:11.270-07:00

A few weeks ago, Matt Nolan hosted a Virtual Globes Conference in Boulder, Colorado. Here is the link to Matt's summary, as well as a synopsis from participant Ron Schott.Matt Nolan also sent me an email regarding several sessions on virtual globes at the December 11-15, 2006, American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco:The Use of Internet-Based Virtual Globes in the Earth Sciences (

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1154591561180329202006-08-03T00:40:00.000-07:002006-08-03T03:18:51.526-07:00

Okay, we haven't completely vanished. The three of us graduate students have been busy studying, reading, and writing. Karl is writing a manifesto on Digital Earth; Josh has been working on a paper related to infrastructure for virtual globes spatial analysis; and, I've been reading about mirror worlds, pondering nested coordinate systems, and making pushpins drive the streets of Santa Barbara

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1151660288290313782006-06-30T02:32:00.000-07:002006-06-30T02:50:27.720-07:00

I just read the Virtual Globes Scientific Conference agenda, and it looks like a fine program: a day of introductory talks on software, a day of user talks with a panel, and a third day of tutorial/demonstrations. The conference, organized by the Matt Nolan and the EarthSLOT team, will be held July 10-12, in Boulder, Colorado. See the schedule and get details at the conference website.Since no

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1151537984767288452006-06-28T16:36:00.000-07:002006-06-28T19:31:14.963-07:00

This is the New York Times article that seems to be floating around a lot today: geo-enabled mobile phones with attribute information about their location (article here).[update 28Jun06, 1915Pacific: Yuk! The NY Times website just changed the access so you have to register to read the article. It's free, but highly inconvenient.]

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1151530752989532732006-06-28T14:26:00.000-07:002006-06-28T14:40:11.266-07:00

I just got the First Call for Papers for the 2007 AAG Annual Meeting in San Francisco, April 17-21, 2007. Let's put some virtual globes / mashups / neogeog sessions together! Since it's right down the road from Silicon Valley, it's a prime opportunity to infuse a techgeek vibe into AAG. Contact me if you have ideas.

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1150851883109194032006-06-20T18:04:00.000-07:002006-06-21T10:14:43.620-07:00

For Dan Montello's Cognitive Issues in GIScience class here at UCSB, I was asked to write two short essays, "for and against" the use of naive geography in geospatial software design. Normally, such essays would disappear into an archive on my hard drive, but since virtual globes are referenced a few times, I thought I'd post them.Comments Against Naive Geographyby Alan GlennonEgenhofer and Mark

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1150850672982000742006-06-20T17:44:00.000-07:002006-06-21T10:13:55.596-07:00

For Dan Montello's Cognitive Issues in GIScience class here at UCSB, I was asked to write two short essays, "for and against" the use of naive geography in geospatial software design. Normally, these things disappear into an archive on my hard drive, but since virtual globes are referenced a few times, I thought I'd post them.Comments Supporting Naive Geographyby Alan GlennonWhen new users are

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1150524494239112462006-06-16T22:34:00.000-07:002006-06-19T15:24:52.880-07:00

Last Wednesday, Patrick Hogan, Project Manager of NASA World Wind, spoke at Where 2.0 in San Jose. Hogan's fifteen-minute talk was a straightforward description of the software, including comments on its open-source nature, Earth and planetary visualization functionality, and ongoing data import development. As Hogan spoke, World Wind Designer Randy Kim demonstrated and drove the software. The

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1150413763009460042006-06-15T16:03:00.000-07:002006-06-15T17:37:19.583-07:00

Before the conference, I gave four Where 2.0 expectations I had for Google, ESRI, NASA, and Microsoft concerning virtual globes. Here are my post-conference impressions:Google will talk about their time browserGoogle did not launch the time browser I was hoping for, but did introduce an attractive new version of Google Earth. When asked about spatiotemporal data at Geo Developer Day, Michael T.

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1150412515937334962006-06-15T15:58:00.000-07:002006-06-15T16:01:55.956-07:00

In the hallway at Where 2.0, I saw Gary Lang of Autodesk. He is a lead in the Infrastructure Solutions Division. While my prodding did not glean any information about the possibility of Autodesk introducing a Google-Earth-like virtual globe, he did provide the following statement about their numerous three-dimensional and geospatial offerings: "we are working to provide common visualizations

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1150273429739985442006-06-14T01:22:00.000-07:002006-06-14T01:59:33.400-07:00

While talking to one of the guys from Microsoft Live Local, I learned a little bit about the way they do their internal business. According to the Microsoft rep, the Live Local team works in what he called "100-day sprints." The workgroups are expected to produce a predetermined, measurable result every 100 days. My thoughts are that a natural result for the Live Local Team is updated

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1150272705844209652006-06-14T00:42:00.000-07:002006-06-14T01:11:45.856-07:00

I had a nice talk with a developer of the KML support for Google Maps. He said that the dialog window sizing problem is a persistent, known issue, and Google is working to solve it. As a workaround, if you close and reopen any problematic placemark window, the window resizes properly when opened the second time. Concerning the other issues I noted in my previous post, Google spells out what KML

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15764792.post-1150245013703601392006-06-13T17:26:00.001-07:002006-06-13T17:37:40.670-07:00

Skyline launched a full-fledged, internet-based virtual globe today at the Where 2.0 Conference. Skyline President Ronnie Yaron test drove the application for me, and it looks promising. The client is about 5MB and can be downloaded at www.skylineglobe.com. As expected, it looks like Google Earth, with various tweaks to differentiate it. I'll post more about the details when I get a chance to

Alan Glennonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497967344049055994noreply@blogger.com0