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Note how the 3D transitions between scenes and how the photos become part of the panorama:

See the post over on the Microsoft site for full details on Streetside or jump direct to the Streetside Photos application.

The post Bing Streetside: Flickr in 3D Space, 3D Transitions and Notable Potential appeared first on Digital Urban.

Its interesting how the mouse in Street View follows the 3D space, we assume to allow any data to be tagged to buildings etc. With data of course comes the ability to provide click throughs and advertising. We dont think it will limited to simple images however as video can also be embedded into panoramas as one of our previous examples shows:

The example was quite easy to produce, we used the real estate of Twin Peaks in San Francisco, but this could of easily been an advert above Buckingham Palace and then that’s when things get interesting…

View the live version of the San Francisco video embedded in panoramic space.

The post Adverts in Street View – Could be Video? appeared first on Digital Urban.

The main issue is with the UK’s privacy laws where people cannot be photographed without consent if the output is to be used for commercial gain – as is the case with Google Maps. There is also the issue of privacy in terms of houses appearing on the Internet – we did some work for Camden Council a while back and that was removed from the web due to issues with houses being identified in 360 x180 degree photographs.

The BBC article is well worth a read, especially for the quotes from the Privacy International Group.

We know Google have done a lot of good for mapping etc and we at digital urban are one of their strongest supporters but recently with their launch of MapMaker some criticism is emerging – see Google Wants to be TeleAtlas at the OpenGeoData Blog.

Web 2.0 is all well and good but companies are starting to use Neogeographers and Crowd Sourcing for their own commercial gain. Although of note is the word ‘free’ and the availability of free data, regardless of source, has changed the world of geographical information behind recognition over the last couple of years.

Its a controversial subject, as our in-box is testament to resulting in this being a revised version of the original post, we will have more thoughts on this in future posts…

The post Google Street View in the UK? / Crowd Sourcing for Commercial Gain appeared first on Digital Urban.

The main issue is with the UK’s privacy laws where people cannot be photographed without consent if the output is to be used for commercial gain – as is the case with Google Maps. There is also the issue of privacy in terms of houses appearing on the Internet – we did some work for Camden Council a while back and that was removed from the web due to issues with houses being identified in 360 x180 degree photographs.

The BBC article is well worth a read, especially for the quotes from the Privacy International Group.

We know Google have done a lot of good for mapping etc and we at digital urban are one of their strongest supporters but recently with their launch of MapMaker some criticism is emerging – see Google Wants to be TeleAtlas at the OpenGeoData Blog.

Web 2.0 is all well and good but companies are starting to use Neogeographers and Crowd Sourcing for their own commercial gain. Although of note is the word ‘free’ and the availability of free data, regardless of source, has changed the world of geographical information behind recognition over the last couple of years.

Its a controversial subject, as our in-box is testament to resulting in this being a revised version of the original post, we will have more thoughts on this in future posts…

The post Google Street View in the UK? / Crowd Sourcing for Commercial Gain appeared first on Digital Urban.

City8.com in China have a unique take on the use of panoramas to provide information about the city. Systems such as Google’s Street View provide a blanket coverage of the road system but in reality are little more than ‘eye candy’. City 8 on the other hand allows users to tag information inside the panorama – creating a simple yet effective way to geolocate comments and info on the urban environment.

The YouTube movie below provides an insight:

Take a look at http://www.city8.com for more info…

The post Geolocate Comments in Panoramas: Street View in China by City 8 appeared first on Digital Urban.

Screen grabbed above the new version, planned to preview next week, is an interesting take on the street view concept. Firstly, it allows the user to navigate via the keyboard, creating a semi-immersive way to visualise the city. This interface change is definitely preferable to clicking on hotspots to move onto the next view.

Simple image transitions are also now in place and via a toolbar the way the images are viewed can be changed – note the projection option:

The beta version is well worth a look, the guys behind MapJack have kindly agreed to allow us to publish a sneak look:

http://www.mapjack.com/FlashTest/Index.html

Let us know any thoughts…

The post MapJack – Sneak Peak at Flash Street View (Beta) appeared first on Digital Urban.

The concepts between all three are basically the same: to provide blanket street level coverage of a city linked to a map – allowing users to visualise their route step by step. Map Jack’s approach is to simplify the process back to set photographic views rather than interactive panoramas ala EveryScape and Google’s Street View.

By embedding three movies its possible to gain a basic level of comparison between the three systems, Google Street View, EveryScape and MapJack:

Google Street View

EveryScape

The concepts between all three are basically the same: to provide blanket street level coverage of a city linked to a map – allowing users to visualise their route step by step. Map Jack’s approach is to simplify the process back to set photographic views rather than interactive panoramas ala EveryScape and Google’s Street View.

By embedding three movies its possible to gain a basic level of comparison between the three systems, Google Street View, EveryScape and MapJack:

Google Street View

EveryScape

The major selling point is however the transition between scenes, using some clever image precessing each scene is linked using a semi 3D zoom providing continuity to the navigation when compared against Street View.

The movie below provides a quick demo of the system.

Take a look at the EveryScape site to try it out yourself, still in beta stage they have Boston, New York and Seattle coming soon.

Thanks to Andy Hoskins for emailing us the site tip..

The post EveryScape – Better than Google Street View (?) appeared first on Digital Urban.