The movie below details a spherical display under the name of Panorama Ball Vision:

The display seems suitable for use with Google Earth or any panoramic based imagery, we don’t think the masks in the picture are due to any harmful output from the actual device…

See http://zeroworks.jp/index.html for more images.

The post Panorama Ball Vision: Spherical Display appeared first on Digital Urban.

The movie below details a spherical display under the name of Panorama Ball Vision:

The display seems suitable for use with Google Earth or any panoramic based imagery, we don’t think the masks in the picture are due to any harmful output from the actual device…

See http://zeroworks.jp/index.html for more images.

The post Panorama Ball Vision: Spherical Display appeared first on Digital Urban.

Microsoft have just launched Photosynths integration with Virtual Earth along with some tweaks to the interface, the slightly corporate and stumbled through video below provides details:

While it is still early days the example of the House Synth over at http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth/ details the possibilities, now if they would just let us open the the resultant point cloud in application such as 3D Max….

The post Photosynth Now Integrated with Virtual Earth appeared first on Digital Urban.

Microsoft have just launched Photosynths integration with Virtual Earth along with some tweaks to the interface, the slightly corporate and stumbled through video below provides details:

While it is still early days the example of the House Synth over at http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth/ details the possibilities, now if they would just let us open the the resultant point cloud in application such as 3D Max….

The post Photosynth Now Integrated with Virtual Earth appeared first on Digital Urban.

ESRI Expands Virtual Earth Access in GIS by Teaming with Microsoft

ArcGIS Users to Bring Dynamic Basemaps into Analysis and Service Applications

Redlands, California—March 26, 2009— ESRI announced today a new agreement with Microsoft Corporation that gives ArcGIS users fast access to Microsoft Virtual Earth for their geographic information system (GIS) projects. As part of ArcGIS Online at the ArcGIS 9.3.1 release, ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server users will be able to connect directly to Virtual Earth and quickly start their GIS projects with ready-to-use content.

“Our agreement with Microsoft defines a pattern of sharing geospatial data on the Web that promises to grow the GIS community,” says ESRI President Jack Dangermond. “By bringing Virtual Earth into their GIS projects, people will have a greater opportunity to perform spatial analysis based on dynamic data.”

ArcGIS users who are current on maintenance and have an Internet connection will have access to Virtual Earth for a variety of up-to-date mapping content.including aerial imagery, roads, and hybrid (aerial with labels) imagery. With a familiar look, imagery access will appear as another data layer in GIS. The imagery will provide excellent background maps on which users can overlay their operational data. This means users will be able to focus more on their business data than on its context.

For example, an electric utility can layer its distribution line data over a Virtual Earth aerial view of a neighborhood to create a map of its lines and customer connections. This Virtual Earth background layer is useful for editing the company’s data and can be easily shared online with other company users.

ArcGIS users can build Web applications that support geospatial services through ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Web Software Developer Kits (SDKs) , including APIs for JavaScript, Flex, and Microsoft Silverlight. This enables them to provide their clients with access to Virtual Earth content from their applications.

“ESRI and Microsoft share a long history of building geographic information systems solutions that combine both of our companies’ strengths,” said Chris Sampson, director of Virtual Earth at Microsoft. “By integrating Microsoft Virtual Earth across all ESRI ArcGIS products, we can provide our mutual customers with spatial analysis software that has instant access to comprehensive geographic data that can only be found in a software plus services solution.”

ArcGIS Desktop 9.3.1 users who are current on maintenance will be offered access to Virtual Earth at no cost. ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 users will have instant access to a built-in 90-day evaluation of Virtual Earth. After the evaluation ends, ArcGIS Server users will be able to purchase an annual subscription that will be based on transactions.

For more information, visit www.esri.com/agolwhatsnew.

The post ESRI and Microsoft Team up for ArcGIS 9.3.1 appeared first on Digital Urban.

Tilt Shift Maker is a free service that allows you to upload photographs up to 4Mb in size or 4096 x 4096 resolution and set the size/area of blur to create the tilt shift effect. Once your happy with your creation simply click ‘download’ to get a full size tilt shift image back.

Its a really neat service and completely free, you can use any photograph but oblique angles work well for tilt shift, as such Google Earth or Virtual Earth are perfect for trying out the effect.

See http://tiltshiftmaker.com/

For more examples see our post on Tilt Shift Mini City Videos

The post Tilt Shift Maker: Free Tilt Shift Image Editing for Mini Cities appeared first on Digital Urban.

Tilt Shift Maker is a free service that allows you to upload photographs up to 4Mb in size or 4096 x 4096 resolution and set the size/area of blur to create the tilt shift effect. Once your happy with your creation simply click ‘download’ to get a full size tilt shift image back.

Its a really neat service and completely free, you can use any photograph but oblique angles work well for tilt shift, as such Google Earth or Virtual Earth are perfect for trying out the effect.

See http://tiltshiftmaker.com/

For more examples see our post on Tilt Shift Mini City Videos

The post Tilt Shift Maker: Free Tilt Shift Image Editing for Mini Cities appeared first on Digital Urban.

What is new in the current beta release is the ability to directly embed the API from Microsoft and Google into ArcMap – the movie below explains all:

As brian states on the Spatial Data Logic Blog, you can drape your own data over the existing globes and then use this as an element on your Page Layout for exporting to either paper or digital copies. The process of draping your current map over the globes happens automatically and on a background thread, so its really intuitive to work with and doesn’t stall the main thread ArcMap uses for most of its own work . As you change your Map contents in the TOC, the changes are reflected on the globes as well.

Find out more via http://www.arc2earth.com/

The post Embed Virtual Earth into ESRI’s ArcGIS appeared first on Digital Urban.

Step forward Microsoft with the first demonstration of the ‘Touch Sphere’, the movie below shows it in action.

Of note is the short demo of the system with a image of the earth. We have already cleared space in the lab ready to house it…

Thanks to Kirk for sending us the heads up, take a look at Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog for more details.

The post Microsofts Sphere: The Ultimate Virtual Earth Viewer? appeared first on Digital Urban.

Step forward Microsoft with the first demonstration of the ‘Touch Sphere’, the movie below shows it in action.

Of note is the short demo of the system with a image of the earth. We have already cleared space in the lab ready to house it…

Thanks to Kirk for sending us the heads up, take a look at Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog for more details.

The post Microsofts Sphere: The Ultimate Virtual Earth Viewer? appeared first on Digital Urban.