Mircosoft Bing Maps Beta

News source from Engadget

Google's not the only one in the game when it comes to wild mapping tech, and while Microsoft's excellent collection of bird's eye photos has never gotten it quite the attention of Google's Street View, the hope is that lasers and its much-lauded Photosynth tool can do the trick. Microsoft has done up a Street View-style canvassing of 56 US cities with cars that not only snap photos but include range-finding lasers to map out the architecture in 3D. The Silverlight-based viewer for this view (dubbed Streetside) is similar in interface to Google Maps, a tad slower, and rather visually impressive. In addition, Microsoft is leaning on its Photosynth technology to collect navigable panoramas of scenery and even building interiors. Finally, Microsoft has tacked on "apps" of sorts, little overlays that include traffic cameras, restaurants, a Twitter API and so forth. All of this coupled with an improved version of the bird's eye view is quite a visual treat, but the Silverlight requirement and non-Google-ness of it all might keep away the Bing-averse among us. But really, with all this tit-for-tat going on between Microsoft and Google, we have to wonder what sort of stone age we'd be stuck in if we didn't have these two behemoths going at each other like this. The "Beta" is live now at the source link.

Link: Bing Maps Beta

Prototype 1.0

After a long week filled up with assessments, let us back to my Intermedia practice again. In the previous article, I talk about the functions of google map and streetview. Now, I want to use the function of streetview which is mentioned last time to do a small prototype of my project. The location I would like to deal with is the path from Kingston University to Kingston railroad station, the most familiar place for me of course. Firstly, I use google map to arrange my route from school to railway station.


Then, following this path, I attempt to use software to capture the vision into pictures from google streetview.






After finishing capture all the still images on the road, I import a large number of pictures into final cut pro and mix them up as a motion picture. The following 15 seconds clip is what I make by google streetview and final cut.


In this 15 seconds video, I totally capture 113 pictures and set the time of each picture for 3 frames. I am quite satisfied with the result of the prototype clip; however there are still few problems needed to be solved out. One problem is that google streetview could only go straight, it couldn't turn right or left or go circle. Therefore, every time when meeting corners or circles on the street, I can not seize the perfect photos and that's the reason why the video is not smooth in some points. Another problem is that google streetview does not cover all the maps. Some areas, such as the roads for pedestrians or alleys which are too small for cars to drive in, can not use streetview function. Thus, it should be very careful while picking up the route at the very beginning in the future project.

About Google Maps & Street View

Google, without no doubt, is one of the influential and powerful web search engine and web tools provider in this world and it totally changes the habits of people using Internet nowadays. As well as Google Maps, the online map navigation system is covered almost all the territories of this planet and users could search the locations they try to attend just through moving and clicking the mouse or touch pad on the computer. Moreover, the functions which Google Maps is combined with photos, videos(YouTube), wikipedia and even real time web cams are useful for users to mark their photos and videos on the maps and also helping them obtain the information they need on web. This kind of interactivity really increase the chance for users to use them again and again.


Street View is another invention which is even more innovative and revolutionary. It is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic views from a row of positions along the street (one every approximately 10 or 20 metres) for many streets in the world, from a height of about 2.5 metres. However, this service has not covered the whole globe yet. According to Google Maps' website, only few places' maps, such as The United States, The United Kingdom, Europe and Japan, support Google Street View service.

Artistic Inspiration

A couple weeks ago, when I was browsing information on my twitter, I discovered one twitter's content was very fascinated and it attracted me immediately. It is about a German photographer and author, based in China for recent ten years, called Michael Wolf. He got a new series of photograph project named "Paris Street View". Of course it is a series of photoshooting in Paris; however, the interesting part of his work is that he has never been to Paris to accomplish this series of photos. He used the Street View function in Google Map to attach his attempt. This idea sounds brilliant and fantastic! Because of the development of modern technologies, especailly the computer and Internet, people don't necessarily have to attend to some places for real. All they have to do is turn on their laptops and access to internet and they can view what the locations look like in the real world. When I looked at those "fictional" pictures, I was thinking if it's possible to create a illusional trip by Google Maps' and Google Street View's images. Therefore, the concept of "The Virtual Journey" is born.

Start Recording

After the extremely stormy days last week, the weather finally became kind of normal condition at the beginning of this brand new week. Look at the sunshine outside and I am here writing the first article about my Intermedia practical project. What a brilliant start!

Shortly introducing myself. I am CHI-YANG HO but my friends call me TOM mostly. I am the student in Kingston University, London, UK and studying in MEDIA PRACTICE during 2009-2010. This blog is one part of my module Intermedia's practical project. Its function is recording any thought, inspiration, researching data and most important of all - the process. Therefore I use "The Recording Machine" to be the name of the blog because I will honestly record everything in the process of complete the project. However, it is not only records audios but also videos and pictures. Enjoy yourself on viewing this blog. Wish you will have a good time here (I hope so).

3...2...1...Click record button!!!