Virtual Earth 3D

I realized this afternoon that I owed you all a blog entry and was thinking about what I could talk about this week pertaining to specifically the Virtual Earth 3D environment.

And then Roger Mall of the Redmond team dropped this in my lap. Bless you Roger.

For more than a year I have been blogging about the 3D models on the Virtual Earth for Government blog site and sharing the clever ways the government customers are applying it for business intelligence applications. During this time, I have also occasionally shared my thoughts about ways that the 3D models could be used for law enforcement and intelligence. As the saying goes, you are only limited by your imagination.

Well the writers of the popular television show CSI: New York are not lacking in imagination. Apparently they have included Virtual Earth in some recent episodes but none so much as last night's episode in which our hero's use Virtual Earth to track a killer.

Virtual Earth appears as early as as early as 26:32 but the best footage comes around 36:40 when Virtual Earth is used to locate a firehouse first through satellite imagery on a desktop machine, and then zooming in on the building in Virtual Earth 3D on a big screen (where Virtual Earth belongs!). I love the transition from the 3D model to the actual building because it illustrates the photo-realistic and accurate nature of the Virtual Earth 3D models that I have been preaching about all this time.

You can see the episode here. You can single-click the slider bar under the screen to jump ahead but note that you’ll watch a commercial each time you do.

It is SO worth it!  Thanks to Roger Mall of the Virtual Earth team for arranging and sharing this.

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In his "Map Forums" blog for Virtual Earth and Mappoint developers and users, Eric Frost points out the following:

"I was a bit astonished at this... I was able to walk a few steps into the Wynn Casino entrance in Las Vegas using Virtual Earth and you can actually make out some details inside. Obviously it's a bit klunky but when you think about how fast Virtual Earth has come in such a short period of time, you can only imagine the possibilities for the future!"

To be sure, the interior modeling seen from the entrance of the casino does not match what the Virtual Earth 3D Integration team is doing on the outside of the buildings in Las Vegas and other locations but it is kind of exciting nonetheless to see this, especially when one considers the modeling tools and expertise in Microsoft's arsenal from its Vexcel and Caligari acquisitions.

It brings to mind the vision Bill Gates articulated from  London on his 50th birthday:

"You’ll be walking around in downtown London and be able to see the shops, the stores, see what the traffic is like. Walk in a shop and navigate the merchandise — not in the flat, 2D interface that we have on the web today, but in a virtual reality walkthrough.”

And perhaps we'll be able to put $20 down at the roulette table!

Here's a new Virtual Earth video that highlights what we have been calling the "version 2" enhanced 3D cities. Among other enhancements, these newest cities are denser (more buildings), have better, more detailed photo-realistic texturing, and feature trees.

The video also features some pretty cool Virtual Earth bird's eye imagery (oblique, 45 degree aerial views).

Take a look:

    
Video: Microsoft Virtual Earth - Spring 2008 Release

As follow-up to last week's entry on the unveiling of Microsoft Boulder's 100% wind-powered data labs for powering the Virtual Earth 3D environment, here is a nice story run on Denver Channel 9 with some footage of the event, including some statements from Microsoft execs Debra Chrapaty and Erik Jorgensen.

It also stars Microsoft Boulder's Jim Curlander who, unfortunately, is incorrectly identified as John Curlander--general manager for the site--but does an outstanding job speaking to the event and the Virtual Earth 3D environment