Tech Behind Virtual Earth 3D?

Microsoft mentions just “technology” in its press release about the new version of Virtual Earth that includes 3D buildings for 15 cities in the U.S. Still, other coverage notes the importance of Vexcel technology. (Boulder Daily Camera)

Harris put out a press release noting its technology and imagery from Pictometry are included.

And, Brady at O’Reilly Radar notes use of GeoTango tools.

Now, it’s possible that all these are part of the whole, but from a PR standpoint, it’s sure confusing that no single entity (even Microsoft) acknowledges them all, especially since it acquired two of the companies in the last year! I will say that in taking a quick look at the new version I did not see credit to Pictometry in the images from Boston.

Question: Oblique Imagery Viewers?

A reader asks:

I was wondering if you know of any software that is available that will
allow a user to view oblique aerial imagery other than Pictometry and
Multivision?  Currently, both of those products are proprietary, not
allowing data providers such as myself to purchase and use the imagery
with our own geocoded air photos.

When I orthorectify the oblique photos in Erdas or Orthoengine they become
distorted due to the oblique angle that they were captured in.  It would
be great to know if there are any companies out there that provide a
viewer that can view the obliques (un distorted, but georeferenced).

Readers?

Update: Platial Offers New Mashup Tool: MapKit

Update 11/7: The map is working! Our blog software was misbehaving, but our webmaster Alexander set it straight!

Original post follows.
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This was the e-mail from my colleague Joe today:

Adena, you may want to blog this and demonstrate the application since it looks fairly simple.

He was talking about Platial’s new “put an interactive map on your website/blog in two minutes” tool called MapKit. Per Platial, “this is the first time anyone can add places and make maps remotely.” And, yes, it’s really simple. Fill out a form at the MapKit site, copy the resulting code and you have, if all goes well, a map on your site to which others can add!

Here’s the press release.

Continue reading...

Update: Talking House Updated: SMS House

Update 11/7: As promised, I ran by the house again and found the company behind the sign out front asking those interested to send an SMS for more info. The company is called CellSigns and among the services it offers is Cell Signs - Signs that Cell. (heh, heh). The FAQ has almost as many questions about the system works as about privacy.

A few years ago on my run I found a Talking House. The idea was you’d tune your car radio to an AM radio station to hear more about the home, which was for sale. Yesterday, on my run, in the same city, I saw another house for sale. Those interested were asked to SMS to a number to get more info. This is one way location-based information has changed in five years.