A Look Back

Just a look back on the awesome Mapper Modeler Summit held by Google last year in Zurich, Switzerland. I was able to attend and had a blast learning more about Google Map Maker and sharing knowledge about geo-modeling.

Also it's pleasing to see many of the faces in this video, who now continue to be online "pen pals" of mine.

I won't be able to attend the upcoming meeting in Barcelona, but good luck and safe travels to those who do. You'll have fun memories of it, no doubt, as I do of Zurich!

Representin’ Tulsa

Chris Sardinas (photo by Zoungy)

Meet Chris Sardinas. Chris is one of the "super modelers" who recently attended the Google Mapper-Modeler Summit in Zurich, and a finalist in the Google Model Your Town competition.

In this article Chris describes what motivates him to be a prolific 3D modeler for Google Earth, using the town of Tulsa, Oklahoma as an example.

Why does he do it? Read on!

John Wilkes In the Dursley Gazette

John Wilkes from Dursley, England, sent me a print article from the Dursley Gazette all about his trip to the Boulder, Colorado, Super Modeler Conference.

The conference took place in Google's Boulder offices in August 2009.

Click on the image to enlarge and see a paper print version of the article.

Psst! Hey! What's A LiDAR?

At the Super Modeler Conference last month in Boulder I heard the word LiDAR being tossed around a lot. Not wanting to appear stupid, I whispered to my seated neighbor "what is a LiDAR and where can I get one?" It sounded quite important. As it turns out, I was right. Jonathan Rumohr, one of the Super Modelers also known as WMU3D, offered this whispered response:

"Put simply, LiDAR stands for Light Detection And Ranging. Basically, what happens when somebody wants imagery for their area, they can hire a LiDAR flight. It's just a small plane that goes out with a fancy camera that shoots light rays (laser beams) down at the ground and bounces them back up. No, we're not talking any Star Wars photon beams or anything. Everything is up ultraviolet to infrared range. Of course, these light rays measure the distance from the ground, back to the plane. This, accompanied with the GPS on the camera, allows for the creation of a virtual "cloud" of data points

"Once back on the ground, these clouds are looked at, and combined using software into what is called a DEM (Digital Elevation Map). From there, you can get several different kinds of DEMS. Since there is so much that the light rays can bounce off of, they are able to pick up things from tree heights, building heights, and sometimes even dense clouds. Therefore, it is possible to end up with three different DEMs for an area. One that is a tree-line elevation, one that is a building elevation map, and one that is strictly a terrain map. Those different anomolies are all taken out by software gurus way smarter than me! Just think of someone dumping a bunch of points or tiny lines in SU, and then trying to determine what they mean! Doesn't sound fun to me!

"Once your DEM's are created, that's where the SU fun begins! From those DEMS, we can make contours which we can then model, and submit to Google Earth. Unless the individual user has some pretty pricey equipment, the average SU user won't have access to a raw DEM, even though that would be the format that Google would like most. That's where the cities and municipalities come in. Most cities have a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department these days. They would be able to submit that raw data for Google to use in large scale terrain maps!

I'm currently working with the University and the surrounding area on getting more of our recent DEMs to Google. Hopefully to them within the next month or so. It usually takes Google a bit longer to upload that data to GE, than the standard one week in the pipeline!"

Thanks, Jon!

NOTE: In some cases apparently the LiDAR scan used in a municipality seems to be a low-resolution building elevations scan. In some cities this appears like gentle lumps scattered across areas that should be flat. Is that correct? Maybe a viewer knows.

On the BBC!

John Wilkes is at it again!

John, who we heard from in the last post as well, has been interviewed again by the BBC.  John was a very enjoyable person to meet and some of his personality can be experienced in the audio interview clip below.

Have a listen to John describing his experiences as a modeler of the town of Dursley, England, and the good times had while visiting Boulder Colorado for the Super Modeler Conference in August 2009.

Also we get a glimpse into some of the motivations as to why people choose to model buildings with Google SketchUp.  Listen to the interview at the link:

From Gloucestershire to Google (BBC audio interview of SketchUp modeler John Wilkes)

EDIT: Read the written article at this link: BBC John Wilkes interview

SketchUp Island: The Others (Part 2)

The Super Modelers in action. Photo by Aidan Chopra

When we last saw our hero, he was signing non-disclosure agreements at the Google office in Boulder. And he joked that he couldn't say ANYTHING about the trip. Kidding!

What I can share is that we got some behind-the scenes glimpses of what happens to 3D building models once they are posted to the 3D Warehouse. If you've never made a model before, it's actually quite exciting the first time it appears on Google Earth. It used to take months. Agonizing months of "maybe." Now it takes days. In fact one model I posted last week went live in less than 24 hours! BAM!

SketchUp Island: The Others

(...going along with my unintended TV-themed post title every time... and I don't even have TV!)

So, a few weeks back I was invited to the Super Modeler Conference that the Google office in Boulder, Colorado (USA) was so kind to host.  About twenty modelers from all over the world attended.  It was half work, half play, and the glass was always half full as far as I could tell.  We had a good time...