Unfortunately not available for public use yet, but a team has put together a working 3D model of central London in Google Earth… Dr Andrew Hudson-Smith of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London has the story:
The main area of the Virtual London model was developed in both ESRI’s ArcGlobe and Kinetix 3D Studio Max – largely by Steve Evans at CASA. We have now been able to export this data direct to Google Earth, allowing a rapid model of London to be visualised via the web with acceptable framerates.
Pretty cool, eh?
But then take a look at this incredible panorama viewing tool, also from Dr Hudson-Smith’s blog. Basically it allows you to put a 3D sphere into Google Earth which will display a high resolution panoramic photo of the area.
Take a look at these stills for an idea of how it works…
Or knock yourself out with this YouTube video of the tool in action (also available in an HD video download – which is highly recommended)…
Launching in January 2007, apparently. Bravissimo!
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