News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Introducing Google Earth 6—the next generation of realism. Parent comment

Re:Introducing Google Earth 6—the next generation of realism by NathanKP on Monday November 29, 2010 @04:03PM (#1951772)
I imagine that it would be a very rough estimate. In areas of dense tree coverage in parks or backyards Google probably just plants trees to cover the area since it would be nearly impossible to actually differentiate each individual tree in a canopied area. Trees that are out in the open, standing alone can obviously be counted, but trees in groups probably can't.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Google Earth 6—the next generation of realism by wooster on Monday November 29, 2010 @05:03PM (#1951997)
That's assuming they're doing the tree counting with imagery. The newer Google Street View cars I've seen have LIDAR rigs on top, so they could be mapping trees that way.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Google Earth 6—the next generation of realism by boucher on Monday November 29, 2010 @05:20PM (#1952048)
But presumably they aren't driving through most of the forests, right?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Google Earth 6—the next generation of realism by wooster on Monday November 29, 2010 @06:00PM (#1952209)
I don't see any reason they couldn't do the same from the air. You can tell foliage with LIDAR, and I'd imagine you could get a pretty good approximation of trunk location pretty easily by looking at the foliage height.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Google Earth 6—the next generation of realism by boucher on Monday November 29, 2010 @06:28PM (#1952297)
Fair enough, but do they collect their own aerial data? I was under the impression it's all collected through by third parties. Also, do they use anything other than satellite imagery right now? Is LIDAR effective at that range?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Introducing Google Earth 6—the next generation of realism by wooster on Monday November 29, 2010 @07:21PM (#1952470)
Yeah, they have some aerial data. For example: zoom in on downtown San Jose in satellite view. The perspective view is aerial photography, and is copyrighted by Google.

Although, now that I've done more digging, it looks like they're using satellite imagery for at least some of this, along with LIDAR and infrared techniques: http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrust...

[ Parent | on HN ]