Google has done it again!

[Gemini]

I noticed while scrolling the sat images in the Chattanooga area, that the res really varies.

It has been in just the past few years that "Oak Ridge Nuclear Research" and the "Volunteer Army Ammunition Plant" here in Chattanooga had any aerial views... we had one of the largest above/below ground ammunition/bomb plants in the USA, and apparently they kept a lot of these areas blacked out from the general public. So that may play into the new-old picture senerio.......

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

So when will electron figure out a program that will show this overhead in say a mile radius where-ever he is driving with the combination of his car PC and GPS. That would be cool to glance over at the screen and see an overhead view of the streets around you, especially if you are in a new area (say not sure to get in the right or left hand lane for a freeway exit). Of course you could get the directions, but this would be way cool to do.

 

[electron]

GPS software such as Destinator 3 allows you to do something similar already, I just don't have the budget for this software right now. Check out some screenshots:

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=38910

 

[DennyHayes]

I read the comment about some areas not having high res photos, but there must be another reason because they do have them. I had the service when it was Earthviewer, and then again as Keyhole, and even back during the Iraq war they had high res pictures of places that have almost no res now. For example, my home of 10 years ago was Cincinnati, OH, and with both former services I could see all of the area, and downtown I could see building and cars parked on the top of parking garages very clearly, even the white lines separating the parking spaces. But even though Google now owns the images, they are not posting the high res images for some reason. With downtown Cincinnati, you can’t even get close or clear enough to see the streets. Also, my new home as of the past 12 years (San Diego) does not zoom in as far as it did before Google bought it, though it is 100 times clearer than areas like Cincinnati. Either they haven’t finished with the higher res images, or they are saving them for another purpose. SD was so clear that I could see my car in from of my home, so maybe they are afraid of idiots complaining about privacy that died many years ago

 

[electron]

Welcome to CocoonTech DennyHayes!

I have tried Keyhole before as well, and have come to the same conclusion. The only reason I can think of is that there are maybe some sensitive installations in the area, which would be an issue since now everyone can get those shots for free. But that doesn't explain how JohnWPB was able to pull up such a high res satellite shot of his local nuclear plant.

 

[rocco]

It may be a bandwidth issue. Not taking compression into account, doubling the resolution increases the amount of data four times. I'm sure they expect MUCH more traffic to maps.Google.com then ever hit Keyhole.

 

[JohnWPB]

Give Microsoft's Terraserver a try. It is another free service. The images are in B&W and are not as clear. Mabe they have higher res photo's of the areas you are interested in.

As for using the photo's with a GPS service, I had a really kewl freeware program that would download an area as large as you wanted, and could then export the images into many of the GPS programs available. I cant find the program to save my life right now. I will look a bit more, and post here if I happen to find it.

[EDIT]

Found it! Just typing this message jogged a few dormant memory cells it can be downloaded HERE. It is a really kewl free program. It saves the sat images to your local computer in the resolution that you choose, and you can then export the images to many different GPS programs for a graphical overlay of your position on the sat map.

 

[Skibum]

I use Acme Mapper for B+W photo's:

http://www.acme.com/mapper/?lat=41.82892&l...eight=4&dot=Yes