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Silicon Valley Watcher has the scoop that Google plans to use trucks quipped with lasers and digital photgraphy equipment to create three dimensional maps of the Earth's surface, starting with San Francisco.

The trucks would drive along every San Francisco street using the lasers to measure the dimensions of buildings, to create a 3D framework onto which digital photos can be mapped. This would complement the mostly top-down view of San Francisco available through Google's Keyhole satellite photo application.

There have been several test runs of the specially equipped truck along San Francisco streets. One problem is that vehicles and people can block the automated laser and digital photo systems. This could be eliminated with a second pass, but Google wants to achieve results with a single run.
While the geek in me says "cool", the rest of me can't figure out the application for this. The only thing that comes to mind is letting you walk down the streets in a full 3D environment, like a first person shooter. That might be kind of cool. The one thing I hope they are aware of: a mapping service is only as good as its coverage. Just like with A9's street-level photos, if Google doesn't have enough areas scanned in, it won't be very useful. Cool, no doubt, but not useful.

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Apparently, search engine mapping services have become all the rage. Since the launch of the Google Maps satellite service, real-time, image-rich maps are in demand.

Although Google Maps can provide some incredible satellite images, apparently, this is only the beginning of Google vision. First off, the upcoming Google Earth has been discussed. Using Keyhole's technology, Google will be able to provide a comprehensive look at the earth, based on satellite imagery.


Evidently, the world is not enough, however. According to a story issued by SiliconValleyWatcher, Google is preparing to develop a 3-dimensional representation of the city of San Francisco. The report reveals Google will deploy a number of trucks equipped with lasers and digital photographic equipment. This equipment will allow Google to create an online 3-D version of the city by the bay. Google also harbors plans of 3-D mapping other major cities in the US after San Francisco is completed.

However, news of Google's 3-D desires has struck some search engine pundits with confusion. Andy Beal believes Google's effort may be redundant because of the evolving nature of the US metropolis. Because cities change quite frequently, Andy feels that as soon as Google completed photographically indexing a particular city, the map would be out of date. He attributes his opinion to the sheer amount of time a project like this would take.

John Battelle scoffed at the notion as well. After reading about Google's 3-D mission, John was left with the following thought: "I dunno. My first question is....why?" Apparently, John shares some of Andy's hesitation.

Of course, a couple of pundit's misgivings will not make Google deviate from their mission to present a 3-D representation of San Francisco and other cities. However, Andy is still correct in thinking something like this could take a while and perhaps not be relevant when it's complete.

No word has been issued about a release date for the virtual San Francisco.

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Originally posted by Dom
sounds like a cool idea, but pointless - cant see any real use for it tbh, and there is already good info and models about cities being used in Sims (like flight sim etc).

just seems like another way to waste lots of money

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