London: Microsoft has launched a new mapping tool which will allow web users to view photo-realistic three-dimensional models of real buildings and other structures, and take a virtual stroll through cities.
The tool, Virtual Earth 3D, results from technology that turns aerial photographs into detailed computer models of buildings, streets and terrain.
Though the tool is similar to Google Earth, Microsoft is hoping to differentiate its offering by incorporating it into its main Web search service.
Virtual Earth 3D will let people enter an address, person’s name, business name or business type to zoom in on the virtual city. Microsoft says people can use the map to pinpoint a precise location and send the link to someone to indicate where to meet.
Virtual Earth 3D currently provides search results in 15 US cities, including Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Denver and Detroit.
The service will be accessible through a new “maps” tab on Microsoft’s main search engine, at www.live.com. The three-dimensional mapping comes in addition to the static aerial “bird’s eye” images already available on the Microsoft site.
“This gives you a whole other perspective on what is there. Suddenly I can see the front of a building. A lot of this was invisible before. This is basically the end of the paper map,” New Scientist quoted Virtual Earth chief architect Gur Kimchi, as saying.
Microsoft says it will expand to more than 100 cities internationally by the summer of 2007.
To build their 3D models, Microsoft researchers travelled around these cities in cars and planes capturing many images in rapid succession. The images overlap by 90%, to ensure that each building is captured from multiple different angles. Each virtual cityscape requires approximately 10 million photos.
Software was then used to combine the images and GPS data to generate a 3D picture of each city, complete with real-life texture and colour.
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