Aug 02

Google takes one giant leap: now lets you Street View the Kennedy Space Center

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Google takes one giant leap: now lets you Street View the Kennedy Space Center

Today’s a stupendous day for lovers of the one and only National Aeronautics Space Administration — nearly half as great as when we took you inside Kennedy Space Center shortly after it had opened its fascinating doors to the public. At any rate, Google announced earlier that its captivating (and sometimes troubling) Street View technology had made its way into NASA’s KSC, allowing people to check out what the compound is all about and what sort of sensational machinery lies inside. With Mountain View’s doings, you can now find your way around different spots within the Space Center, including the Launch Firing Room, Vehicle Assembly Building and, as seen above, the Space Shuttle Launch Pad. There’s a video past the break if you’re interested in a quick preview, otherwise you can give it a go yourself by clicking the more coverage link below.

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Google takes one giant leap: now lets you Street View the Kennedy Space Center originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 02

Google Street View goes retro with unofficial ASCII treatment

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Google Street View goes retro with unofficial ASCII treatment

Nostalgia is a powerful force. It’s driven some to search Google through a Bulletin Board System-like interface or, in the case of programmer Peter Nitsch, it’s compelled him to graft ASCII art onto the physical world. Simply plug an address into his project’s website and you’ll be able to pan through an ASCII facsimile of a real-world Street View vista. Leveraging WebGL and Javascript, the system samples the search giant’s images and generates text art using the appropriate characters and hues. Nitsch’s fondness for retro visualizations don’t end there, however, he also created a system that superimposes a gaggle of characters in the wake of a physical paintbrush using a Kinect and a projector. Built as a plugin for the openFrameworks toolkit, the code relies on a GPU for the real-time image conversion and is freely available for tinkering. Hit the source link below to see the modified Street View in action or head past the break for a video of the ASCII painting. For some of the technical nitty-gritty, tap the more coverage link.

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Google Street View goes retro with unofficial ASCII treatment originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 06:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 17

Street View heads back to the Antarctic, visits historic landmarks (video)

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Street View heads back to the Antarctic, visits historic landmarks
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Google has already taken us on a trip to the frigid shores of Antarctica before. Now the search giant is back with even more panoramic images, this time from deeper inside the frozen continent. With help from the Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota and the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust (not to mention a light-weight tripod and a fisheye lens), Street View can now bring to you the wonders of our most southern land mass. This isn’t a short stroll in the footsteps of penguins either — the ceremonial South Pole and Shackleton’s Hut are among the numerous landmarks that get exposed to Google’s image sensors. Enjoy the quick tour above and the video after the break.

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Street View heads back to the Antarctic, visits historic landmarks (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 03

Navigon boosts iPhone app to version 2.1, discounts purchases through July 16th

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Navigon boosts iPhone app to version 21, discounts purchases through July 16th

Navigon’s hitting those holiday roads a day early, releasing version 2.1 of its iPhone app. The free update adds Google Street View, which pops up as you approach a destination, along with a Cockpit display, which includes G-force, speed and compass information for an additional $6. There’s also a new Manual Route Blocking feature, enabling you to force the app to offer an alternate path after identifying a section of road that you’d prefer to skip, along with improved start-up and map rendering performance, and Retina iPad compatibility. The USA version of the app is available for $30 (a $20 discount), while the North America version is also 20 bucks off, at $40, and regional flavors will be available for $20 ($10 off). In-app purchases are also discounted, including FreshMaps USA for $15 (normally $40), FreshMaps North America for $10 (down from $20), FreshMaps MyRegion for $20 (instead of $50) and the aforementioned Cockpit for $4 (regularly $6). All of the discounts run through July 16th, so hit up the App Store and get your download on now.

Continue reading Navigon boosts iPhone app to version 2.1, discounts purchases through July 16th

Navigon boosts iPhone app to version 2.1, discounts purchases through July 16th originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 08:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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