I’ve always wanted to steal a street sign but they’re always bigger than you think. Where would I put it? How annoying is it for the city to fix? Wait, how are street signs even made? This video shows the street sign magic factory of New York City and reveals the true anatomy and process of those signs. If you’re a fiend for cutting metal and silkscreening and anything in a manufacturing process, this video shows it all. More »
They say you should never learn how the sausage gets made, but we’re willing to make an exception for Google Maps. Talking to The Atlantic, Google has revealed just how much the human element figures into all that collected satellite imagery and road data. Many pieces of terrain information are tested and modified against what Google calls Ground Truth: actual driving, alternate sources and sign photos automatically extracted from Street View runs. Google isn’t just making the occasional correction, either. Mapping a country can take hundreds of staff plugging away at the company’s Atlas tool, even before we get a crack with Google Map Maker. The combination of man and machine helps explain why Google Maps is one of the most accurate sources of location information on Earth — although the firm does have some catching up to do in space.
Filed under: GPS, Internet, Alt
Google Maps creation put under the microscope, reveals a human touch originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Sep 2012 05:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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