Google Earth & Virtual Reality

The other day I ran across an article on C|net’s news.com website that I thought was a bit interesting. The piece was called: Rich 3D imagery added to Google Earth, which began to set my mind in motion. I quickly began thinking about the possibility of using Google Earth’s repository of data to develop recreations of real-life terrains within a virtual realm, like that of Second Life.

In a nutshell, the piece basically said that the latest version of Google’s mapping application will enable users to create and share 3D content. This is accomplished by using Google Sketchup to create rich 3D renderings of buildings as KML or KMZ files that are simply used as overlays in Google Earth 4. KML (Keyhole Markup Language) is the XML (Extensible Markup Language) file that is used for modeling and storing features in Google Earth. KMZ is simply the compressed version of KML.

With the revamping of the Second Life architecture to include the common protocols used on the Web, the SL engine would be compatible with the XML data in Google’s repository. Now just imagine having the ability to import famous architectural sites and terrain from Google Earth into your simulation. This would indeed greatly speed and enhance your ability to create the fundamental elements of your virtual world.

This offers expanded benefits to the use of virtual worlds in the area of education. Not just in the realms of say geography or modern civics, this could be applied to the various sciences too. Plus this would make it easier to reconstruct historical sites, as well as any number of other things.

A few quick ideas that came to mind are:

• You could easily recreate accurate virtual representations of the Seven Wonders of the World for people to explore and experience.
• How about recreation of a famous landmark to be used to re-enact a historical event.
• One could even model proposed construction and have a better view of how it may impact an area.
• The terrain layouts could be used for all types of planning and training.

Though these are just a few rather simple ideas, it is becoming very clear that with the advances in technology, within a virtual world that provides you the freedom to create, such as Second Life, your only limitation truly is your imagination!

As Linden Labs revamps the Second Life architecture to embrace Web standards and the server components are open-sourced under the GPL, this is something that the developers need to keep in mind. Having the ability to import data from Google Earth would be a real benefit. Don’t you agree?

If you could create your virtual world from Google Earth data, what would you build and how would you use it? Well, begin to speak up and make your voice heard.