Sky Views….Google’s take on the World War II Memorial
Google’s new GPS and mapping features are extraordinary. Using “Sketchup”, Google’s new free software, you can not only see the World War II Memorial from space and determine the distance to bookstores but you can also create your own 3D model of the Memorial. To say it’s handy for builders and would be home and office remodelers is to understate the case. Between Google Earth and this new architectural web feature which includes photographs of the Memorial (more or less exactly where you would be standing), teachers can interweave history and geography into their teaching. I recently bought a camera which knows where I am and the images can be coordinated not only with GPS mapping systems but with Google’s GIS features and 3D features. The images from the WWII Memorial book could be incorporated into maps or “skins” as they are known. This kind of rendering would add depth and meaning to almost all visual information. There are fifteen thousand images from the project so it would be quite a project if taken on fully so I better not get started thinking about it …