Street View Video Driving Directions

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One of the problems with biking directions in Google Maps is that you are never entirely sure how safe the biking route is before setting off. For example, whenever I use biking directions around my home Google Maps usually suggests roads I would never consider cycling on and ignores far safer and quieter roads.

Cyclodeo helps solve this problem by letting you view a video of a suggested cycling route before you undertake your journey. The application uses Google Maps and videos of a cycling route to allow the user to view the route before setting out. The videos are synced to the Google Map of the route so the user can click anywhere on the route and view the video at that location.

Currently Cyclodeo has video coverage in the Netherlands and a few examples in New York.

Video driving directions is one of those areas that one of the major players are going to crack sooner or later. I think Google and Bing both have submitted patent applications for mapped driving directions that allow users to view routes on a map with video previews of the journey.

If you can't wait for Google and Microsoft to finish their research into video driving directions then you can check out VidTeq who already have video driving directions in place in Bangalore.


VidTeq perhaps is the best example of how video driving directions will work. Using VidTeq it is possible to enter a start address and destination and then preview a suggested route on a map and a view a video of the journey.

As the video of the route plays arrows are superimposed on top of the video player to indicate when turns are required. Beneath the video the step-by-step directions scroll upwards to reflect the position displayed in the video.

Both Vidteq and Cyclodeo use conventional video. I suspect that Google and Bing will be exploring the use of 360 degree interactive videos in their video driving directions. Personally I'm just waiting for the release of Jeffrey Martin's Sphericam. Once this affordable 360 degree video camera is on the market I'm sure we are going to see an explosion of maps featuring immersive Street View video.

Collision Detection in Google Earth

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Anyone who has ever done any development work with the Google Earth browser plug-in will be familiar with the milk truck game. The Monster Milktruck game has been a prominent part of the Demo Gallery for the Google Earth API.

John Aldridge has now developed the code into a fully playable two player shoot-em-up game, called Zeptoblaster. In the game each player controls their own 3d milk truck and has to hunt down and shoot the other player's vehicle.

The game play takes part in Google Earth's 3d map of the world, including 3d terrain and 3d buildings. Each player also has a handy Google Map which shows the position of their truck and the position of the enemy's truck. Players can choose from a number of battlefields by selecting from a number of pre-defined locations or they can play anywhere in the world simply by using the search field.


One of the most impressive features of this game is the collision detection developed by John, which detects when a player's missile has hit the enemy truck. This collision detection works by creating bounding boxes for the 3d collada models of both milk trucks and for all of the missiles. It is then a simple process of detecting when the bounding box of a missile intersects with the bounding box of a truck (actually it isn't simple and actually involves a very complicated algorithm).

The game needs to load two instances of the Google Earth browser plug-in (one for each player), which can be quite memory intensive, so the game runs best in Google Chrome. 

A Photo Heat Map of the World

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Sightsmap is a very cool heat map of the world based on the number of photographs submitted to Panoramio at different locations.

The map was launched in March of last year and has been a great resource to view the most photographed places in any town or city around the world.  Sightsmap has now relaunched with some very impressive new features.

My favourite new feature in the map is the option to click on hot spots on the map and discover what people were actually taking photos of. If you click on the map somewhere where a lot of photos have been taken an information window opens informing you what is at the location. If you then want to find out more about the location the window includes links to the Wikipedia, Panoramio, foursquare, Tripadvisor, Google Places and Google search entries for the location.

Another new feature of the map is the option to create a trip itinerary. Therefore if you are planning a trip to a location you can explore the map to find the most photographed places. If the location appeals to you then you can add it to your trip itinerary. As you add locations to your tip a route is automatically added to the map.

If you want a quick recommended trip you can select the 'recommend' option and choose whether you are planning to drive or walk and choose the time duration of your trip. Sightsmap then recommends an itinerary for you based on the highest rated locations.

Find a Hotel in the Best Part of Town

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Avuxi is a great new hotel finding and booking search engine that allow users to quickly visualise the most popular areas and venues in town.

Avuxi plan to offer global coverage and you can already see how the site will work with their initial launch of a hotel search map for Barcelona. Using Avuxi it is possible to view heat maps of the areas in Barcelona with the most restaurants, bars & clubs, or shops. It is also possible to view a heat map of the most photographed locations.

Using the heat maps it is therefore possible to view the area of Barcelona that will most appeal to you based on your own tastes. If eating out is important to you then you can quickly visualise on the Google Map the best place to stay with great nearby restaurants. If bars and clubs are more your scene then you can use the map to find the most lively areas of town.

Hotels are also displayed on the map and if you mouse-over a hotel map marker you can get a quick view of the number of stars it has and its nightly rates. If you click through you can compare the nightly rates across over 30 of the top hotel booking sites.So when you book your room you should be able to ensure you get the best price.

Houston Road Accidents on Google Maps

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The Houston Accident Map is a nicely designed Google Map that shows the location of every road accident in Montgomery, Harris, Fort Bend, Liberty and Chambers counties from 2007 to 2011. 

Users can filter the accidents displayed on the map by year, by county and by the severity of the accident. By clicking on an individual marker users can view the details of the accident and even view a Street View of the location.

Google Maps Gets the Green Light

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Traffic lights were first introduced on the streets of Amsterdam in 1932, when a set of lights was installed on the Leidseplein in the centre of the city. In 2012 the number of traffic lights in Amsterdam has grown into the hundreds.

The History of Traffic Lights in Amsterdam is a Google Map that shows how the number of traffic lights has grown and spread out across Amsterdam since those first set of lights started controlling the traffic in 1932. The map sidebar includes a number of radio buttons that allow the user to view where traffic lights were installed in the city in successive decades from the 1930's.

Create a Travel Diary with Google Maps

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Tripmii is a cool desktop application that can help you organise, save and share your vacation memories and photographs.

The Tripmii online travel diary allows you to map your trips with Google Maps and create a fullscreen slideshow of your holiday photographs. The application includes extensive social networking features that allow you to share your tripmii travel diary with all your friends.

Google Maps are used throughout the tripmii website. The homepage includes a prominent map that allows the user to browse all public tripmii travel diaries. Individual diaries also feature maps that show all the destinations visited on a trip and the locations of submitted photos.