Art+Com: Terra:vision

Google has announced a new service called Google Earth, providing a coherent interface to satellite imagery that allows you to “surf” the earth and look at information mapped directly on top of it. Microsoft is hot on Google’s heels with their MSN Virtual Earth, set to launch in July 2005 providing similar features. With any luck, there will be ways of hacking with these services.

Interestingly, electronic artists did this over 10 years ago. The German group Art+Com created a project called Terra:Vision way back in 1994, featuring a large adaptive-resolution satellite image database, streaming of data sets over the internet, fully interactive VR flyovers and mapping information to geographical locations. Back then it needed a Silicon Graphics Onyx to run, these days it could probably be ported to a high-end PC.