Google Earth vs. Real Life

Posted by ryan at 02:41 PM in internet , philadelphia , technology , urban . | 2 Comments

Google Earth was released this week. The technology, originally bought from Keyhole, allows you to view the globe via satellite imagery blended with 3D city models, street maps, points of interest, crime statistics.. the list goes on.

When I typed in my address I was suprised to see how accurate the 3D models were. Every house, building and garage on my block was rendered with an impressive amount of detail and accuracy. This perked my curiousity so I stepped outside my apartment and shot a few photos around my block and tried to recreate the scenes using Google Earth. Click continue to see the results.

This is a shot of the side street my apartment borders. As you can see, all the buildings on my block are present in the Google Earth model. The relative heights are very accurate, it even has the cut away area on the side of my apartment (second arrow from the left) that is fenced in. The view of this in the photo is a bit blocked by the tree.

This is a view facing East on Spring Garden St. from the corner of N. 19th. Again I was impressed by some of the details Google Earth had for the buildings: the elevator shaft on the apartment building (second arrow from right), the street level facade on the apartment (third arrow from right).

Finally I took a long (slightly obstructed) shot of some of the Philadelphia skyline as seen from Spring Garden. This was taken at the same spot as the 2nd photo. The building models for some of the skyscrapers downtown are missing their spires. This model also is missing a fireplace. Still, it was a fairly accurate portrayal of what the skyline looks like from my end of town.