Google Maps, Earth take on full 3D imagery

Sorry for the lack of content. I hoped they would have updated it properly.<p>antr submitted[0] a better link[1] with video. Seekable press event[2] is also up with more information.<p>[0] <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4074972" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4074972</a><p>[1] <a href="http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/06/06/google-maps-launches-metropolitan-3d-maps-in-google-earth-on-mobile/" rel="nofollow">http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/06/06/google-maps-launches...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMBJ2Hu0NLw#t=4105s" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMBJ2Hu0NLw#t=4105s</a>

For a demo of what this will look like, try Nokia's WebGL-based mapping demo: <a href="http://maps3d.svc.nokia.com/webgl/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://maps3d.svc.nokia.com/webgl/index.html</a><p>They only have 3D imagery in a few cities so far (click on the city markers).

3D is awesome, but the better feature is offline maps. Now I can make my older android a dedicated offline GPS unit.

Looks great. A few points:<p>- They used new imagery from planes to do this, not the existing streetview imagery - I guess that means optical matching of the kind needed to do this (make a model from streetview imagery) is still a ways off.<p>- 3d maps has been done like this already (by bing and others), though this looks a better resolution.<p>- As someone who works with city spaces - can I use the 3d data? How can I download it or who do I have to pay?

This looks incredible but I'm a little put off by this only being available for mobile. Did I actually read that right? I would expect this to also come to the desktop browser but it doesn't sound like that's happening...

I'm guessing the "new process" is structure from motion and high-performance bundle adjustment (probably using Ceres, which they just opened). It's fascinating to think what they'll be able to reconstruct with their computing power and hi-res satellite imagery and millions of Picasa photos.

It seems far fetched now, but I actually expect streetview UAVs sooner than most people likely think.

Am I the only one who expected the waves to be moving in that last scene in the video showing the Cliff House and Seal Rock in SF?

Looks awesome. I look forward to playing around with it in Google Earth.

What I seriously want? GTA: Google Maps. Even if you can't walk into the buildings or anything. Even if it's top-down only.<p>I want it. Want want want want.