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Introducing Google Building Maker
- derefr 17y agoIf it really is "more like a game than a tool," then perhaps they should add a point system.
- windsurfer 17y agoI think implicit rewards are better than explicit rewards in this abstract non-linear system.
- dschobel 17y agoAwesome. At the same time, it's yet another Google project which is just so massive in scope and resources that no one else will want to compete.
- uuilly 17y agoI'm in this exact space and there are plenty of people competing. Nokia and Microsoft to name a few.
- dschobel 17y agoIn mapping or in building 3d models of real world buildings?
- uuilly 17y agoBuilding 3d models is becoming a necessary feature on modern maps. In fact Microsoft Virtual Earth had 3d models a long time before google did - though is stupidly only works on explorer. There are many players in this arena. I submitted this a few weeks ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=800705 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=800705 Some companies are actually setting up click-shops in 3rd world countries to get them to create the models. All that said I don't believe that 3d models are a killer feature for maps b/c they don't help you very much in day to day decisions. But make no mistake, there are a number of companies who are spending billions of dollars on large scale mapping operations that will give us incredibly rich information. Personally I believe that the map will become the interface to most data we consume. We exist in the world, and the map will be our link to it's underlying data. I believe the geo-browser will one day trump the web browser. Or the web browser will become a geo-browser.
- dualogy 17y agoAnother player, founded by a former classmate of mine that got acquired by AutoDesk: http://www.3dgeo.de/ http://www.3dgeo.de/
- anigbrowl 17y agoThere is competition, as noted above, plus you might find this interesting (requires a plugin, but worth it) http://www.c3technologies.com/en_demo.php http://www.c3technologies.com/en_demo.php
- brown9-2 17y agoIf I understand this right, they are essentially crowdsourcing the addition of 3D models to Google Earth, no? If so, that's a really great idea on how to get high-quality work done for lots and lots of cities, for almost free...
- cake 17y agoI think they are. I havn't explored this yet but from what I've seen there is no competition or extra bonus for modeling a building. I think it could be really successful if it was turned into some sort of game.
- mediaman 17y agoThere are a lot of people who really enjoy this sort of thing. For example, there are online forums for skyscraper enthusiasts that attract pretty big audiences. I think given the interest out there, it will be successful regardless, for much the same reasons that some people enjoy woodworking as a hobby. Some way to publicize one's work -- to get more recognition for it -- would certainly make it even more successful though.
- anigbrowl 17y agoThe models you create will be in their 3d warehouse and are keyed to your Google account. So if you're an awesome modeler, unlike me, and/or you live somewhere people want to look at buildings, then your model will rack up downloads among sketchup users. Incidentally, to make this work the coverage areas seem to have multiple aerial views, not unlike the maps on MS Live (or Bing maps or whatever it is now). Seems as if Google has quietly taken up doing streetview-air.
- hazzen 17y agoSee the works of Luis von Ahn (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~biglou/ http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~biglou/), specifically his GWAP project (http://www.gwap.com/gwap/ http://www.gwap.com/gwap/). He has created several web games that provide training for machine learning algorithms while at the same time entertaining users and brining them back for more. The games are very successful, and from the talk of his I heard, it sounds like the data is proving useful.
- araneae 17y ago"Building Maker is not available for Linux/mobile devices." :(
- chrischen 17y agoAll you need is Windows or Mac and to be online. EDIT: Apparently Firefox or IE too.
- buro9 17y agoOr Chrome ;)
- TheBranca18 17y agoYeah I'm disappointed and too lazy to open up VirtualBox. Building Maker is probably better off anyway without my contributions.
- mooneater 17y agoSounds like simple crowd sourcing. But please note what they are really doing. They are providing an ideal training set for training machine learning algorithms to automatically extract 3D models from aerial photos. Yes, so they can replace the crowd with bots. Edit: spelling.
- Kaizyn 17y agoYeah. This is a bit ridiculous, conning people into working for them for free at this project by calling it a game. What is up next - the "improve my search algorithm" game?
- josefresco 17y agoI wouldn't be surprised if they already have something in the pipe, seeing as how they already have this: http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/ http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/
- joezydeco 17y agoThey also have been using 1-800-GOOG-411 to train their voice recognition engines (like Voice Search in Android)
- snprbob86 17y agoI think it's win-win. Google gets data and somebody somewhere is happy to be doing something more productive than FarmVille or some other wacky Facebook game people like you and I avoid like the plauge. Hell, I'd pit building makers against each other by having leaderboards of number of buildings, average building rating on a 5-star scale, etc.
- dschobel 17y agoOutsourcing research isn't that crazy: http://www.netflixprize.com/ http://www.netflixprize.com/
- RyanMcGreal 17y ago>What is up next - the "improve my search algorithm" game? http://www.netflixprize.com/ http://www.netflixprize.com/
- periferral 17y agogreat. now google wants to employ us for free. we do all the work and they have a nice database of 3d building in earth.
- anigbrowl 17y agoWell, we get to use this nice database too. Except my house is just outside their current coverage area :-/ But if you want a feel for how impressive it can be, try roving around, say, downtown San Francisco.
- jws 17y agoNo Snow Leopard support, plus a bad error message that fails to communicate that. Google owes me 180 seconds of my life back, well I guess they've saved me more than that, we'll call it even.
- mediaman 17y agoWorks in Firefox on Snow Leopard, but not Safari.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- saurabh 17y agoWho owns the data generated by crowdsourcing modelling? This data needs to be open rather than owned by a single company. I hope its open. Any info on this?
- chrisconley 17y agoMaybe I'm a little slow, but I finally see where they were going with the Sketchup acquisition.
- defdac 17y agoHow come Nordic cities like Oslo, Copenhagen and Helsinki is so well built already, but not Stockholm and Swedish cities?
- iterationx 17y agoI tried to run photos from google street view tokyo through insight3d but they weren't high rez enough http://insight3d.sourceforge.net/ http://insight3d.sourceforge.net/
- elblanco 17y agoI get stuff from Google for free, why not let them get something back?
- c00p3r 17y agoIs there are startups to help the millions of small and medium size private hotels around the world to appear on the map? =))
- TobiasCassell 17y agoMaybe this is relevant? This is the organization that created AutoModeling- http://www.acvt.com.au/research/videotrace/ http://www.acvt.com.au/research/videotrace/ This firm is working with it- http://punchcard.com.au/wordpress/ http://punchcard.com.au/wordpress/