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Some people have the neatest toys to play with. Jason Holt, a software engineer for Google, relates on the Google Lat Long Blog how he and some co-workers put together an eight-screen display for Google Earth, christened Liquid Galaxy, that shows off the “impressive imagery” of the geo database.
The set-up consists of eight screens, a video projector, and “some spare Linux workstations.” A specially modified Google Earth client is used to synchronize views across multiple computers. The panoramas from Google Earth are played back using a “flipbook” process created earlier to show off images from the Tour de France. The whole thing is held together with a specially constructed steel frame that allows disassembly so it can be transported to conferences.
According to Holt, “It felt more like a ride than a computer program, something between an observation-deck and a glass-walled spaceship. As a result of this totally seamless, immersive experience, we decided to name it the Liquid Galaxy.”
Liquid Galaxy was on display at June’s Google I/O conference, and will make an appearance at the COP15 conference in Copenhagen. Liquid Galaxy’s next U.S. appearance will be at AGU in mid-December.
Image Credit: Google
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vistageek
December 07, 2009 at 7:22pm
I have run it across 4 28 inch monitors by just putting it in window mode and stretching it. It was pretty epic.
