News: Looking through the Keyhole at Google's 3D mapping plans

To most people, Internet mapping means simple 2D diagrams used to plot driving directions on sites like Yahoo. But 3D mapping products seem to be on the horizon, if Google's recent purchase of imaging company Keyhole is any indication.

Keyhole's flagship product, Keyhole 2 Pro, specializes in taking satellite images of geographic features and rendering them as three-dimensional maps which can be rotated and measured, as well as marked up with driving routes, important features, business locations, departure points and destinations. The software also allows users to "fly" to or over a location. A demo of the software that shows a flight over Boston gives you an idea of some of Keyhole 2 Pro's capabilties.

The Keyhole 2 Pro website lists other features:

• Drag and drop site plans and easily scale and rotate to fit – full control of sizing and positioning


• Import data from popular mapping applications. Examples include ESRI .SHP files, MapInfo .TAB files, MicroStation .DGN, GeoTiffs, and NTFs


• Assign custom icons to your locations – identify sites of interest and even mark competitor locations with their logos


• Control map font and size


• Area Measurement - easily measure the square footage of a building or the acreage of a piece of property


• Filled polygon support allows you to visualize map application analyses within the Keyhole context


• Table view (spreadsheet) window allows view of full attribute data


• Reset to True North and Full Tilt


• On-screen readings of lat, lon, and elevation

Keyhole 2 Pro software seems aimed at developers, construction companies, event planners, municipal officials, and other professionals with an interest in geographic data. The $500 package allows users share and manipulate geographic data, as well as create presentations and website animations. Less-expensive Keyhole products are aimed at other types of users, such as webmasters who want to create interactive maps to post on the Internet, or home buyers who want to research a particular neighborhood's layout and demographic profile.

As for Google's plans for Keyhole, the company has yet to integrate the Keyhole products with the Google interface. However, a Google press release says "This acquisition gives Google users a powerful new search tool, enabling users to view 3D images of any place on earth as well as tap a rich database of roads, businesses and many other points of interest. Keyhole is a valuable addition to Google's efforts to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

News: Problems with the PlayStation Portable?

News about Sony's next-generation portable game device, the PlayStation Portable, has been coming fast and furious. Lately, reports indicate that Sony may have a tough time duplicating the success of the full-sized PlayStation consoles.

The PlayStation Portable has a 4.3 inch screen, a 333MHz processor, 3D display capabilities, and supports wireless connections for network play. Games run on a proprietary format based on 1.8 gigabyte optical discs. Other tech details are listed in an August News.com article.

However, a more recent News.com article reveals the PlayStation Portable has had a difficult development phase. News.com says the product will launch with only five available titles in Japan. Moreover, although Sony has positioned the device as a multimedia device, no music or film companies (including Sony's own studios) have announced plans to release titles on the special discs. Production difficulties have limited the number of handhelds being produced over the next six months.

That's not all, notes the article: Reports of a short battery life in the PlayStation Portable forced a Sony executive to admit that gameplay can only last four to six hours, and then only playing simple card games with the screen dimmed, sound turned off, and wireless connectivity disabled.

Nevertheless, one analyst quoted in the article says the PlayStation Portable might be able to succeed if it builds up a stable of good games in a "reasonable" period of time.

The device will launch in Japan this month, and in the United States in March 2005.

News: "Cars" release date moved to 2006 amid script worries

E! Online (syndicated via Yahoo News) reports that the next Pixar computer animation release, Cars, has been moved from its original November 2005 release date to June 2006, amid worries about its plot.

The article, drawing on comments from Internet message boards and other sources, suggests that a weak story may be behind the rescheduling. Trailers for the film are already available online and in theaters.

If the plot is indeed the problem, the article does not address the issue of how a film like Cars can be salvaged. Rewriting the script would not be difficult, but as the imagery is computer-generated, it's unclear how hard or how expensive it would be to re-create significant portions of the movie.

Pixar's most recent release, The Incredibles, has grossed more than $200 million in theaters to date.

News: Telemedicine helps U.S. radiologists interpret scans

Telemedicine has been a buzzword since the 90s, and refers to the use of video and computer technology to let doctors remotely diagnose or treat a patient.

Some hospitals in the U.S. are now using telemedicine techniques to reduce the load on overworked American radiologists, by letting radiologists in India interpret sophisticated digital scans of patients in U.S. hospitals, reports the Seattle Times.

The article notes that a hospital in Altoona, Penn., turned to the services of Teleradiology Solutions in Bangalore after finding its small radiology staff was being stretched thin to interpret late-night scans of patients. Teleradiology Solutions, which uses American-trained Indian radiologists, helps the hospital augment its radiology department by using the Web to transmit Computed Tomography and other types of scans. The company can receive a scan, interpret the images, and produce a preliminary written report for the hospital in 30 minutes. American radiologists review the report and produce a final diagnosis.

While the focus of the Seattle Times article is on the outsourcing issues involved with this type of telemedicine, another article by Express Healthcare Management delves into the technology used by Teleradiology Solutions and its U.S. clients. Besides traditional CT scans, the company can also accept MRI, ultrasound, X Ray, nuclear medicine studies, conventional plain films (in digital format), and has a 3D post-processing service for CT and MRI image data.

Note that telemedicine can't be used for all types of hospital procedures, or handle outbreaks such as C. diff in hospitals. 

News: The open-source metaverse

Wired magazine reports on a trend in the massively multiplayer online (MMO) game field: the open-source metaverse, "an infinitely extensible virtual world with few rules and no oversight from corporate overlords." The metaverse is built on the idea that MMO games can be developed in an open source manner, not just by big corporations -- kind of the Firefox model, compared to Microsoft Internet Explorer. A college professor named Peter Ludlow is featured prominently in the article; he was apparently partly driven to push the metaverse idea after being kicked off Sims Online. Ludlow is quoted as saying that he believes that because thousands of people are working on the metaverse will almost certainly result in quality games being created.

The article notes that several other related efforts are also underway: The Open Source Metaverse Project (OSMP), the Croquet Project, and Multi-User Programming Pedagogy for Enhancing Traditional Study (MUPPETS). For MUPPETS, which is used as a teaching aid at the Rochester Institute of Technology, students are given a blank "plot" of 3D space in which they can build objects and interact with other students' objects however they want, reports Wired.

News: Chinese company breaks into 3D movie market

Chinese movies using computer-generated 3D animation are on the way, led by "Through the Moebius Strip," reports the New York Times.

The 3D animated feature, slated for release next year, is being produced by Global Digital Creations Holdings in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong. According to the NYT, the fledgling industry stands to make a big impact owing to low operating costs: "Moebius" cost just $20 million to make, compared to $80 million and more for some American 3D productions.

However, one aspect of 3D animation that Chinese companies will have to address is creating decent storylines. The Pixar franchise has been so successful not only because of killer 3D graphics, but also well crafted scripts and characters. In China, good scripts are often made into traditional live-action movies. The article notes that Global Digital Creations has turned to a French comic artist to create the story for "Through the Moebius Strip," but it remains to be seen how plots and characters for future Chinese computer animation will fare internationally.