You might have seen 3D movies, pictures and played 3D video games. Does this made you say wow??. Imagine if you can see whole Earth in 3D and zoom/pan it, the way you want. Yes, the dream of seeing whole Earth in 3D is not very far. Dr. Yun Zhang lead team at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton is developing a program called EarthView3D. This program allows users to view 3D Earth right on their computers or smartphones. All you need a anaglyph (Red-Cyan glasses) or polarized stereo glasses and a computer installed with EarthView3D application; and you are all set to explore Earth in 3D. Application also supports Virtual Reality (VR) and you can use it on your Android or iPhone smartphones. Smartphone application is available for free download on GooglePlay and AppStore.
3D glasses to view 3D pictures, movies and play 3D video games
The project team is working hard in mosaicing satellite images and producing 3D images. At present, Canada, USA (including Hawaii Islands), Nepal, Japan and Switzerland are available to users to view in 3D. The team had challenges in displaying 3D roads, efficient serving of 3D images over internet and developing display program which supports all types of displays available in market. While exploring Earth in 3D, users can see vector roads nicely overlaid on top on Earth’s surface in 3D, clouds in sky, ups and downs in landscape. Users can also walk through the mountains, volcanoes and many other areas not explored by travelers. Server is successfully serving images to its users around the world. Users can download the desktop application freely available on www.earthview3d.net.
Modern cinema is dynamic with technology development and with time a new dimension is added to the 2D movies. This is still debatable that how successful 3D, 4D or 5D movies are? A user might get used to 3D movies and do not enjoy the thrill with time, but addition of other technologies to 3D movies always provides a unique experience. Can entire Earth in 3D be a breakthrough, this is difficult to answer at this time because such system do not exist and users have not experienced it. Nowadays our travel, trips, navigation and directions depends on digital maps and coming generations may not know about paper maps or globe (replica of Earth) sitting on our tables. When it is talked about digital maps, first name come to mind is Google Maps. Android and IOS devices are most commonly used smartphones, so the Google and Apple maps are winners in navigation, finding the directions and places. Both of the map providers offers maps in 2D with some orthophotos restricted to major cities. Orthophotos are not 3D images, they are 2D images, gives a perception of 3D images from only one angle of view. Considering what can be next level for maps, 3D maps or entire Earth in 3D can be answer.
Few years ago, certain phone companies launched smartphones with 3D display but these phones has not been very successful. Which might be because it requires additional eyewear to view 3D images or videos. Anaglyphs (Red-Blue 3D glasses) and polarized stereo glasses are two major types of eyewear used to view 3D images and videos. Virtual Reality (VR) is getting popular and many big companies are seeing future in VR, it can be a game changer in future. This is also popular among users because it can be used with existing smartphones. This is where EarthView3D can also be game changer as it supports VR. 3D Earth which can be seen on desktop using Anaglyphs or stereo glasses can also be seen on smart phone using VR.
More information about the project and desktop application can be downloaded by visiting www.earthview3d.net. Anaglyphs are the easiest and cheapest way to see 3D images/videos and explore Earth in 3D. If a computer is equipped with 3D graphics card, it can use stereo glasses. Sample 3D images for anaglyphs and stereo glasses are given here. If you have VR system, you can download the EarthView3D application from GooglePlay and AppStore.
Anaglyph 3D images: Can be viewed using anaglyph, images can be displayed on any display system.
Anaglyph 3D image of Mount Fuji, Japan
Anaglyph 3D aerial image of Hawaii, USA
Stereo 3D images: Can be viewed using stereo glasses (similar to one we use in cinema to watch 3D movies). Images can be opened using nvidia 3D photo viewer (or any other 3D viewer) on 3D monitor/TV/projector.
Stereo 3D image of Mount Fuji, Japan Download here
Stereo 3D aerial image of Hawaii, USA Download here
