14 DAY TRIAL // In the future, Microsoft Virtual Earth users will be able to browse the world in real time. And the key word here is browse. Microsoft aims to enable users to navigate actual locations around the world through its geo-centric Web interface, but with access to the actual environmental conditions. This is where SensorMap comes into play. Via SensorMap, a technology that is currently only available as a prototype, real-time updatable data will be presented on top of the Microsoft Virtual Earth content.
"Being able to map real-time data happening in the physical world onto a computer will have tremendous societal impact - observing weather patterns, calculating soil erosion, sensing pollution, the applications seem endless," says Stewart Tansley, a program manager in the External Research & Programs group in Microsoft Research. "The ability to collect massive amounts of real-time data and apply it to the world we live in by visualizing it on a 'live' map is very exciting. Any one of the RFP projects has the potential to change the way people live, commute to work or build a structure, as well as empower scientists in their increasingly important environmental research."
SenseWeb is a Microsoft Research project designed to enable live data sources over a common platform accessible for both publishers and users in real time. SensorMap is a result of the SenseWeb project and a mechanism that would enable the transition, archiving and indexing of data to/on the Virtual Earth interface.
"We developed the SensorMap portal as a step toward the vision of creating a World Wide Sensor Web," said Feng Zhao, a principal researcher who leads the group that developed SensorMap technology at Microsoft. "SensorMap enables data owners to easily publish and share sensor data, and also lets users query and browse live data on a geographic interface such as Virtual Earth."
With this technology, Virtual Earth will be able to provide the exact location of people and vehicles, the atmospheric conditions, pollution factors etc.