
Introducing Google Building Maker - fogus
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/introducing-google-building-maker.html
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mooneater
Sounds 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.

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Kaizyn
Yeah. 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?

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josefresco
I wouldn't be surprised if they already have something in the pipe, seeing as
how they already have this:

<http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/>

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joezydeco
They also have been using 1-800-GOOG-411 to train their voice recognition
engines (like Voice Search in Android)

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brown9-2
If 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...

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cake
I 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.

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hazzen
See the works of Luis von Ahn (<http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~biglou/>), specifically
his GWAP project (<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.

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wolfgke
When trying to register at GWAP only a stacktrace of an exception was shown.

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araneae
"Building Maker is not available for Linux/mobile devices."

:(

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chrischen
All you need is _Windows_ or _Mac_ and to be online.

EDIT: Apparently Firefox or IE too.

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buro9
Or Chrome ;)

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saurabh
Who 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?

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dschobel
Awesome. 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.

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uuilly
I'm in this exact space and there are plenty of people competing. Nokia and
Microsoft to name a few.

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dschobel
In mapping or in building 3d models of real world buildings?

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uuilly
Building 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>

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.

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dualogy
Another player, founded by a former classmate of mine that got acquired by
AutoDesk: <http://www.3dgeo.de/>

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chrisconley
Maybe I'm a little slow, but I finally see where they were going with the
Sketchup acquisition.

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TobiasCassell
Maybe this is relevant?

This is the organization that created AutoModeling-
<http://www.acvt.com.au/research/videotrace/>

This firm is working with it- <http://punchcard.com.au/wordpress/>

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iterationx
I tried to run photos from google street view tokyo through insight3d but they
weren't high rez enough <http://insight3d.sourceforge.net/>

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jws
No 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.

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mediaman
Works in Firefox on Snow Leopard, but not Safari.

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elblanco
I get stuff from Google for free, why not let them get something back?

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defdac
How come Nordic cities like Oslo, Copenhagen and Helsinki is so well built
already, but not Stockholm and Swedish cities?

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derefr
If it really is "more like a game than a tool," then perhaps they should add a
point system.

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windsurfer
I think implicit rewards are better than explicit rewards in this abstract
non-linear system.

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periferral
great. now google wants to employ us for free. we do all the work and they
have a nice database of 3d building in earth.

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anigbrowl
Well, 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.

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c00p3r
Is there are startups to help the millions of small and medium size private
hotels around the world to appear on the map? =))

