Digital Earth

Digital Earth is a massive, distributed framework for managing and visualising georeferenced information over the Internet. Imagine being able to walk down the streets of Paris, seeing the sights and hearing the sounds around you, without leaving your home. You are able to converse with a friend who is also online, and the two of you decide to fly to Tahiti together. As you travel around the globe, you stop momentarily at places of interest to view three-dimensional (3D) representations of local structures, learn about representative works of art, browse historical information for the area, or view real-time video and audio feeds of local events. This vision presents virtual reality with many substantial challenges, for example: rendering complex georeferenced data for the entire planet, managing and displaying embedded multimedia data, visualizing massive scenes in real-time, and developing useful navigation interfaces for interacting with these scenes.