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Google Earth + Sound = Cool

by Tim Stevens on May 10, 2007 at 05:03 PM

Google Earth + Sound = CoolOf all the things you could ask for from a map, sound might be last on your list. But if Wild Sanctuary director Bernie Krause gets his way, sound might just be what you get. Krause's company records "soundscapes" and has banked 3,500 hours worth of audio from various parts of the world, ranging from tropical wildernesses to city streets. Though nothing is official at this time, he's currently in talks with Google to integrate the sounds into a future version of Google Earth, the search company's 3-D, satellite-photo mapping program.

Here's how it would work: When you zoom into, say, Time's Square, your speakers would be filled with the cacophony of tourists and taxis, but if you were to zoom into the wilderness in Africa, you might just catch a lion's roar. In the long term, Krause hopes to produce a sort of archive of the sounds of the world, tracking not just how a certain place sounds today, but how its sound has changed over time. (Unlike, say, the band Poison, which has never changed its sound and, believe it or not, has a new album coming out next month!)

From BBC News

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Tags: Google Earth, GoogleEarth, Soundscapes

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