BBC NEWS | Technology | Sounds bring Google Earth to
life
BBC NEWS
Sounds bring Google Earth to life
As well as homing in on visual feasts around the
globe, users of Google Earth may soon be able to
listen to the sounds that accompany them.
A Californian company has created software that can
layer relevant recorded sounds over locations in
Google Earth, New Scientist reports.
Wild Sanctuary has over 3,500 hours of soundscapes
from all over the world.
The firm is in talks with Google, although no official
agreement has yet been made.
Its director, Bernie Krause said: "A picture tells a
thousand words, but a sound tells a thousand
pictures."
'Add-on'
Dr Krause has spent the last 40 years collecting
sounds, and his recordings include more than 15,000
animal noises, and sounds from a huge array of
habitats,
including cities, deserts, mountains and the marine
environment.
It is the largest library in existence of natural
sound, he said.
He said the idea would be to zoom-in on a particular
area and then have the option to listen to the
accompanying sound.
"It could be a real beneficial add-on," he said.
The software is to be presented at the Where 2.0
conference in San Jose, California on 29 May.
Mr Krause said up to two dozen sounds would be
show-cased at first, but many more would be added
later.
If the project is successful, he would also like to
use Google Earth show how sounds change with time.
He said: "People will be able to get a sense of before
and after.
"For example, people are talking about how selective
logging is an appropriate way of not harming the
environment.
"But we have evidence that from the sound perspective,
selective logging has a profound effect on the natural
world. The pictures of before and after look
exactly the same, but the sound is completely
different."
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