Imagery Resources

[Ben Yahr]

Can anyone give a review of the services offered by Pictometry.com? 
We are considering subscribing to their services for oblique aerials of a project, but are wondering if we would be able to utilize their database for other projects.
Thanks!

[Wyatt Thompson, PLA]

This is the first I’ve heard of this site, but the photos look great. I’ll be watching this topic as I’m interested in how others are using this service.

Not sure how the quality and coverage compares to Pictometry, but Bing and Google Maps both offer oblique aerials. Google Maps also integrates with SketchUp 8 and Building Maker.

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Wholly Cr*p! The oblique aerials from Pictometry are unreal! If you click on “contact us” —> “directions” it takes you to Bing.com

Bing.com appears to be driven by Pictometry. The clarity & high resolution of the images blows google maps out of the water! I can’t figure out how to access oblique views in google maps (Wyatt, are you sure you can?) but the oblique views on Bing.com are TRUE oblique views, as in, 360* views of building facades! I don’t think that is possible with google, even with google earth, unless a 3d sketchup model has been imported. Even then, it’s only a model, an estimate.

Bing.com has got the most ridiculously awesome oblique views I’ve ever seen! I’m hooked… great, another program to crack-out on… If Pictometry can provide services beyond bing.com, then it sounds like a good investment to me, if for nothing else than to impress the heck out of your clients.

Who owns Pictometry and/or bing.com? Bing has links to hotmail so I’m guessing AOL? Whoever owns it, I want to invest! They are going to give google a run for their money.

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Bing is owned by Microsoft. Who owns Pictometry? Privately held? BLOM appears to be a European partner of Pictometry… interesting stuff. Pictometry owns the rights to the technology that creates those obliques. Nobody else has it.

[Wyatt Thompson, PLA]

Thomas,
Try here. The current list of cities for Google Maps is short, but more cities have 45 degree images available for Building Maker production.

[Wyatt Thompson, PLA]

BTW, you have to have the Earth plugin to view GE and 45×360 degree content in Google Maps.

Have you found a list of cities for Pictometry images? Ultimately availability is what will win customers. If none of these services have the imagery I need for the city I’m working in, then they don’t do me any good. (Incidentally, Bing Maps won’t show 3D content in my browser…Chrome…too funny!) The advantage that Google has is that I can create my own 3D content to fill in the gaps. That’s actually their business plan – to have users build the content. Smart. I’m not disagreeing that Pictometry and/or Bing (if they’re related) appear to have a great product that would be useful for planning and analysis. I think it’s just a matter of having the right tool at the right time.

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Pictometry has about 80% of the U.S. captured in oblique view.

Oblique and 3D are two totally different things… the 3D content of google earth is user created building models, so they are reproductions, estimates, of existing buildings. Oblique has a more limited range of views (2D aerial perspectives) so you can’t “fly” around between building models but the buildings you do see are the real, high resolution, thing, not models.

As you noted, it’s all about the right tool for the job but I really like the clarity/accuracy of Pictometry and see a lot of potential in the technology.

[Wyatt Thompson, PLA]

Where did you find the 80% figure? I find that hard to believe, but would love to be wrong. I do understand that 3D and oblique are different. I was simply saying that Google offers both, though perhaps not to the geographical extent of Pictometry.

[Ben Yahr]

Thanks for the replies folks. I was on vacation last week, and unfortunately didn’t get to read the reply from the Pictometry representative before it was deleted.

The representative that I talked to said that Pictometry covers 80% of the U.S. population, which is certainly not as impressive as covering 80% of the U.S…

That, along with the $1,700/yr subscription fee, ultimately make the service unfeasible at this point, given there are so many free resources out there.

However, there certainly seems to be some neat things going on, besides the stunning imagery. It appears that the obliques are georeferenced, and Pictometry’s software looks way better than faking a perspective in Phototshop, and could be useful for far more than just golf course planning-
http://www.pictometry.com/commercial/golf.shtml

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