How to use Google Earth as a source of geocoding!

I would like to share with you simple hint – How to use Google Earth as a geocoding tool.
You should have list with addresses and names of the points in Microsoft Exel file.


.KML format have couple of structures and one of them is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.1">
<Document>
<Folder>
<name>
</name>
<Placemark>
<name>
</name>
<visibility>0</visibility>
<address><![CDATA[    ]]></address>
</Placemark>
</Folder>
</Document>
</kml>

So we should take the name of the point and the address and we are putting it in this frame structure.
To do this we have to create simple macro which will create .KML file with the names and the addresses from our Microsoft Excel file.

Sub generateKML()
'
' GenerateKML Macro
' Macro recorded 27/02/2010 by ipt
'

    ' Set file details
    Set filePath = [File_details!C2]

    ' Set document name
    Set docName = [File_details!C3]

    Open filePath For Output As #1

    'Write header to file
    outputText = [File_details!C5] & docName & [File_details!C6]
    Print #1, outputText

    'Start to loop through stations
    For Each cell In [Data!A2.A50001]

        pmName = cell.Offset(0, 0)
        pmAddress = cell.Offset(0, 1)

        If pmName = "" Then
           Exit For
        End If

        'Create a placemark
        outputText = [File_details!C8] & pmName & [File_details!C9] & pmAddress & [File_details!C10]
        Print #1, outputText

    Next

   'Write footer to file
    outputText = [File_details!C12]
    Print #1, outputText

    Close #1

'
End Sub

We are creating two sheets – Sheet “data” – is where we have to paste the names and the addresses
The second Sheet is called “File_Details” and in this sheet we should describe the structure of the .KML file.
We are describing output file name and directory also.
The macro will Loop thru the record set from “Data” Sheet and it should Save data as .KML file.
When you open the file with Google Earth it will start geocoding. For approximately 2500 POI – raw addresses with removed fullstops it took 30 minutes to geocode
1875 POI’s

To get the geocoded data you have save your file as .KML from Google Earth in specific directory.
After that you opening saved file with Microsoft Excel.
Microsoft Excel will ask you to open this file as an .xml table(picture)

And opening the file you should see something like:


Copy POI and coordinates and bring them back in Microsoft Excel by “Paste special as value”.

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“Find My Friends” – The New iPhone App for Location Sharing

 

One of announcements from today’s Apple event was an interesting new app called Find My Friends.

The app lets you track the location of other users, but unlike Google’s Latitude, which is meant to be used with a wide circle of people you know, Apple’s app seems designed for use with a close circle of friends and family.

Apple’s examples of how the app can be used includes checking out if your son made it to school today.

Of course, not everyone wants to be tracked all the time, so Apple has included some privacy options, such as temporary location sharing. (For example, you can set up the app to share your location up until 7 p.m. each day.)

We can imagine a lot of parents will like the app, but a great deal of kids will probably hate it, or think of ways to circumvent this type of surveillance.

 

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The Earliest GPS Device

They are notorious for guiding exasperated motorists down footpaths, into ponds or to the wrong city entirely.

But the modern-day sat-nav is likely to pose far fewer problems for lost drivers than its 1927 forerunner.

The Plus Four Wristlet Route Indicator, which has gone on display at a National Trust house, is thought to be the first navigation device for motorists.

 

Eccentric invention: the Plus Four Wristlet Route Indicator’s tiny interchangable paper maps seem quaint compared with their modern counterparts

Worn like a wrist-watch, it is loaded with a tiny paper road map that is rolled across the face by adjusting two small black knobs.

It comes with set route maps, such as London to Bournemouth and London to Edinburgh, and the driver winds the knobs to move the map on as their car travels further.

When motorists wish to turn off the road, they have to pull over to replace the map with another map that corresponds to a number on the junction.

The ingenious but fiddly device was never mass produced and would have only been used by the tiny section of the population who could afford cars.

It also has a function to allow the wearer to keep golf scores, which indicates it would have been worn by a Bertie Wooster type of person from P.G. Wodehouse’s famous novels.

It is one of the key attractions at the Curious Contraptions exhibition of eccentric inventions from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, at Standen House in East Grinstead, East Sussex, on various dates until 1 June.

Owner of the collection Maurice Collins, 73, from Muswell Hill, London, said it was of his most unusual items.

“It’s an amazing invention and I have never seen another one like it,” he said.

“The idea is that if you want to go from London to Bournemouth you put that map into the watch and then as you drive along you wind the device to keep pace with where you are.

“It is very amateurish and very simplistic.

“Sadly I’ve never tried it myself and I’m not sure how successful it would be as a navigation device.

“It’s a bit of an eccentric invention.

“It’s the sort of thing you can imagine Bertie Wooster using and then his butler Jeeves having to dig him out of a hole.”

The wristlet would have cost around £5, which in today’s money is about £45 to £50, Mr Collins added.

It comes with around 20 maps but more could be ordered to cover the entirety of the country. Most of the set journeys start from London.

Christopher Hill, visitor services manager at Standen House, said it was an ingenious idea.

“It is a great idea but it would have been quite fiddly to keep winding the map on as you drove and when you wanted to change a map you would have to pull off the road,” he said.

“It would probably have been used by people who were taking day trips from London and would have been sold in car shops alongside driving gloves and maps.

“Modern sat-navs cause a lot of problems but I think they might be a bit more reliable than this gadget.”

Other gadgets on show at the nineteenth century exhibition include a hem measurer, a brothel clock, which helpfully projects the time onto the ceiling, and the portable desk for writing while on a train.

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Google Earth: World cities at night from space

NASA astronauts have taken photographs of various cities in the world, on the night of Space Shuttle. These images are a great way to visualize the growth of cities and transport networks of cities. They also give some idea of ​​how cities in different countries to develop. In some cities are built on good bars, others have a central core? Without a few rings of transport, and some appear to be completely disorganized.
NASA has collected sketch map of some of these images and descriptions of how they had seized. Many other similar images can be found by searching the gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. I took a few pictures and import them overlay in Google Earth. The picture quality is good but not great as it looks, how astronauts use the camera out ready for this.
Following cities are included in this collection. If you find any other good night images of NASA image archives, leave comments, and I will try to add it.

Beijing, China    Buenos Aires, Argentina    Chicago, USA    Denver, USA    Las Vegas, USA    London, England    Long Beach, USA    Los Angeles, USA    Mecca, Saudi Arabia    Montreal, Canada    San – Paulo, Brazil    Seoul, South Korea

 

Download .KML file
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