Escher-like Google maps

Friday 15 September 2006This is more than 18 years old. Be careful.

I used Google maps yesterday to pinpoint a location in downtown Boston last night, and was presented with an Escher-like perspective. All of the buildings on the east side of Berkeley street seem to lean to the south, and all the ones on the west lean to the north. The picture was clearly stitched together from two shots, but the stitch runs seamlessly down the street, rather than along a simple geographic line. Someone is doing some impressive hand-work to make these photos seamless.

Comments

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It's quite possible to get that kind of results using automated or minimally guided algorithms. The fact that they have vector street maps available makes it even easier. Just as an example of what's possible:
http://www.cse.cuhk.edu.hk/~leojia/all_project_webpages/ddp/drag-and-drop_pasting.html
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Scroll a bit to the west and you find even more incredible stitchings. The very tall glass building puts its shadow down on a section of houses (and church) that is leaning the to the east while the tall building is skewed to the west. Incredible!
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That "very tall glass building" is the John Hancock Tower. You used to be able to get a great view of Boston from the observatory at the top but it was closed after 9/11. As far as I know, it's still closed. Oddly, the observatory in the John Hancock Center in Chicago is still open. Go figure.
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That is so trippy. I think I'm putting that on my background.
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I suspect (but don't feel like proving) that MassGIS, the Commonwealth's mapping agency, is actually doing the work.
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There's a similar stitch along, or at least near, Market Street in San Francisco.

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