April 20, 2011

Position of the sun on google streetview

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to know which of you're favorite cafe's downtown has a terras in the sun, right now? This tool makes use of an algorithm to calculate the position of the sun (for any date/time, anywhere on earth), and analyses a google streetview panorama image for that location to find out if the sun obscured behind buildings or other objects.

The image analyses needs some work, but this "nightly build" proves the validity of this concept!
All to do now is to ask google for the locations of nearby cafe's, use this method to figure out if the sun is out for those locations, and plot the result on a map. Where's the time I need for this... misplaced it somewhere...

1 comment:

  1. You could be onto something here... useful app in road traffic incidents where blinding low sun blamed. Was the sun really low in direction of travel at time of the crash? Not that it's really a good excuse for drivers anyway...

    http://thecyclingsilk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/coach-driver-acquitted-of-charges.html?showComment=1340616201240#c7338400846911338529

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