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Google Earth Adds Sound to Visuals

Techtree News Staff, May 11, 2007 1759 hrs IST

Google Earth will soon add ethnic sounds to visuals to enable users hear what a place sounds like, as well as what it used to sound like.

According to reports, Google Earth will soon add ethnic sounds to visuals to enable users hear what a place sounds like, as well as what it used to sound like. Bernie Krause, Director of California-based company, Wild Sanctuary, which has created the software to embed sound files into relevant locations on Google Earth, said their objective is to bring the world alive to readers. They believe while a picture tells a thousand words, sound tells a thousand pictures! Krause has spent nearly 40 years collecting over 3,500 hours of sound recordings from across the globe, in the bargain, covering more than 15,000 animal noises, plus sounds from an array of habitats, including cities, deserts, mountains, and the marine environs. Krause added he hopes this will make virtual visitors more aware of the impact of human activity on the environment, a dire need of the hour. Krause said his sound collection is of consistent quality, besides being enriched with time, date, and weather information. He added that users would be able to hear modern-day sounds at a particular location, and then travel back in time to compare them with sounds associated with the decades gone by. The sound enhancement to Google Earth will be available for download at wildsanctuary.com, following its launch at the Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, California, on the 29th of this month.