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Announced at its annual Google I/O Event in May, the “immersive view” feature uses 3D mapping and machine learning to create an augmented reality version of some of the most popular cities in the world. With a combination of aerial and street level images, viewers can “explore a place like never before.”

“With our new immersive view, you’ll be able to experience what a neighborhood, landmark, restaurant, or popular venue is like — and even feel like you’re right there before you ever set foot inside,” says Miriam Daniel, a VP of Google Maps.

It has been a goal for many years to be able to give users this kind of virtual world tour.

“We’re able to fuse those [images] together,” says Liz Reid, a VP of engineering at Google, “so that we can actually understand, okay, these are the heights of the buildings. How do we combine that with Street View? How do we combine it with aerial view to make something that feels much more like you were there? It’s a thing where we had demos years ago, …but it didn’t really work. Now the technology has come a long way into making it feel pretty natural.”

Viewers can fly around a city at bird’s eye level and then zoom in at street level on a particular block. With its time slider, Google Maps will provide glimpses of pedestrian and auto traffic at different times of day as well as a visual weather forecasts for the area.

What’s more, people can even check out the insides of local restaurants, with static images being neural rendered to create an AR style tour.

When this feature rolls out later this year, it will include just a few neighborhoods in London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo, but more cities are in the works.

Google has also been implementing a Live View feature that gives users directions with digital arrows, pointing the way in AR views of their actual surroundings. Its available to help with outdoor sidewalks and roads as well as confusing indoor spaces like airports, malls, and train stations.

The technology that powers this real-time view and tracking is called ARCore Geospatioal API and the company is now making it available to developers for free to implement in their own apps. For example, an electric vehicle company is piloting the API in places like London, Paris, and Tel Aviv to help riders find appropriate parking spots for their e-bikes and e-scooters. And companies in Australia are using it to help guests find their seats, restrooms, and concession stands at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne.

And in another way to “interact with both the digital and physical worlds at once,” companies DOCOMO and Curiosity are creating a game that lets players fight virtual dragons in front of Google Maps AR backdrops of iconic Tokyo landmarks.

As Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in his Google I/O speech this year, “It’s exciting to build these products; it’s even more exciting to see what people do with them.”

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As a tribute to Williams, HomeAdvisor commissioned artist Ibrahim Rayintakath to illustrate 43 of these homes, in addition to creating a map that outlines their locations for passionate admirers who want to see them in person.

Paul Revere Williams was born into a very poor family, in 1894. At the age of four, he became an orphan. From this humble beginning, he overcame the challenges to earn the title as the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Rising above his childhood was only one obstacle as a Black man trying to make it as a professional in 1920s California. Williams also learned to draw upside down for white clients not comfortable sitting next to him at the table. As the client list began to grow, he released two books of affordable home designs, saying “expensive homes are my business & social housing is my hobby.” Although the U.S. went through a housing shortage shortly after, wealthy clients supported his business until his retirement in 1973.

For this project, HomeAdvisor wanted to honor Williams’ inspiring work and expansive career while providing inspiration for their contemporary customers. According to a company press release, “the project is part of a series of content campaigns commissioned by HomeAdvisor, with the goal of inspiring homeowners by introducing new ways of thinking about the spaces in their homes and the history of design.”

The completed project resulted in a poster honoring “the Architect to the Stars,” a detailed map complete with home addresses, and 43 individual illustrations of the homes themselves.

William’s work set the stage for Black architects who followed, in addition to providing home designs for both the ultra-rich and the everyday home buyer. He summarized his thoughts around his profession and the continued racial challenges of the time in 1937 when he said, “Today I sketched the preliminary plans for a large country house which will be erected in one of the most beautiful residential districts in the world. Sometimes I have dreamed of living there. I could afford such a home. But this evening… I returned to my own small, inexpensive home…in a comparatively undesirable section of Los Angeles. Dreams cannot alter facts; I know…I must always live in that locality, or in another like it, because… I am a Negro.”

Not only were his designs innovative, with new ideas for the time such as the patio being used as an extension of the house, and hidden, retractable screens, but his residential and commercial buildings have also become iconic across Los Angeles, the city where he was born and raised. Features such as luxurious curving staircases continue to enrapture buyers there, as evidenced by the fact that few of his existing homes are ever available on the market. Seeing them by car tour may be the only option for architectural enthusiasts who hope to experience his legendary impact.

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It’s always been a bit of a guessing game as to when and how to evacuate an area. Over the years, firefighters have implemented a variety of tactics to gain insight on the behavior of wildfires. For example, the Los Angeles Fire Department and other agencies send up drones to identify hot spots and use planes loaded with cameras and infrared sensors to map out the perimeters of a blaze. They also rely on supercomputers to process data that can help with the task.

“We’re always looking for innovative ways to get better intelligence, and it all comes down to enhanced situational awareness,” says LAFD Chief Ralph Terrazas. “That’s what we train our firefighters: when you’re on the fire ground, you got to be aware of what’s going on to make good decisions.”

But as of this September, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Ventura, and San Diego counties have a $4.5 million tool at their disposal. A pilot program called FIRIS, or Fire Integrated Real-Time Intelligence System, is now being tested in California as a way to better coordinate firefighters’ collected data for quicker and more accurate fire forecasting. In this way, FIRIS produces nearly real-time fire perimeter maps just minutes after planes arrive on sight.

To pull information together, a supercomputer called WIFIRE, located at the University of California, taps into weather reports, wind conditions, information about vegetation that can act as fuel for the fire, census data to understand population sizes and structure layouts, and topographic maps to produce a projection of the area where the fire is most likely to burn. The resulting computation provides an estimation of where the fire will burn for the following six hours without intervention. This allows any agencies battling the blaze to deliver a swift response, and also gives them calculated information about timing and location for optimum evacuation protocols.

The output from the supercomputer is coupled with infrared scans from planes that both confirm the data and provide additional information to the Southern California Wildfire Fusion Center, which acts as a coordinating hub for intel. There, it is circulated to the fire chief, the command post, local law enforcement agencies, elected officials, and the general public. It is then uploaded to the LAFD website, where residents can find all the necessary evacuation information. Following the initial response, new tests are run every few hours to see if there have been any changes in the forecast, with planes returning to the area three to four times a day to gather real-time data.

Of course, making these types of estimates about where the fire will turn next is not a new tactic. In fact, the majority of the tools being implemented have been used for a very long time in the war against wildfires. The difference is that instead of hours wasted scouring reports as they come in from different sources and making guesses based on terrain shown on topo maps, WIFIRE and FIRIS produce more accurate results within minutes.

The company behind FIRIS, Intterra, hopes the technology will save money and resources, improve communication, and most importantly, save lives. In the future, Intterra says its system will be able to help predict fires before they even happen, using the information gathered regarding weather, wind, topography, and vegetation.

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Mapillary, yet another Swedish outfit, wants to see all the signs — and make an even bigger global impact. Their goal is to map the world by crowdsourcing images of street signs and inputting them into a central database. Amazon is even collaborating with them on the project, using their Rekognition API to go through that database.

Although the exact relationship between the two companies is still unclear, the thought of them working together is still exciting. Anyone who has ever used Google Street View to scope out parking in an unfamiliar area only to be met with a blurry image of a sign understands what they’re trying to do: repackage information like that with more detail and make it easier to interpet.

Too often, the information on parking signs is so convoluted that you have to read it three times just to understand if and when you can park. Mapillary wants to remove the confusion by converting this analog knowledge into digital data for use by the public. INRIX, a traffic analysis tech firm, has already used it to determine that Americans spend over $20 billion a year overpaying for parking, and that sum doesn’t even include the gas spent driving around when you’re looking for it.

Then there’s the issue of pictograms, which are supposed to be understood by everyone but can sometimes come off as ambiguous. When you see a sign depicting a man with a lightning bolt going through his body, you know that it means danger because of high voltage from electricity, but where exactly that electricity is coming from is still unclear. There are also those temporary construction signs offering alternative routes that sometimes make no sense at all. In these cases, Mapillary hopes to better explain what the sign is supposed to express. Even tourists are using Mapillary to read signs in languages they cannot speak through a type of instantaneous translation.

With autonomous vehicles becoming increasingly prevalent on our roads, the information collected by companies like Mapillary will be especially useful. Even in places where Google is unlikely to send their Street View car down every road, such as parts of rural America or small countries like Barbados, Mapillary is still crowdscoursing images of signs. Today, their database contains almost 400 million images. In the long term, the company plans to see all the world’s signs and open all of our minds about the ways we can more efficiently use our cities.

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Travel is one of the great pleasures of life, and people who have been places are usually proud of their journeys. The Scratch Map from Luckies of U.K. lets you keep a visual and ever-changing record of everywhere you’ve been.

The locations on the map are covered with gold foil. Once you visit one of the countries on the map, you use a coin to scratch off the top layer, revealing a colorful version of that place.

The more you travel, the more colorful your map becomes. Hanging on your wall, the map will act as an instant indicator of your worldliness.

Some versions of the maps allow you to note your flight paths, favorite memories of your travels, and even a place to put “before trip” and “after trip” photos of yourself.

Besides the world map, Luckies makes more localized versions including the U.K. and Ireland, and Europe. Even if you haven’t been able to travel the world, you can scratch off all of the places you’ve journeyed to in your own area.

The United States version even lets you reveal the states you’ve been to by scratching off the red, white and blue overlay.

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It is always eye-catching when we find something from our digital experience rendered around us in ‘real life’ – like these application-inspired bird homes made to give our flying friends their own marked destinations in the city. Shuchun Hsiao proposes these refuges as a means of navigation – a set of familiar points, much like Google Map pins are for us, to allow birds to make their way to and around appropriate landmarks.

The designer notes that birds have, in many regards, the most map-like experience of species already, as the expression ‘birds eye view’ suggests. And of course, humans can use them as wayfinding devices as well.

More from Gessato

“At the mention of macroscopic and microscope scales, I never fail to recall Charles and Ray Eames’s famous 1977 ‘Powers of Ten’ documentary, which cinematically zooms in and out on a picnicking couple. We now have a digital convenience of experiencing scale through Google Maps with a simple dash of the scroll wheel. Artist Shuchun Hsiao recognizes this 21^st-century luxury, and the modern symbol that the red bubble marker has become, and shrinks this idea to a smaller scale for our aviary counterparts on Earth.”

“In Project Google Birdhouse, Hsiao constructs a series of birdhouses all formed and painted like Google’s landmark icon, and peppers them around for our feathered friends’ accommodations with the hope that they will become navigation aids. Now, if the birds would start their own Google reviews of Hsiao’s work…”

About Shuchun Hsiao

“Shuchun Hsiao is a product designer specialized in consumer electronics for 9 years. He believes the creative idea comes from physically interact with objects, people and environment. Hsiao’s also skilled in hand making, exploring the possibilities of materials and shapes. This helps to generate more ideas, communicate better across team internally and externally.”

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Turn the country, city or neighborhood of your choice into a colorful custom backdrop with map wall murals from Wallpapered. Based in central London, Wallpapered enables customers to enter any zip code, zoom in or out and choose colors to create wallpaper maps with sentimental value.

Blown up to a large scale, city streets and buildings become works of abstract art. Once you select your design, Wallpapered provides a PDF proof for approval.

Prices start at £28 (roughly $45) per square meter, making it an affordable option for accent walls. Each order is printed to your specific dimensions, and the paper used is 100% natural cellulose.

In addition to street maps, Wallpapered also offers more traditional maps of the world, retaining the option of printing it in your desired colors or focusing on a particular region.

“Our Custom Map Wallpaper is a spectacular choice for your interior decor. This one of a kind product creates a stunning feature wall. Our Custom Map Wallpaper is uniquely created. We design your custom made map wall mural using your choice of post code or area. We can cover any area in the world! Choose the city you grew up in for a nostalgic and personalized feature wall or perhaps you will choose the local area you have settled down in? Determine how much of the area you want to cover, to pinpoint meaningful street names and details such as your daily commute and local landmarks! Additionally, the map wallpaper mural is printed to your exact wall size to ensure a perfect fit.”

“We believe that great interior design should be accessible to everyone. Here at Wallpapered, we want to inspire your imagination and creativity by helping to fill your blank walls with fantastically designed wallpaper.

We take great pride in offering our customers the very best of designs. We have a range of our own designs, and we are also proud to collaborate with handpicked independent artists and designers, to turn their artwork into incredible wallpaper murals for your wall.”

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Oriental rugs are all about detail – but not in itself; rather, details are the basis for repetitive patterns that form whole impressions. One creator remixes this small-but-large tradition with modern Google Earth imagery.

Drawn to aerial views of strange-shaped cities from strangely decentralized Los Angeles to strip-centric Las Vegas, German designer David Hanauer bends and reflects urban plans in his textile creations.

As with traditional variants, there is often a central feature and then a series of radial and bilateral symmetries that quickly get the mind thinking more in terms of carpets than cities.

With only minor modifications to what he finds, these collages sometimes even include a piece of the (watermark) word ‘Google’ and rarely involve radical altercations – they simply reflect and transpose original pictures in a new context.

“Worldwide Carpets refer to aerial photographs as they are presented by
software programs on the internet. From the abundance of pictures which virtually depict the globe and trace entire city structures in detail, the designer picks views from certain cities always referring to architecture and their city planning. As different levels of pattern appear – depending on the viewers point of view – the once chosen structure dissolves towards a disruption of its context and transfers the original photograph into a pattern.”

“David Hanauer takes up the ornament structures of Persian carpets for the composition of his patterns, while referring to recurring motives and patterns. The different scaled and imprinted carpets can be used individually or serially as floor covering.The designer documents the specific forms of existing city planning with the bird‘s eye view. Based on the generated vocabulary of forms, while also modifying the template, David Hanauer ties on the traditional ways of figurative story telling with the carpet being the image carrier.”

“WorldWide Carpets are not only everyday objects: they do as well report about the contemporary human being who is using the carpet.”

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Or would “typo-geography” sound better? Either way, there is a growing trend toward hybridizing text and imagery from the level of small city street maps to globe-spanning, wall-mounted decor.

This first example comes from NotHS in the UK and can be ordered as a giant vinyl wall sticker kit for travel and design enthusiasts. They are made to work on most interior surfaces, including painted walls, smooth wood and clean glass. They come in black, white, light and dark gray or brown and are also removable.

Still, it is not clear whether they are paying tribute to, working with or (and this would be unfortunate) “borrowing” the idea for A Different World from The World in Words by the award-winning German graphic designers of TypoNet. Inspiration, like typography, is a fickle thing.

This last one veers off in a less-minimalist direction, more explicitly spelling out (or perhaps: drawing upon?) a map-like world outline – as a bonus, VladStudio offers it as a wallpaper for your digital walls if the real one is too pricey (or not a fit) for your physical ones.

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