I took my dogs on a 2 mile roundtrip walk today, to and back from a park. The walk to the park was almost completely downhill, yet the lack of any shade along the way turned the cloudless, sunny sky into a miserable heat lamp, and my black-furred puppy, Boba, had a terrible time of it, constantly stopping in every small spot of shade we passed and begging to be carried. After about 3/4 of the walk, I softened and acquiesced to his request and carried him a short way until we reached a shady length of road.
On the return trip, which was almost all UPHILL, I decided to take a longer, more winding path to keep us going along shaded backstreets instead of the unshaded direct route. Boba made this longer, UPHILL walk in the shade (after being tired from the walk to and playing at the park, no less) with no difficulty. It was also easier on me. This got me thinking.
The version of Google Earth released for Android 3.0+ devices features a 3D UI, meaning it clearly knows the heights of all the buildings on the map or it wouldn't be able to accurately represent them on a 3D map. If it knows the height and geographical coordinates of all given buildings in an area, and with the appropriate layers selected can even show trees... and if you search for walking or biking directions in Google Maps it can give pretty good time estimates on how fast you're likely to be moving, and knows the position of the sun at any given time...
Then it should be easy to add an option to create a route based on availability of shade along said route. This would benefit pedestrians greatly when traversing unfamiliar territory by foot.
The best part is, it shouldn't actually require a device to be compatible with the 3D map view to use this feature. It doesn't have to DISPLAY the height of the buildings and/or trees. All it has to do is access that information from Google's database to incorporate the data into its route calculation. This should make it compatible with ANY smartphone/tablet with ANY version of Google Maps or Google Earth.-- 21 Quest, Jul 02 2011 Google streetlights http://googlemapsma...oogle-maps.html?m=1 [21 Quest, Jul 03 2011] UK's FixMyStreet.com http://www.fixmystreet.com/reports(Not Google - includes broken lampposts, and traffic cones on post boxes ...). Damn Barnet looks like either a duff place to live or has many web-savvy eagle-eyed busy-bodies [Dub, Jul 04 2011] An old problem affecting more than one species. http://www.google.c...ved=1t:429,r:8,s:23 [mouseposture, Jul 05 2011] Wouldn't it be simpler to bleach Boba?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 02 2011 [+] This should end up in a Stephen King novel at some point.-- FlyingToaster, Jul 02 2011 Conversely, I suppose it could be used for safety when walking at night to maximize moonlight and streetlight exposure.-- 21 Quest, Jul 02 2011 max:I think the problem with heat might have been the hot pavement burning the pads of his feet?-- bob, Jul 02 2011 Bob, that thought had occurred to me as well.-- 21 Quest, Jul 02 2011 Maybe those mad dogs in the noonday sun are mad because their feet hurt. The englishmen I understand: the rickets have made them desperate for vitamin d.-- bungston, Jul 03 2011 Good for fat people, too.
[+]-- 8th of 7, Jul 03 2011 How would google know where the fat people are when you want to go out?-- pocmloc, Jul 03 2011 My old sheltie has been known to flop down on his side during walks on hot days and just lie there content to die.-- rcarty, Jul 03 2011 // where the fat people are //
Google knows where the doughnut shops are. They won't be far away.-- 8th of 7, Jul 03 2011 Yup. "Only in America ...-- 8th of 7, Jul 03 2011 Long and winding, somewhat shady shaggy-dog story of an idea. [Bun!]
Ought to be quite straightforward to extact the OpenGl Z info-- Dub, Jul 03 2011 //the problem with heat might have been the hot pavement// in which case, the blackness of the dog was a red herring.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 03 2011 Not exactly, Max. There are multiple factors in play, all of them valid. The sunlight causes the dog's whole body to overheat because it is absorbed by the black coat. In addition, it burns the pads of the paws by heating the pavement. Shade keeps the sunlight off the dog's coat and the pavement, killing two cats with one oven, so to speak.-- 21 Quest, Jul 03 2011 // killing two cats with one oven //
Take that idea, [21Q], and run with it ...
"If you build it, they will come ..."
Or rather, if you build it, we will bring them. In dozens. In a sack.-- 8th of 7, Jul 03 2011 Getting streetlight information into Google may be a tad difficult, however neccessary. + Could some sort of object recognition algorithm detect a streetlamp from satellite view?-- daseva, Jul 03 2011 Cheaper to employ lots of badly-paid poor people (tautology) in a Third World country to look at satellite images and pick out the streetlamps.-- 8th of 7, Jul 03 2011 (Linky)-- 21 Quest, Jul 03 2011 {wik Linky}-- Dub, Jul 04 2011 Go for a walk in the early morning or late afternoon, when it's cooler? That's what most people do, to avoid the heat of the middle hours of the day.-- infidel, Jul 04 2011 well yeah, except that I work from 1:30 PM to 10:00 PM, and when I get home I sleep. I walk my dogs twice daily, once in the morning, once before work.-- 21 Quest, Jul 04 2011 [21] - do you seriously work 20.5 hour days?-- Custardguts, Jul 05 2011 Whoopsie! I'm correcting it now...-- 21 Quest, Jul 05 2011 With a bit of training, a large animal like a horse could shelter a something like a great dane as it walked along, under which would scamper a small dog, who's underbelly space would facilitate an even smaller dog, etc etc, the whole arrangement progressing down to a shrew, and terminating with an ant.
Obviously this would be difficult to manage and achieve, (especially training the ant) but I see it as the perfect solution to shadow management for walking animals in sunny places. Horses spent all their time outside, so I presume the sun doesn't bother them as much.
[+] for your idea [21] and for allowing me to tag mine unto the end.-- xenzag, Jul 05 2011 Actually it can bother them... I saw several specially made horse blankets designed to keep them cool. But what it means is, you'd only need the *one* blanket. Neat concept, Xen.-- 21 Quest, Jul 05 2011 ...almost TOO sensible! [+]-- xandram, Jul 05 2011 //Horses spent all their time outside, so I presume the sun doesn't bother them as much.// You never saw this before? <link>-- mouseposture, Jul 05 2011 I'm currently in correspondence with somebody on Christmas Island. I'm playing at trying to find her house without her telling me exactly where she lives using Google Earth (No, I'm not stalking her, she says I pass the perv test).
But there's so many clouds in the image - Google Shade Walk would go crazy.
Most domestic horses can take or leave shade, but my mustang would ALWAYS use every scrap when he was not going someplace.-- normzone, Jul 05 2011 (I deleted the now-pointless comments regarding the third link being defective, now that it's been fixed)-- 21 Quest, Jul 05 2011 Bun, but only for the this application's contrasting use, ie Google Sun View.
I like to have a beer during my lunch break, particularly when it's sunny. However, working in the West End, there's a lot of tall buildings that block the sun. It's only through experience of the area that I now know which pubs bask in sunshine at which hour. Therefor, my first pint will be stood outside the Duke of Argyll from 1pm, swiftly moving round the corner to the White Horse (affectionately dubbed the Zebra) when the sun moves round at 1.30pm.
In an area I was unfamiliar with, Google Sun View would be perfect for strategising lunchtime sunshine pint imbibing. [+]-- theleopard, Jul 06 2011 I think the problem would be explaining Google Earth to the horse, and there not being a lot of GPS systems with buttons suitable for hooves.-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 06 2011 Seems like the definition of ease would be programming a voice command system with Equinese in the list of supported languages...-- 21 Quest, Jul 06 2011 + For the shadow people and those who love dark areas everywhere.-- blissmiss, Jul 06 2011 I like very much xenzags pyramidal arrangement. Could the horse fit under a giraffe? One could tether a blimp to the largest animal to provide extra shade. It would be a solemn, slow (accomodating the poor ant) and shady processesion. The blimp could have solar panels providing the power to play a New Orleans style dirge. yes, yes.-- bungston, Jul 07 2011 //One could tether a blimp// sp. "roc".-- FlyingToaster, Jul 07 2011 useful for vampires, too. Could be updated to show garlic growing areas and silversmith as well (or was that werewolves?)-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 07 2011 Silversmiths are pretty much worthless for a vamp infestation, but you might find a nearby fletcher or priest.-- 21 Quest, Jul 08 2011 random, halfbakery