The LiveGlobe is a lightweight, wireless, lap-sized, live, spherical model of the world. Its surface is textured appropriately (well, except maybe for the water) and has embedded thermal devices which can be controlled to make specific areas hot or cold. The LiveGlobe has embedded vibrating thingies (vibrators?) and is covered with a high-resolution Organic LED display. It is connected to the internet via a high-speed wireless internet connection, over which it streams a live image of the Earth taken from high-resolution geosynchronous satellites, as well as thermal, seismographic, and other information.

Accompanying the LiveGlobe is the LiveGlass. It looks like a magnifying glass, but instead of glass it has has two high resolution displays back to back. It has a wireless connection to the LiveGlobe over which it transmits the same live image of the Earth. Sensors in its handle detect its position relative to the LiveGlobe, allowing it to adjust the image on the display appropriately to create the illusion of looking "through" the LiveGlass. On the handle of the LiveGlass are controls which allow you to adjust the LiveGlobe and LiveGlass to zoom in (hopefully not big-brother far) and out and toggle various layers of live information, as well as various effects. One can toggle clouds, shadows, nighttime, map information, doppler radar, etc. (again, hopefully not credit cards, internet packets, cellphone location via triangulation, OnStar GPS car location, airline passenger lists, or any other TIA stuff...)
-- utexaspunk, Jun 20 2003

Animated News Globe http://www.halfbake...ated_20News_20Globe
a previous HB idea [utexaspunk, Oct 17 2004]

Earth by day poster http://www.astrogra...r=&keywords=&page=3
think of this, but spherical, and animated live [utexaspunk, Oct 17 2004]

Total Information Awareness (TIA) http://www.darpa.mil/iao/TIASystems.htm
...what we want to avoid... [utexaspunk, Oct 17 2004]

ARC' s OmniGlobe http://www.arcscience.com/omni.htm
06 Aug 03 | An eye-popping spherical display that was shown at the recent SIGGRAPH conference in San Diego. Not "lap-sized", though. Oh, and bring money. [bristolz, Oct 17 2004]

Geo-Cosmos http://yomikaki.hih...c/GEO%20COSMOS.html
At the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, Tokyo, Japan. LED-covered globe. Live NASA data. Definitely not lap-sized. [jutta, Oct 17 2004, last modified Jun 22 2005]

Little on the techno-magic side, don't you think? I would settle for a globe that reflected current weather patterns seen from space, with a replay button.
-- DrCurry, Jun 20 2003


I wouldn't call it "techno magic"- I'd imagine with our ever-increasing processing power and internet bandwidth and the way OLED's are progressing (Organic LED's allow displays to be "printed" onto a surface much like an ink-jet), it won't be long before this is possible, and I mentioned these specific technologies. Why stop with just the weather? You have a internet-connected, globe-shaped display, and all sorts of other live data already exists online and could easily be mapped.
-- utexaspunk, Jun 21 2003


Maybe huge versions for science museums. A reverse version showing the sky from everywhere on the Earth might be interesting. Like an inverted planetarium.
-- talldave, Jul 06 2003


Maybe it could have a feature that keeps track of the political borders. You could then play it back at high speed, or even backwards.
-- Detly, Aug 06 2003



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