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The new Google Maps pulls color data from satellite images, so you can now see things like Mount Rainier.
Google / Ron Amadeo
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Iceland is now much greener.
Google / Ron Amadeo
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Now you can spot Croatia’s mix of beaches and greenery.
Google / Ron Amadeo
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I don’t know how to reconcile these next two images. This is Arizona, which is brown, so the map turns brown. Cool.
Google / Ron Amadeo
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This map of Morocco and the Sahara Desert is also brown and deserted, but here the map is … gray? Huh?
Google / Ron Amadeo
Don’t be too surprised if Google Maps suddenly starts to change. Google has announced a redesign of the normal Google Maps mosaic set, which will now extract color data from satellite imagery. Google has posted a few before and after comparative snapshots, which we’ve aligned with the source satellite images in the gallery above.
The company is also tweaking the color scheme for a more vibrant map: ocean blues are bluer, forest greens are greener, and the map now even shows snow-capped peaks in white and barren lands in brown. The world is a big place, so of course everything happens algorithmically. Google explains:
Google Maps provides high definition satellite images for over 98% of the world’s population. Using a new algorithmic color mapping technique, we are able to take these images and translate them into an even more complete and dynamic map of an area on a global scale.
How exactly does this color mapping technique work? First, we use computer vision to identify natural features from our satellite images, looking specifically at arid, icy, wooded and mountainous regions. We then analyze these characteristics and assign them a color gamut on the HSV color model. For example, a densely covered forest may be classified as dark green, while an area of patchy shrubs may appear as a lighter shade of green.
Previously, the base map was only gray (normal land), green (vegetation and parks), or blue (water). The big addition is the staining of dirt and snow. It is not known exactly what happens with the normal background color. Arizona is now very brown, which makes sense as Google now says it “faithfully reflects its desert landscape.” But another slide shows Morocco and part of the Sahara Desert, but it’s … still gray? It looks like there are still a few bugs to fix.
Google says the new color scheme is rolling out starting this week.
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