Building Virtual Cities from the Ground Up

摘要

Less than a year ago, John Curlander was the top executive at Vexcel Corp., a longtime supplier of aerial cameras, satellite ground stations and image-processing software, but a virtual unknown outside the remote sensing industry. Today, Curlander works for one of the most recognizable names in the business world, Microsoft Corp., which acquired Vexcel in May. Curlander is leading the software giant's Virtual Earth initiative, which aims to bring geospatial data out of the esoteric world of scientists and military planners and into the lives of everyday people. As envisioned, Virtual Earth is an Internet-based, searchable archive of aerial, satellite and ground photos. It is Microsoft's answer to Google Earth, a geospatial imagery database that was launched in June 2005.