Microsoft lays out plans for Virtual Earth

SAN DIEGO--Microsoft's John Curlander on Thursday demonstrated his company's Virtual Earth application for modeling cities in 3D. Microsoft flies over metropolises to get aerial imagery and captures video from the ground to create a real-world experience of places like Manhattan in a virtual space.

Here at ETech, a four-day conference on emerging tech, Curlander said Microsoft has launched the application for several virtual cities, but it will introduce another 20 cities in the next couple of weeks. Upcoming cities include New York and Chicago (where it had to fly higher than in other cities because of local government concerns about privacy). To protect people's privacy, Curlander said Microsoft uses face-blurring technology on its street-side images.

Microsoft executives are also holding regular discussions on where to take Virtual Earth in the realms of entertainment, gaming and commerce, according to Curlander. For example, Microsoft might open up the software so developers can create games for the Xbox 360 out of Virtual Earth.

Also, Curlander said the company currently has 370 million users of instant messaging, and MSN is considering merging those users with Virtual Earth so they can chat in the virtual setting. But, he said, Virtual Earth developers want to blot out the real cars depicted in the application so people can drive virtual cars in the 3D world.

"First we have to erase cars that are there and put in virtual cars that could be part of IM," Curlander said.

He added: "We're having lots of discussions about how we're going to start merging online games out of Virtual Earth...and taking commerce into 3D."