Audio Tours on Google Maps

Geotrio is creating a world-wide library of mapped audio tours that can be accessed from smart phones and desktop computers. Using Geotrio users can create, browse and share digital audio tours for any location in the world.

Each uploaded tour includes a Google Map of the audio tour. The map includes markers for each stop and each stop contains an audio commentary of what you can see at that location.

Geotrio is available as a free iPhone app so you can listen to the audio tours whilst actually walking the route of the tour. If you are more of an armchair tourist or you are interested in listening about locations that you can't visit you can also access the tours from your desktop computer.

Geotrio

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New York's Music Taste on Google Maps

What Song Are You Listening to NYC?

Tyler Cullen, a student film-maker at the School of Visual Arts, created an interesting video of New Yorkers answering the question "What song are you listening to?"

Whatsongnyc were so inspired by the concept that they have travelled around New York and asked the same questions at a number of locations. They have now embedded the videos from each location on a Google Map.

Using the map you can find out what people are listening to at Grand Central Station or at Times Square. If you click on a location you can play the video from that location directly on the map.

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Welcome to the Sounds of Galicia

Escoitar

Escoitar is a collaborative sound map for the Galician region in north-west Spain. Using the map it is possible to listen to the waves washing against the shore in Gijon, the ringing of the church bells in Trives and the ambient hustle and bustle of Ourense at night.

There is something particularly evocative about sound maps. Different categories of sound are displayed on this map with coloured map markers. The categories include nature, mechanical, people and religion.

Other Sound Maps

• Open Sound New Orleans - New Orleans sound map
• Tactical Sound Garden - Tactical Sound Garden has created 'sound gardens' in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, San Diego, CA and Zurich, Switzerland.
• Radio Aporee - Sounds recorded around the world and presented on a Google Map.
• Montreal Sound Map - Sounds from Montreal
  
• Map Your Voice - Map of accents around the world

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Location Based Stories on Google Maps

Broadcastr

Broadcastr has created iPhone and Android applications that allow users to record geotagged audio stories. The recorded stories can then be browsed on a Google Map on the Broadcastr website.

Using the apps users can post audio restaurant reviews, oral histories, guided walks or any other sound recording. The Google Map on Broadcastr provides a great means to browse the submitted recordings. It is possible to browse the postings by location or by category.

If you click on a map marker you can listen to the recording directly from the map. It is possible to create a playlist from your favourite users or from featured recordings and the map will automatically play the entire playlist.

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A Google Maps Hangover Cure

HMSG Spiral Map

You might want to save this sound map for tomorrow when you are a little hungover. The Hudson Mohawk Sound Gate Spiral Map is a virtual walk around the Capital District of New York featuring sound and video. And it could just be the perfect ambient mood shift that you will need after your exertions tonight on New Year's Eve.

For the project one minute videos and sound recordings were made at a number of locations. Each recording is synced to the relevant location on a Google Map. Once the application has loaded all you need to do is press play. You can then sit back and watch and listen as you are taken on a spiral path through New York's Capital District.

Sublime!

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Regional Accents on Google Maps

Map Your Voice

The British Library has created a Google Map to record and map English accents around the world.

The British Library are asking people all over the world to read and record the children's story 'Mr. Tickle' by Roger Hargreaves. The story has been chosen for the range of English sounds it contains when read out loud.

You can listen to the recordings already made by clicking on the map markers on the map and pressing play on the embedded audio player.

This isn't the first sound map produced by The British Library. The UK SoundMap is a Google Map of soundscapes captured around the UK.

Via: ReadWriteWeb

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Sounds on Google Maps

Soundcities

Soundcities is an open source database of city sounds and soundmaps from around the world, using found sounds and field recordings.

It is possible to browse the submitted sounds by location on a Google Map. It is also possible to browse by mood. The Google Map includes a number of sound recordings made in lots of cities around the world and all the sounds can be listened to directly from the map.

Soundcities also includes a Sensor Map of Liverpool in the UK. This map shows the location of a number of sensors in the city displaying real-time information about light, temperature, noise and humidity.

Other Sound Maps

• UK SoundMap - survey of UK sounds from the British Library
• Open Sound New Orleans - New Orleans sound map
• Tactical Sound Garden - Tactical Sound Garden has created 'sound gardens' in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, San Diego, CA and Zurich, Switzerland.
• Radio Aporee - Sounds recorded around the world and presented on a Google Map.
• Montreal Sound Map - Sounds from Montreal
• Sound Tourism - a map of locations around the world where you can hear great sounds

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Your Aural Travel Guide on Google Maps

Sound Tourism

Sound Tourism bills itself as 'A Travel Guide to Sonic Wonders'. The site claims that normal travel guides are dominated by the visual experience, describing beautiful vistas, eye-catching art and iconic architecture whilst ignoring the aural experience of places.

Sound Tourism has set out to address that gap by creating a map of locations around the world where you can hear great sounds. Sounds are shown on the map with categorised map markers. The colour of the marker reflects whether the location is 'worth a journey', 'worth a detour' or 'interesting'.

As well as the map view you can navigate to sounds by tag or load all the sounds from a particular location by selecting it from a drop down menu.

Via: Spatial Analysis

Other Sound Maps

• UK SoundMap - survey of UK sounds from the British Library
• Open Sound New Orleans - New Orleans sound map
• Tactical Sound Garden - Tactical Sound Garden has created 'sound gardens' in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, San Diego, CA and Zurich, Switzerland.
• Radio Aporee - Sounds recorded around the world and presented on a Google Map.
• Montreal Sound Map - Sounds from Montreal

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Researching UK Sounds with Google Maps

UK SoundMap

The UK SoundMap is a new sound survey of the acoustic landscape of Britain. The SoundMap is a partnership project of the British Library and the Noise Futures Network. Through this user-contributed sound-map the project will build a permanent researchable resource of sounds in Britain.

UK SoundMap has started with a pilot survey based on the Sheffield metropolitan area. The survey will be extended to the rest of the UK later in 2010. UK SoundMap uses Google Maps to show the locations of all the sounds submitted to the site. If you click on any of the submitted sounds shown on the map you can then play the recording directly from the information window.

The recordings submitted to the UK SoundMap will be studied by experts from the Noise Futures Network and the research results will be published once sufficient data has been collected and analysed.

Other Sound Maps

• Open Sound New Orleans - New Orleans sound map
• Tactical Sound Garden - Tactical Sound Garden has created 'sound gardens' in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, San Diego, CA and Zurich, Switzerland.
• Radio Aporee - Sounds recorded around the world and presented on a Google Map.
• Montreal Sound Map - Sounds from Montreal

Hat-tip: Living Geography

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World Pronunciations on Google Maps

Forvo

I bet you always wished you knew how different people around the world pronounce 'antidisestablishmentarianism'. Well, thankfully, now the wait is over. Forvo is the largest pronunciation guide in the world. Forvo has over a half a million oral pronunciations of words recorded by people all over the world.

If you have ever wondered how a word is pronounced in different parts of the world you can now just type that word into Forvo. Forvo then displays a Google Map showing you all the available recorded pronunciations of the world and where they were recorded.

So if you want to know how an Englishmen says 'Google Maps' just type it into Forvo and select the appropriate map marker from the map.

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The Sounds of Seoul on Google Maps

Sound@Media

Here's a nice start to the week. Take a leisurely virtual stroll around Seoul listening to the street sounds of the South Korean capital.

Sound@Media is a Google Maps based sound map. Users of the map can listen to the everyday sounds of the streets of Seoul directly from the map. The markers on the map show the location where the sounds were recorded.

If you live in Seoul and you want to add your own sound recordings you can do so using Audioboo.

Other Sound Maps

• Tactical Sound Garden - Tactical Sound Garden has created 'sound gardens' in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, San Diego, CA and Zurich, Switzerland.
• Radio Aporee - Sounds recorded around the world and presented on a Google Map.
• Montreal Sound Map - Sounds from Montreal
• Open Sound New Orleans

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That New Orleans Sound on Google Maps

Open Sound New Orleans

The Open Sound New Orleans map is an amazing gateway to the wonderful music and sounds of New Orleans. It allows you to take a virtual walk around New Orleans, stop at the Cafe du Monde and listen to the amazing tunes of two street musicians. Alternatively you could head up to Mithra Street and catch a couple of rappers in action.

Open Sound New Orleans is a community media project that is getting New Orleanians to document their lives in sound. Participants are asked to record the important sounds and voices in their lives and add them to a Google Map of New Orleans sounds.

The project lends recording equipment, and offers training in its use, to community organisations, neighbourhood groups and individuals. The sounds recorded are then added to the map and can be shared, reused and adapted by others.

The sounds on the New Orleans sound map are categorised into 'ambient sounds', 'music sounds' and 'all voice sounds' and it is possible to view the map markers altogether or separately on the map.

Via: @geoparadigm

Other Sound Maps

• Tactical Sound Garden - Tactical Sound Garden has created 'sound gardens' in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, San Diego, CA and Zurich, Switzerland.
• Radio Aporee - Sounds recorded around the world and presented on a Google Map.
• Montreal Sound Map - Sounds from Montreal

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Creating Sound Gardens with Google Maps

Tactical Sound Garden

The Tactical Sound Garden [TSG] Toolkit is "an open source software platform for cultivating public 'sound gardens' within contemporary cities". In other words the Tactical Sound Garden allows anyone to create a Google Map of sounds in areas that have WiFi so that people with a WiFi enabled mobile device can then listen to the created soundscape when they are nearby.

Users of the Tactical Sound Garden [TSG] Toolkit can 'plant' sounds at a particular location. Then anyone with a WiFi enabled device can walk though the created virtual sound garden listening to the uploaded sounds.

Currently there are sound gardens in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, San Diego, CA and Zurich, Switzerland.

Hat-tip: @geoparadigm

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Sounds from the Street on Google Maps

StreetSounds

In July the Google Maps API for Flash introduced the Map3D object which allowed developers to present a 3D view within Google Maps mashups. Surprisingly I haven't seen many maps that have used the new 3D perspective. StreetSounds is the first mashup I have seen for while that has used the Map3D object and to do so to such good effect.

The StreetSounds map is an interactive tool for sharing and listening to sounds from all across the United States. The map allows users to upload sounds and discover sounds you have never heard before. Using the map you can listen to the sound of places you've not visited or relive memories from those you have. The sounds range from a Berkeley student demonstration and a bustling intersection to an arguing couple and a band rehearsing.

As well as the StreetSounds map a competition is also set to be launced, challenging film makers to create films based on the sonic landscapes of cities. The films must use at least three sounds from the Sound Map and be 3:00 min or less in length.

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UMapper now in Stereo

UMapper

Google Maps creation tool UMapper has this week unveiled a new feature that allows you to add sound to your maps.



This new feature means that you can now use UMapper to create new types of maps, such as audio tours of locations or world music maps.

Other Sound Maps

• Woices - a worldwide sound map
• Sound Seeker Google Map - A map of sounds from around NYC
• Puget Soundscape - A map of recorded whale sounds
• Terrasound - 'soundwalks' in Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland and California
• GeoGraffiti - a 'free verbal message board'
• MyVox - add your own voice to Google Maps
• Montreal Sound Map -the sounds of Montreal
• Radio Aporee - A German site that has recorded a number of walks

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