The Google Earth Blog describes how Michael Kaye made a flight simulator using Google Earth hooked to a stationary bike.
The hidden flight simulator mode of Google Earth requires one of several key sequences to activate. First click in the main 3D window of GE to activate it. If you are on Windows (and not from the UK), just hit CTRL-ALT-A and you should get the window giving you a choice of either an F-16 or a Cirrus SR-22 aircraft. On the Mac, the sequence is Command+Option+A.
Mike’s Flying Bike used a SunSPOT (a 3D sensor device that has a Java software interface) to enable his bicycle to serve as a flight control joystick for Google Earth’s flight simulator.
The pedals serve as the power control. A couple other levers control the aerolon (banking) controls while the handlebars act as the yoke.
Each Sun SPOT sensor has a 180MHz 32-bit ARM920T core processor with 512K RAM and 4M Flash. The Sun SPOT processor board has a 2.4GHz radio with an integrated antenna. The radio is IEEE 802.15.4 compliant, which is designed to send slow speed data a short distance.
In related news, Google has added a new layer to Google Earth that shows Google News. The search company announced the addition on its Lat Long blog. You can Zoom into areas of personal interest and peruse headlines of national, regional and even hyper-local interest.
