Planning For Disasters Using Video Game Technologies

A former Microsoft product planner, Mike Geersten, has built a business planning for and reacting to disasters based on the knowledge he employed while working on Microsoft Flight Simulator and train sims. With $1.5 million in angel investment Geersten has put together a team of 14 to develop and market his software called Depiction which helps model the effect of disasters on land mass. "Depiction can be used to plan for disasters ahead of time, but it's also useful for collecting and organizing data during a crisis. Citizens can e-mail reports from the field, and emergency workers can feed other data directly into the software to find alternative routes when downed power lines, flood waters or landslides block roads."

This Wired video discusses how Depiction can be used to examine the effect of rising seas on New York City and what might be done to preserve the city from these effects.

Google Earth's built in flight simulator!

Lifehacker has news (and instructions) of a new feature quietly added to Google Earth. It's a flight simulator that allows you to take off from the airport or runway of your choice and pilot either an F16 "Viper" or SR22 prop plane. There are a number keyboard shortcuts available to control the plane, as well as joystick support. It is reported to be a little tricky to get the hang of but then again I imagine you don't jump into the cockpit of an F16 and nail takeoff without a little simulator time either! I'd like to give it a try but ArchLord is taking up most of my free time! I'll ask the kids to check it out, or if you do let me know how the experience was.