The engineers at Google put together a great traveling road show that they dubbed Liquid Galaxies. It's a series of 8 55" LCDs that are synchronized to display a field of vision type immersible experience with Google Earth. The panels are arranged around the user to encircle them and cover their entire field of vision. A 3D joystick allows the user to navigate from outer space to under the oceans and through cities and countryside alike. Knowing that only a select few would be able to visit Liquid Galaxies at trade shows or in the Google complex, the company has "decided to put the features that make Liquid Galaxy possible into the latest release of Google Earth, and open-source all the supporting work, from our Ubuntu sysadmin scripts to the mechanical design of our custom frames."
It will still require some technical know how, but if you are so inclined (and have 8 55" lcd's kicking around) you too can bring Liquid Galaxies to life! I'm salivating just thinking of it... but then again that's just me. If only I had 7 more tv's...
