Maybe it's my background as orienteer that makes it difficult for me to look the other way when I see a map, but this new augmented reality mapping is just amazing. Imagine what I will for the transparency of the real estate industry.

The video is from a TED presentation where Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos new technology from Microsoft.

(If you're in a hurry fast forward to 3m20sec.)

Background

The technology used in the demo is from Seadragon and the visualization technology Photosynth that gives amazingly smooth digital rendering and zoom capabilities. Blaise Aguera y Arcas' is the architect of Seadragon, and the co-creator of Photosynth, and today an architect at Microsoft Live Labs (Microsoft acquired by Seadrgon in 2006). See the original Seadragon & Photosynth TED presentation from 2007.

My thoughts

This is how you will use a map to find out more about commercial properties in 5 years. Period.