This somewhat odd-looking apparatus is being used to measure earth’s rotation. At the heart of the system is a PlayStation Move controller, used because of its dual-axis gyroscope which has the highest dynamic range compared to other available products like the Wii Motion Plus. It rests on a column perched atop a record player that was chosen because of its precision rotation rate. The two rings that flank the controller make up a Helmholtz coil which is used to cancel out the earth’s magnetic field which was found to be interfering with measurements taken by the Move controller. By recording data over time the experimenter can prove that the earth is indeed rotating, as well as ascertain longitude data and find true north. Check out the data-packed video after the break.

Geoquake developed a 2D driving sim that uses a Flash app to interact with Google Maps. The game lets players enter any location in the world and drive around in various different vehicles. It was made by using Flash and the Google Maps API for Flash. Unfortunately, there is no collision detection or any other form of distinguishing topography from roads, so it’s a little more like flying over the area than driving on it.

For intentional flying, there is this flight simulator that works with the Google Earth browser plugin. It does exactly what you would expect, allowing users to fly a somewhat crudely rendered airplane using very simple controls over any location on (Google) Earth. If there’s anything you don’t like about it, though, you are free to edit it by using the author’s API and polygon editor. The simulator is Windows-only.

We know these are really simple, but bear in mind that these are the first games to incorporate real, semi-live map data. We’re sure there will be more games like these, but given the availability of the tools used to build these games, we wouldn’t be surprised if people took it upon themselves to make them more complex, visually rich, and fun.

[via Waxy]