May 29, 2007 2:55 PM PDT
Listen to your maps with Wild Sanctuary
Imagine if you will a room full of several hundred developers, journalists, and curious onlookers sitting together listening to the sounds of monkeys. That was the scene here at Where 2.0 during a demo for Wild Sanctuary, a project that presents sound clips of nature as a layer on Google Earth.
Users can explore various sounds, and see their placement and contextual information on the map. What's interesting about these "soundscapes" is that they can show the difference in an area before and after environmental impact both with visual maps and sound as. Several examples were given show instances where a once lush diversity of animal noises became quiet, following climate change, human settlements, logging, etc.
Wild Sanctuary joins several other environmentally focused Google maps mash-ups, including one that teaches plate tectonics, another that tracks Orca whale sounds, and Greenpeace's map of human impact on the ocean.
Josh Lowensohn writes for Webware.com, CNET's blog about Web applications and services. E-mail Josh, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Josh. 
