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MIAMI, Fla. (Oct. 26, 2001) – TerraFly, a new
Internet-based software that makes it possible for users to “fly
over” vast land areas using only a ordinary web browser,
was unveiled today by researchers at Florida International University.
With potential markets ranging from the travel and real estate
industries to state and local governments, TerraFly has a potential
annual market of $1 billion, financial analysts working with the
project say. IBM and the U.S. Geological Survey recently contributed
nearly $10 million worth of computer hardware and data in the
development of TerraFly, raising total support for the groundbreaking
project to nearly $30 million.
“With the generous support of our industry partners, TerraFly
is now one of the largest, if not the largest, publicly accessible
databases on the web,” said Naphtali Rishe, Ph.D., principal
investigator on TerraFly and the director of FIU’s High-Performance
Database Research Center. “TerraFly now includes imagery
for the entire United States, and we’re excited about incorporating
additional areas around the world. The possible uses for this
technology are endless.”
Terrafly uses high-resolution imagery collected by the U.S. Geological
Survey. Unlike other computer systems over which such imagery
may be viewed, however, TerraFly interfaces with such web browsers
as Internet Explorer and Netscape, allowing virtually any user
to “fly” over imagery in whatever direction and at whatever
speed the user chooses.
What may be TerraFly’s most attractive
feature for commercial use, however, is that it allows for graphic
overlays, making it customizable for individual markets. Real
estate firms, for instance, might develop overlays that show potential
customers listed homes; the overlays could be further customized
to include asking price, tax information, interior photographs
of the home and other key details. Customers could have a much
stronger idea of what properties interest them before driving
to visit them, cutting down shopping time.
Those customizable elements make TerraFly an attractive technology
to license for market development, say financial experts working
with TerraFly who have estimated its annual worth to be as much
as $1 billion.
In addition to the $6.7 million in computer hardware and more
than $3 million in data recently donated by IBM and the USGS,
respectively, TerraFly has generated major support from both NASA
and the National Science Foundation.
“We are proud to participate in this technology project through
a cooperative research and development agreement,” said USGS
Deputy Director Kathryn Clement “We think this technology
has tremendous potential.”
“TerraFly is a wonderful example of the possibilities inherent
in our High Performance Database Research Center and of the cutting-edge
research being done at our university,” said FIU President
Modesto A. Maidique. “As FIU continues to mature into its
role as a national research university, TerraFly will be joined
by more and more inventions from our laboratories and researchers.
This is a proud day for this university.”
Founded in 1965, Florida International University is now one of
America’s leading public research universities. It is Florida’s
only public, urban university to hold both the Carnegie Foundation’s
top rating for research universities and a chapter of Phi Beta
Kappa. FIU conducted more than $61 million in sponsored studies
in 2000-01.
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