The British Library Sounds on Google Maps

The British Library Sound Maps is a nice collection of Google Maps featuring audio recordings in a number of different categories.

Users can explore traditional music on the Music from India and Traditional English Music maps. The Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust map features a number of first hand oral accounts from survivors of the Holocaust.

The British Library collection also includes sound maps of wildlife recordings and British regional accents and dialects.

In addition The British Library is currently working with the BBC on the Listening Project. The Listening Project is attempting to build a unique picture of life today by recording intimate conversations between close friends and relatives throughout the UK.

Sound Pollution on Google Maps

AirCasting is a platform for recording, mapping, and sharing environmental data using your smartphone. Currently, AirCasters can upload sound level data recorded by an Android app.

AirCasting currently maps noise levels but there are plans to expand the range of devices that plug into the AirCasting platform to include pollution sensors. Currently the AirCasting smartphone app lets you capture real-world sound measurements, annotate the data and share it on a Google Map.

You can view an example of AirCasting in action on this Times Square to Central Park map. The map shows the noise levels recorded on a walk up 7th Ave from Times Sqaure. Using the map you can see how noise levels are very high in Times Square and again at 57th Street before dropping almost immediately upon entering Central Park.

A Google Map of Desire in Austin

Mapping Desire was created as part of a collaboration by graduate and undergraduate students from the the University of Texas.

Participants in the project were asked whether they had experienced desire within a one-mile radius of the Blanton Museum. The answers were recorded and have been plotted on this Google Map of Austin. You can click on any of the map markers to hear the audio response of how a student was aroused at each location.

I like the non-standard presentation of the Google Map on this application, creating curved edges to the map.

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Audio Tours on Google Maps

Geotrio is creating a world-wide library of mapped audio tours that can be accessed from smart phones and desktop computers. Using Geotrio users can create, browse and share digital audio tours for any location in the world.

Each uploaded tour includes a Google Map of the audio tour. The map includes markers for each stop and each stop contains an audio commentary of what you can see at that location.

Geotrio is available as a free iPhone app so you can listen to the audio tours whilst actually walking the route of the tour. If you are more of an armchair tourist or you are interested in listening about locations that you can't visit you can also access the tours from your desktop computer.

Geotrio

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New York's Music Taste on Google Maps

What Song Are You Listening to NYC?

Tyler Cullen, a student film-maker at the School of Visual Arts, created an interesting video of New Yorkers answering the question "What song are you listening to?"

Whatsongnyc were so inspired by the concept that they have travelled around New York and asked the same questions at a number of locations. They have now embedded the videos from each location on a Google Map.

Using the map you can find out what people are listening to at Grand Central Station or at Times Square. If you click on a location you can play the video from that location directly on the map.

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Welcome to the Sounds of Galicia

Escoitar

Escoitar is a collaborative sound map for the Galician region in north-west Spain. Using the map it is possible to listen to the waves washing against the shore in Gijon, the ringing of the church bells in Trives and the ambient hustle and bustle of Ourense at night.

There is something particularly evocative about sound maps. Different categories of sound are displayed on this map with coloured map markers. The categories include nature, mechanical, people and religion.

Other Sound Maps

• Open Sound New Orleans - New Orleans sound map
• Tactical Sound Garden - Tactical Sound Garden has created 'sound gardens' in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, San Diego, CA and Zurich, Switzerland.
• Radio Aporee - Sounds recorded around the world and presented on a Google Map.
• Montreal Sound Map - Sounds from Montreal
  
• Map Your Voice - Map of accents around the world

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Location Based Stories on Google Maps

Broadcastr

Broadcastr has created iPhone and Android applications that allow users to record geotagged audio stories. The recorded stories can then be browsed on a Google Map on the Broadcastr website.

Using the apps users can post audio restaurant reviews, oral histories, guided walks or any other sound recording. The Google Map on Broadcastr provides a great means to browse the submitted recordings. It is possible to browse the postings by location or by category.

If you click on a map marker you can listen to the recording directly from the map. It is possible to create a playlist from your favourite users or from featured recordings and the map will automatically play the entire playlist.

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A Google Maps Hangover Cure

HMSG Spiral Map

You might want to save this sound map for tomorrow when you are a little hungover. The Hudson Mohawk Sound Gate Spiral Map is a virtual walk around the Capital District of New York featuring sound and video. And it could just be the perfect ambient mood shift that you will need after your exertions tonight on New Year's Eve.

For the project one minute videos and sound recordings were made at a number of locations. Each recording is synced to the relevant location on a Google Map. Once the application has loaded all you need to do is press play. You can then sit back and watch and listen as you are taken on a spiral path through New York's Capital District.

Sublime!

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Regional Accents on Google Maps

Map Your Voice

The British Library has created a Google Map to record and map English accents around the world.

The British Library are asking people all over the world to read and record the children's story 'Mr. Tickle' by Roger Hargreaves. The story has been chosen for the range of English sounds it contains when read out loud.

You can listen to the recordings already made by clicking on the map markers on the map and pressing play on the embedded audio player.

This isn't the first sound map produced by The British Library. The UK SoundMap is a Google Map of soundscapes captured around the UK.

Via: ReadWriteWeb

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World Pronunciations on Google Maps

Forvo

I bet you always wished you knew how different people around the world pronounce 'antidisestablishmentarianism'. Well, thankfully, now the wait is over. Forvo is the largest pronunciation guide in the world. Forvo has over a half a million oral pronunciations of words recorded by people all over the world.

If you have ever wondered how a word is pronounced in different parts of the world you can now just type that word into Forvo. Forvo then displays a Google Map showing you all the available recorded pronunciations of the world and where they were recorded.

So if you want to know how an Englishmen says 'Google Maps' just type it into Forvo and select the appropriate map marker from the map.

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The Sounds of Seoul on Google Maps

Sound@Media

Here's a nice start to the week. Take a leisurely virtual stroll around Seoul listening to the street sounds of the South Korean capital.

Sound@Media is a Google Maps based sound map. Users of the map can listen to the everyday sounds of the streets of Seoul directly from the map. The markers on the map show the location where the sounds were recorded.

If you live in Seoul and you want to add your own sound recordings you can do so using Audioboo.

Other Sound Maps

• Tactical Sound Garden - Tactical Sound Garden has created 'sound gardens' in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, San Diego, CA and Zurich, Switzerland.
• Radio Aporee - Sounds recorded around the world and presented on a Google Map.
• Montreal Sound Map - Sounds from Montreal
• Open Sound New Orleans

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That New Orleans Sound on Google Maps

Open Sound New Orleans

The Open Sound New Orleans map is an amazing gateway to the wonderful music and sounds of New Orleans. It allows you to take a virtual walk around New Orleans, stop at the Cafe du Monde and listen to the amazing tunes of two street musicians. Alternatively you could head up to Mithra Street and catch a couple of rappers in action.

Open Sound New Orleans is a community media project that is getting New Orleanians to document their lives in sound. Participants are asked to record the important sounds and voices in their lives and add them to a Google Map of New Orleans sounds.

The project lends recording equipment, and offers training in its use, to community organisations, neighbourhood groups and individuals. The sounds recorded are then added to the map and can be shared, reused and adapted by others.

The sounds on the New Orleans sound map are categorised into 'ambient sounds', 'music sounds' and 'all voice sounds' and it is possible to view the map markers altogether or separately on the map.

Via: @geoparadigm

Other Sound Maps

• Tactical Sound Garden - Tactical Sound Garden has created 'sound gardens' in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, San Diego, CA and Zurich, Switzerland.
• Radio Aporee - Sounds recorded around the world and presented on a Google Map.
• Montreal Sound Map - Sounds from Montreal

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Creating Sound Gardens with Google Maps

Tactical Sound Garden

The Tactical Sound Garden [TSG] Toolkit is "an open source software platform for cultivating public 'sound gardens' within contemporary cities". In other words the Tactical Sound Garden allows anyone to create a Google Map of sounds in areas that have WiFi so that people with a WiFi enabled mobile device can then listen to the created soundscape when they are nearby.

Users of the Tactical Sound Garden [TSG] Toolkit can 'plant' sounds at a particular location. Then anyone with a WiFi enabled device can walk though the created virtual sound garden listening to the uploaded sounds.

Currently there are sound gardens in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, San Diego, CA and Zurich, Switzerland.

Hat-tip: @geoparadigm

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Sounds from the Street on Google Maps

StreetSounds

In July the Google Maps API for Flash introduced the Map3D object which allowed developers to present a 3D view within Google Maps mashups. Surprisingly I haven't seen many maps that have used the new 3D perspective. StreetSounds is the first mashup I have seen for while that has used the Map3D object and to do so to such good effect.

The StreetSounds map is an interactive tool for sharing and listening to sounds from all across the United States. The map allows users to upload sounds and discover sounds you have never heard before. Using the map you can listen to the sound of places you've not visited or relive memories from those you have. The sounds range from a Berkeley student demonstration and a bustling intersection to an arguing couple and a band rehearsing.

As well as the StreetSounds map a competition is also set to be launced, challenging film makers to create films based on the sonic landscapes of cities. The films must use at least three sounds from the Sound Map and be 3:00 min or less in length.

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UMapper now in Stereo

UMapper

Google Maps creation tool UMapper has this week unveiled a new feature that allows you to add sound to your maps.



This new feature means that you can now use UMapper to create new types of maps, such as audio tours of locations or world music maps.

Other Sound Maps

• Woices - a worldwide sound map
• Sound Seeker Google Map - A map of sounds from around NYC
• Puget Soundscape - A map of recorded whale sounds
• Terrasound - 'soundwalks' in Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland and California
• GeoGraffiti - a 'free verbal message board'
• MyVox - add your own voice to Google Maps
• Montreal Sound Map -the sounds of Montreal
• Radio Aporee - A German site that has recorded a number of walks

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Add Your Voice to Google Maps

GeoGraffiti

GeoGraffiti is a mobile phone service that enables any caller to publish a voice message that 'marks' a real-world place. This could be a review of a restaurant or shop or just your opinion of your local park.

There are GeoGraffiti applications available for the iPhone and Google Android powered phones but the service will work from any phone. Alternatively you can use GoeGraffiti's online Google Maps ‘mashup’ to record and publish your voice message to the world. You can also use the Google Map to browse through other users' recorded audio marks.

GeoGraffiti have also produced a FaceBook application that displays a notice item in your News Feed each time a friend publishes or responds to a voice mark.


Previously Reviewed Sound Maps

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Exploring Sydney's History on Google Maps

Sydney Sidetracks


The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has used its extensive archives to produce this stunning interactive map exploring the history of Sydney's inner-city streets. Working with the National Film and Sound Archive, the Powerhouse Museum, the City of Sydney, the Dictionary of Sydney, the State Library on NSW and the Museum of Contemporary Art, ABC have been able to create a history map full of audio, video and photographic records of Sydney's past.

Each marker on the map offers a selection of audio, video or photographic evidence about that location's past. It enables the user to explore the history of Sydney - where it actually happened.

That on it's own would make this site an invaluable resource for those interested in Sydney's history but the site also has a mobile service, so you can view historical information about the city whilst actually walking on the very streets, and a download section, so you can download audio and video to view on your mobile or handheld player whilst you walk about Sydney.

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Listening to Walks on Google Maps

Radio Aporee

Radio Aporee is a nicely presented sound map from Germany that has already mapped 3491 recordings.

To listen to a recording it is possible to search the map by location or you can just use the I feel lucky option and listen to random recordings. To add a sound you just need to click on the map and upload a recording.

Radio Aporee also have a number of walks recorded. These take you through a number of sounds that can be heard on a particular walk. After one sound has played the map then animates to the next recording. I recommend taking a walk through the Stadtgarten.

Other Sound Maps

• Woices - a worldwide sound map
• Sound Seeker Google Map - A map of sounds from around NYC
• Puget Soundscape - A map of recorded whale sounds
• Terrasound - 'soundwalks' in Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland and California
• GeoGraffiti - a 'free verbal message board'
• MyVox - add your own voice to Google Maps
• Montreal Sound Map -the sounds of Montreal
  

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Google Maps Sounding Off

Montreal Sound Map

With the Montreal Sound Map you can listen to the sound of the stream on Queen Mary Street or the sound of the traffic on the Rue De l'Esplanade. The aim of the Montréal Sound Map is to create a database archive of sound recordings from all over Montréal and anyone in Montreal can submit their own recordings.

All the submissions are placed into a browsable tagging system based on the sound source, the location (borough, neighbourhood, municipality), the date (time of day, month, day of week, year, season), the environment (park, metro, indoors, outdoors, etc…) and the recording equipment used (recording device, microphone, etc…).

All recordings are tagged on a Google Map and listed in the map sidebar. It is possible to listen to the sounds directly from the map marker.

Other Sound Maps

• Woices - a worldwide sound map
• Sound Seeker Google Map - A map of sounds from around NYC
• Puget Soundscape - A map of recorded whale sounds
• Terrasound - 'soundwalks' in Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland and California
• GeoGraffiti - a 'free verbal message board'
• MyVox - add your own voice to Google Maps

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Google Maps Out Loud

Woices

Woices is a free internet service that allows people to create, share and consume audio records which are linked to specific geographical locations. Each audio record created is displayed on, and can be accessed via, a Google Map.

Anyone can add an audio record about anything they want, from history, art or curiosities to personal memories, advice or even poems. Users can record an audio record very easily without the need of any third-party software. Alternatively, they can upload mp3 files.

To listen to the audio records users can use the web, download them as mp3 files or listen to them through an internet enabled mobile phone.

Other features of Woices include walks and user groups. But don't take my word - listen to this audio introduction of Woices:

Other Sound Maps

• Sound Seeker Google Map - A map of sounds from around NYC
• Puget Soundscape - A map of recorded whale sounds
• Terrasound - 'soundwalks' in Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland and California
• GeoGraffiti - a 'free verbal message board'
• MyVox - add your own voice to Google Maps
  

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