Touring the world in person is expensive, time-consuming, and often dangerous. And is it really that much different to playing with Google Earth on this gigantic 48 screen display that covers 40 square meters with almost 100 million pixels?


Like an ultra-modern version of the Orient Express, this installation lets you travel in comfort. Except that instead of a crowded train berth, your trip takes place inside the Paris Center for Architecture and Urbanism. The installation's powered by Google's Liquid Galaxy software which lets Google Earth spread across multiple displays, and is being used here to let the locals explore the improvements and new buildings being added to the city of lights over the next nine years.

The map is navigated using four multi-touch displays that allow visitors to pan and pinch to zoom in or out, and is enhanced with a sharper view of Paris thanks to higher resolution map imagery. And as far as Google knows, this is the largest display to ever show Google Earth. [Google via Ubergizmo]