Shin Ji Won reports
Editor: Peach Layan
【New Zhiyuan Guide】7 minutes around the world, or the kind sitting at home.
Travel the world, or the life that many people dream of.
Helplessly, as a migrant worker, how many people can really get what they want.
Surprisingly, Nils Bakker, a foreign brother, realized a "home" trip around the world.
I created a super cool "virtual space teleportation system" without spending a penny to the ends of the earth.
"Take me to the heart of the Netherlands", the time-space tunnel opens, and teleports to Utrecht, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands.
Next stop, Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany. Neuschwanstein Castle, located at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, is like a fairytale castle.
Experience the "Italian" national atmosphere of Rome.
Come to the largest amphitheater built in the Roman Empire and experience the charm of the Eternal City.
Enter the destination you want to go, GPT translates it into coordinates, and once Google Map is located, you can experience an immersive experience created by Google Photorealistic 3D + Unreal Engine.
This way, you can go anywhere in the world and enjoy the scenery from above!
Around the world in 7 minutes
Check it out at FC Barcelona in Spain.
The importance of FC Barcelona for Espanyol is self-evident, having won the Champions League five times so far.
Go to the majestic Grand Canyon of the United States.
Come to New York again and get up close to Donkey Kong's "Empire State Building". It has been named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineering.
The Tower Bridge across the River Thames is one of the most iconic bridges in the world.
Take me to see the best cities in France. AI instantly came to Toulouse, known as the "Pink City".
The Italian mountain range Pian del Re, is the highest mountain in the Cortienne Alps.
"Virtual Space Teleportation" system
Let's see how this little brother does it~
Just like Doraemon took out an arbitrary door from his belly pocket, the little brother also took three things from his "treasure chest".
These are: Unreal Engine 5.1, ChatGPT, and Google Maps 3D Tiles API.
In a blog, the little brother explained the whole process of relying on these three things to "self-made" any door.
It is worth mentioning that the whole process took only a week.
Google 3D tiles is a new product released by Google at the I/O conference, developers can directly obtain the same visual geographic images as Google Maps through the API.
It currently supports 2,500 cities in 45 countries.
Google 3D tiles overlays ChatGPT's API, and the guy successfully uses the virtual engine to create an immersive experience that makes the impossible possible.
Blueprints in the virtual engine are flexible and can seamlessly interface with ChatGPT's API, and users can enter prompts to get dynamic output.
Whenever the user enters a prompt, the system triggers a specific function.
The answer output by ChatGPT contains four parts: XY coordinates, city name, country, and a small science about the location.
Immediately afterwards, the generated data is turned into visual 3D text and placed in the "real world". Just like this ↓
The next step is to talk about what this "real world" means.
How can you make the real world more vivid and geolocation data more accurate?
This requires the use of Google Maps' API.
The brother used the Cesium platform and the virtual engine to throw the XY coordinate information into the Google Maps API to obtain geographic location data. Then use this geolocation data to get a 3D view.
After collecting geolocation and geometry data, the 3D view is loaded into a specific location, which seamlessly "teleports" the user to a new location.
In order to make the "teleportation" process seem smoother, the little brother applied the Niagara particle system to create a teleportation mechanism.
Is there a bit of an alien chase that sucks people away? (Or maybe the kind of beam of light that shuttles between the stars)
Of course, in order to further make the teleportation process realistic, the user cannot run underground or float in the air after teleportation.
This is because the height of the ground is not the same around the world, and if it is just a simple translation, it may be molded.
So the little brother added a step, ground collision checking, so that the user can teleport to the appropriate position every time.
There is one more small detail here. Following the normal train of thought, I want to teleport to point A, and I will land in the very center of point A.
This created a problem, which Su Shi had pointed out a long time ago - I didn't know the true face of Lushan Mountain, but I was in this mountain.
This means that I am in the center of point A, and I can't see all of A.
So the little brother put the user's real transmission position at the back of point A, so that you can see the overall situation of point A.
The details always bring tears to your eyes.
Of course, how can a little brother with a freak of details forget the time and weather system.
However, he said in a blog post that currently only a random value can be generated as a time when transmitting. The original plan was indeed to get the actual local time and weather conditions from another API.
However, limited by some factors, this function can only be implemented in the future.
6 months of traveling around the world, handed over to ChatGPT
Sitting at home and traveling the world, dare not dare, give 6 months of your life to ChatGPT.
Foreign travel expert Michael Motamedi did just that.
He is using ChatGPT to support the chat tool to plan a 6-month global trip for his family.
In the past, Motamedi and his wife, Vanessa Salas, used to spend days, if not weeks, researching travel plans for them and their 18-month-old daughter.
But on Wednesday, they used an AI chatbot to decide on their next destination within one hour: Morocco.
Over the next 6 months, Motamedi will hand over control of the family's round-the-world travel to artificial intelligence.
Motamedi said, "We are entering uncharted territory. Because we really put our lives in the hands of AI, we are like guinea pigs of the world."
"I can't explain to you how nervous I am about this. When you don't make decisions, it makes people nervous."
Some netizens said, you are really brave! To be honest, the thought of AI controlling everything is a little scary.
Motamedi, who uses GuideGeek, an app based on OpenAI's ChatGPT technology that offers customized travel recommendations based on users' specific needs and interests.
After living in a new country for a month, Motamedi asked GuideGeek "where to travel next."
GuideGeek gives a recommendation based on personal interests, such as beautiful beaches, interesting architecture, and delicious food.
"When we're in Morocco, we pick the next place," Motamedi said. I don't know where I'll end my trip in July, it's just crazy."
Motamedi and Salas tested the technology in April while using GuideGeek to plan a date night in Mexico City. The AI recommends local bars, drinks, and historical information.
Although Motamedi is confident in the new technology, he is still "terrified" of having the robot plan for the next 6 months of family life.
Chatbots based on LLM like ChatGPT often create "hallucinations" or fabricate false information.
When important decisions are made based on this misinformation, it is bound to have real-life implications.
In response, Motamedi said that he does not intend to blindly follow the advice of the AI and occasionally fact-check the results.
Traveling around the world with ChatGPT is truly exciting and scary.
Resources:
nilsbakker.nl/portfolio/3d-tiles/
https://www.businessinsider.com/family-letting-ai-chatbot-plan-trip-around-the-world-2023-5