Axel Schmidt & Joachim Sauter: Pioneers Before Google Earth

If I say "Google Earth," you probably think of virtually flying over the planet, exploring from your neighborhood to Antarctica with just a few clicks. But did you know this idea didn't originate at Google? In fact, a group of Germans had already created it in the '90s, and their story is worthy of a movie about hackers, lawsuits, and technology ahead of its time.

So get comfortable, because I'm going to tell you the story of Terravision, the Google Earth before Google Earth.

An Idea That Came Too Early

It was the '90s, when the internet still sounded like a screeching modem and computers had less power than your current phone. In this context, a group of German developers from the company ART+COM, led by Axel Schmidt and Joachim Sauter, began working on a revolutionary project: creating a system to visualize satellite images in 3D and explore the world digitally.

Sound familiar? Of course, it's practically the description of Google Earth.

With a team of engineers, artists, and mathematicians, ART+COM developed Terravision, a software that allowed users to navigate the planet using satellite images and 3D models, all in real-time (well, more or less, considering the speed of the '90s). The idea was so advanced that it impressed anyone who saw it.

The Technical Part (for Those Who Love Code)

To achieve this, the developers at ART+COM had to solve a huge problem: how to render images of the planet in real-time without causing a computer to crash?

This is where they got creative. They used quadtree techniques (hierarchical data structures to divide images into smaller parts), allowing them to load only the necessary data at each zoom level. They also utilized geospatial data servers to store and transmit images as the user navigated the map.

Basically, they solved a problem that Google would tackle many years later, but without the massive infrastructure of the Big G, using a Silicon Graphics (SGI) Onyx workstation.

Why did they use an SGI Onyx?

At that time, Silicon Graphics was the benchmark in advanced computer graphics. These machines were used in movie special effects, scientific simulations, and 3D modeling. The SGI Onyx had:

✅ MIPS RISC processors, which were super powerful for graphic calculations.
✅ Advanced graphics hardware with real-time rendering capabilities.
✅ Support for OpenGL, which made it easier to manipulate 3D models.

ART+COM used this machine to process and visualize satellite data in 3D, allowing for interactive navigation of the world in Terravision, something that seemed like science fiction in the '90s.

If you want a comparison, the SGI Onyx was like the "gaming PC" of the '90s, but instead of playing Doom, it was used to simulate planet Earth. 🌍😆

The Problem: When You Have the Right Idea, but in the Wrong Decade

The big problem with Terravision wasn't the technology, but the timing. In the '90s, internet connections were slow, servers were expensive, and personal computers weren't ready to handle something so ambitious. So, even though the project was amazing, it couldn't take off as it deserved.

And this is where the story takes an unexpected turn...

Google Enters the Scene

Years later, in the 2000s, a small project called Keyhole, Inc. developed something very similar to Terravision. Google bought it in 2004, refined it, and launched it as… you guessed it: Google Earth.

The ART+COM team saw this and couldn't help but wonder: wait… did they copy us?

Photo: Creators of Terravision in 1994. From left to right:Axel Schmidt, Joachim Sauter, Gerd Grüneis, Pavel Mayer. To the right, Andreas Bläse from Deutsche Telekom

The Legal Battle Against Google

In 2014, ART+COM sued Google for patent infringement, claiming their idea had been used without acknowledgment or compensation. The lawsuit focused on the Terravision patent, which described exactly what Google Earth did: displaying satellite images in a scalable and navigable way.

But of course, fighting Google in court is like facing a final boss with 99 lives and all the money in the world. Google argued that their technology had key differences and, in 2017, the court ruled in their favor.

ART+COM lost the lawsuit and, with it, any hope of gaining recognition or compensation for their innovation.

The Legacy of Terravision

Although ART+COM didn't win in court, their story showed something important: it's not always the one with the best idea who wins, but the one who arrives at the right time with the right resources.

Terravision was a vision ahead of its time. Its creators imagined something the world wasn't ready to receive, and when it finally was, others took the lead.

Today, the story of Terravision is remembered as an example of how innovation sometimes needs more than just creativity: it needs the perfect ecosystem to thrive.

So next time you use Google Earth to spy on your own house from space, remember that, in another timeline, you might be using Terravision.

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🎬 Watch the Story on Netflix

If you're curious to see how this tech drama unfolded, don't miss "The Code of Discord" on Netflix. It's not just an amazing series, but its soundtrack takes you straight back to the '90s and 2000s. 🔥🎶