Press Release London, 7th March 2007 The Technology Behind Honda's New Formula One Vision When the Honda Racing F1 Team decided to re-brand their race cars with a beautiful image of the Earth for the 2007 grand prix season, they turned to a small team of British experts - Planetary Visions of London - who've been making satellite imagery available and understandable to the public for more than a decade. The most advanced technology goes into the design of a modern Formula One car, and the technology behind the car's new colour scheme is no less impressive. Honda unveiled their new look at London's Natural History Museum last Monday 26th February. The Earth image had to cover a four metre-long racing car from nose to tail and yet be detailed enough to look good in close-ups of the driver's cockpit. A picture like this can't just be taken as a single photo, but Planetary Visions' satellite image specialists had a solution - a detailed map of the Earth's surface built up from thousands of individual pictures taken by a network of Earth-orbiting satellites. The map uses images taken over a number of years to clear clouds and match colours, resulting in a seamless global mosaic of more than 900 million pixels (2.3 gigabytes) that can be printed out over 12 feet wide at 300 dpi. This is the view that is central to Honda's groundbreaking new racing livery and its associated website (www.myearthdream.com). The first race of the 2007 Formula One season is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on 18th March. The Honda Racing F1 Team hopes its stunning new colours will promote environmental awareness and responsibility. Planetary Visions is well equipped to help achieve this aim, having spent the last 15 years making the environmental changes measured from space visible to the public in books, CD-ROMs, tv documentaries and exhibitions. Click here for pictures to go with this story For further information follow these links: http://www.planetaryvisions.com/satmap/satmap.htm http://www.hondaracingf1.com/en http://www.myearthdream.com For more information about Planetary Visions' work with satellite imagery and environmental change, please contact: Andrew Wayne on +44 (0)20 7679 2093 awayne@ge.ucl.ac.uk Planetary Visions Limited www.planetaryvisions.com Note to Editors Planetary Visions is a small UK company specialising in the production of high-quality computer graphics from satellite imagery and geographic data. Established in 1992 by former researchers at University College London, Planetary Visions still works closely with UCL's Department of Geomatic Engineering. Planetary Visions' clients include publishers such as Dorling Kindersley and National Geographic, broadcasters such as the BBC and Discovery Channel, and exhibition venues such as London's Natural History Museum, Toronto's CN Tower and the Kunsthalle in Bonn. Planetary Visions' satellite images have been seen in tv programmes across a range of genres (Horizon, Channel Four News, Torchwood, The X Factor, National Lottery), in books (Great World Atlas, Earth, Ocean) and educational CD-ROMs (3D Atlas, National Geographic 3D Globe, Interactive Atlas of the UK). The latest book to feature Planetary Visions work is Map:Satellite, published next month by Dorling Kindersley.