Google Earth’s street view
Google Earth logo
Have you ever seen Google earth. If you have then you would probably remember one of its best feature, the street view. Google’s street view has amazed many users with their 360 degree panoramic view of the world. This led way to people getting glimpses of places far away and close to you.
Google has always had a mission to make the world accessible and viewable to all, and this mission blew out when they first introduced street view in 2007, to give users a glimpse into what places all around the world looks like, anywhere from the Statue of liberty to random streets near your house, all in 360 degree panorama. But how are they able to capture images of so many places?
The initial idea was to keep special cameras on top of cars and drive through as much as places they can, and inserting those mages into google Earth app. To start off, Google first worked with a company called as Immersive media to create a 12 sided camera that can shoot images of places from all sides, as opposed to using clunky prototypes that were big and hard for the drivers of the car to carry and maintain.
But shortly after, google started creating their own models of specal camera which looked like small spheres with lenses on all sides of the outer layer. This was attached to the top of the car with a special mount.
This allowed Google to capture 360 degree views of both streets and landmarks, as the vehicle was in motion. This camera also did not possess any moving parts, to make it more reliable and less likely to be exposed to wear and tear. This was nessessary because google was not only taking pictures of Random streets, but they also captured places like The Sahara desert and other places that features extreme climate conditions
These cameras also contained lasers to scan the environment around it and create 3D models that allow people using street view to double click to show that particular place accurately.
After these cameras take several picture of the environment, these pictures are stitched together to create a panoramic view of the place that it shot, and you can scroll around in all directions to see in street view, even though it is a reliable way of seeing images and most shots turned out great, also you may see occasional instances where the stitching did not turn out as intended, like person who were in the edge of the picture would appear half cut and glitehed out. But it is usually decent.
Despite all these minor hiccup situations, google’s street view has always been upadting itself by possessing new cameras and its footprint around the Earth by giving street views on more places. By the next few decades google is said to complete shooting all the major main roads of all the places. But still it is a long way to go, so lets cheer google!
Currently Google not only has a standard fleet of cars, but also many unusual transports to capture unusual places. Google hired a few camels and fixed them their special 360 camera to capture places like the Sahara desert. And to capture cold and snowy places they have their Google Earth edition of snow mobiles to capture it, they have used it already to capture events of the Winter Olympic Games. They also have a special backpacks with cameras to shoot hard to reach places like stadiums, and they have use a trolley to capture places like museums and internal environment. They also use try-cycles to capture narrow roads. And finally they also get help from the users, I.e Users themselves can upload panoramic photos to google earth as a contribution.
Due to the versatile camera they have been able to add more and more street views to google Earth every year, although the project started off to get 3D views of major Landmarks, monuments and other Urban places, Google has able to spread its roots to many places since 2007, and google has street views of places that cover over 100 countries.
Google Earth’s street view is also compatible with Google cardboard (google’s Vr headsets), allowing users to have an immersive experience the view of famous landmarks around the world while sitting at your home.
Google cardboard VR headset
So knowing that the app is totally free and has a lot of features, what’s holding you aback? What are you waiting for? Check it out and get your daily dose of immersive experience of monuments around the world. Till then I am Raghunath B And this is tech passion, signing off
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