Google Maps zoom: here's the device and vehicle behind it

[marvins_dad]

I've been following this since it debuted yesterday.

Google Maps now has a cool new feature!
Bill will think it is cool that I had to try it out and find Pinks at Miami Beach to try the new system out!

Your friends have undoubtedly been clogging up your in-box with funny pictures from Google Maps Street View, but do you know how those pictures were taken? You do now. Google licensed shots from Immersive Media, a company that specializes in 360-degree videos, in order to fill out their coverage in cities like NYC.

As you can see, IM mounts a 11-camera contraption on top of their vehicle as they drive in order to capture the 360-degree view you get on Google Maps. One thing to note, however, is that Google's San Francisco shots look a lot more detailed than their NYC shots. That's because Google took their own van out to take the SF pics. – Jason Chen

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/office-vo...era-264972.php


http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/software/...aps-264394.php

Now you can click on a street in Google Maps and you're virtually there. Street View, a limited feature that could be called experimental because of the paucity of cities available, was just rolled out by Google a few hours ago. But that lack of imagery doesn't make this any less cool. Click the Street View button on the top, select one of the camera icons then you can do a virtual walk around that city.

It doesn't give you that virtual race car that you get with Microsoft's Live Search Maps, but you do have the ability to get a full 360-degree view of wherever you're standing, and then you can zoom in on any point within that view. It's also great to go full screen, and it almost feels like you're there. What's the catch? Take the jump to find out, and to see a video showing the new features.

There are only parts of five cities (San Francisco, New York, Denver, Las Vegas and Miami) that have imagery available. Now as soon as they can gather imagery for the entire world, this will be an indispensable tool. Imagine if someone crammed all that data into a GPS system. Keep in mind, though, a database is only as powerful as the information within. – Charlie White

And the kicker is - the car is a BEETLE!

[noR]

NEAT

Engadget posted this image, saying it was one of the vehicles, maybe this is the one that did San Francisco. I did notice better resolution there:

[noR]

I'm so gonna go look for beetle reflections in NY now.

[neko]

And it takes pictures of other NBs, to find this I started from the one posted by noR and kept kicking on the road. Cool I wonder how many NB they pictured.

[Beetlemania]

The camera looks like the remote device that Luke studied lightsaber training with!

[marvins_dad]

LOL it does!

[marvins_dad]

Originally Posted by noR

NEAT

Engadget posted this image, saying it was one of the vehicles, maybe this is the one that did San Francisco. I did notice better resolution there:

Looks like Engadget is now running this story as well....
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/31/c...-scanning-car/

Check out the Immersive Media street-scanning car

Posted May 31st 2007 10:09PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Digital Cameras, Transportation

It looks like Immersive Media wanted to remove all doubt about what that street-traversing fleet of theirs really looks like. There's obviously more than one vehicle scanning in streets across the US, but now you know what to look out for -- and you little punks in the audience now realize just how tantalizing a target that little 11 camera orb on the roof really happens to be.

With the stock picture of the Beetle.

[niki]

How cool!

There are eyes on us evrywhere! I can hear it already... some wife finds her husband's car while playing around on this machine. He was in Vegas, without her, but with her best friend!

[JGC843]

That hood is awesome.

[davetaylor]

i saw one of these a couple of years ago on i-65s on the way to nashville and it was a mk3 jetta. it had waaaaaaay more stuff on it and it definitely looked like a ufo. lots of screens and such on the inside, and what seemed like a forest of antennas on the outside. i should've taken a picture. i'm not sure why i didn't.

[digitalputty]

We use this tool at work all the time to see how things look when modeling/texturing them. I saw that hte car was a NB in the reflection for the toll booth on the Doyle Drive for the SF golden gate bridge. . hehe. sweet.

[shellbug]

I just looked up my brother's house on it and it had my brother getting out of his car in front of his house!

[TechnoTrix'd]

Originally Posted by shellbug

I just looked up my brother's house on it and it had my brother getting out of his car in front of his house!

Pop this address into it: 3548 Edgewater Ln, Brookhaven, PA 19015

I can't believe the coincidence, couldn't have paid money to plan it this way.

We had just gotten back from a trip in the RV, and I was taking my oldest to a soccer practice.

The vehicle got the two of us getting into the Bug!

Plus, they got me in a "Sasquatch" pose..

Crazy....

Side note, it appears that they used a lower resolution to capture the "neighborhood" pictures verse the primary roads. Our image is very grainy, and when you zoom in, it does not get any clearer.

[digitalputty]

It shouldn't get any clearer. It is like blowing up an image ... gets worse. :P

Anyone tried maps.live.com .... It has some spiffy stuff in it too. 3D buildings and treeeeeeeeeeeeees.

The Denver Art Museum (yes it is shaped like that)


Where I used to live (the building with the star)


Where I work now (the tall dark building)


Where I live now (the windows surrounded by red, those are mine)


Denver with some trees

[raff]

Are the trees real - or did you photoshop them?

[digitalputty]

The trees are neither ... they are 3D in MSN Maps.

[marvins_dad]

Originally Posted by TechnoTrix'd

Pop this address into it: 3548 Edgewater Ln, Brookhaven, PA 19015

I can't believe the coincidence, couldn't have paid money to plan it this way.

We had just gotten back from a trip in the RV, and I was taking my oldest to a soccer practice.

The vehicle got the two of us getting into the Bug!

Plus, they got me in a "Sasquatch" pose..

Crazy....

Side note, it appears that they used a lower resolution to capture the "neighborhood" pictures verse the primary roads. Our image is very grainy, and when you zoom in, it does not get any clearer.

That's pretty funny!

[KimonoSkunk]

I know this is an OLD post, but I just stumbled on it.
Techno, I lived and grew up one town over from you in Parkside.
I now live in Phoenixville, but do try to come back when I can with the wife and daughter to visit family.
GREAT chanve pic there...

Kimmyskunk

Originally Posted by TechnoTrix'd

Pop this address into it: 3548 Edgewater Ln, Brookhaven, PA 19015

I can't believe the coincidence, couldn't have paid money to plan it this way.

We had just gotten back from a trip in the RV, and I was taking my oldest to a soccer practice.

The vehicle got the two of us getting into the Bug!

Plus, they got me in a "Sasquatch" pose..

Crazy....

Side note, it appears that they used a lower resolution to capture the "neighborhood" pictures verse the primary roads. Our image is very grainy, and when you zoom in, it does not get any clearer.