Tag Archives: street view

Google mapping out Canada’s Nunavut territory with local community, Street View trike

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Google mapping out Canada's Nunavut territory with local community, Street View trike

Looking for somewhere remote, quiet and cold for retirement? You can't get much further out than Cambridge Bay -- hidden away in Canada's arctic Nunavut territory, this sleepy town is only reachable by plane, boat or Google Maps. Navigating its streets on the latter option is about to get a whole lot more detailed, too. The Maps team has started working with residents like Chris Kalluk to build what it hopes will be the most comprehensive map of the region to date. Mountain View's digital cartographers are training residents to use equipment like the Street View tricycle to take in the isolated territory's natural beauty while letting locals fill in the finer details (like roads, lakes and rivers) at community Map Up gatherings. "This is a place with a vast amount of local knowledge and a rich history," says Kalluk. "By putting these tools in the hands of our people, we will tell Nunavut's story to the world." Fittingly, the community's first mapping event saw local landmarks mapped out in both English and Inuktitut, one of the territory's official languages. Check the project out for yourself at the source link below.

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Google mapping out Canada's Nunavut territory with local community, Street View trike originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 10:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Street View expands to cover swaths of Brazil and Mexican ruins, won’t substitute for a vacation

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Google Street View expands to cover wide swaths of Brazil and Mexican ruins, won't substitute for a vacation

For a country that dominates the Latin American landscape, Brazil hasn't had much of a presence in Google Street View outside of major cities like Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo. A fresh update to Street View coverage has just gone live that fleshes out the the more far-flung corners of the map. It's now possible to see what it's like on the ground in much of the southern tip of the country as well as the northern coastline. Further north, Mexicans get their own treat: Google is now providing the panoramic views for ancient ruins such as Chichen Itza and Teotihuacan, just in case you'd rather not try to blend in with all the other tourists. The widened reach is undoubtedly no match for booking a flight and visiting in person, but it will save you the trouble of brushing up on your Portugese or ancient Mayan.

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Google Street View expands to cover swaths of Brazil and Mexican ruins, won't substitute for a vacation originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 13:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google takes one giant leap: now lets you Street View the Kennedy Space Center

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Google takes one giant leap: now lets you Street View the Kennedy Space Center

Today's a stupendous day for lovers of the one and only National Aeronautics Space Administration -- nearly half as great as when we took you inside Kennedy Space Center shortly after it had opened its fascinating doors to the public. At any rate, Google announced earlier that its captivating (and sometimes troubling) Street View technology had made its way into NASA's KSC, allowing people to check out what the compound is all about and what sort of sensational machinery lies inside. With Mountain View's doings, you can now find your way around different spots within the Space Center, including the Launch Firing Room, Vehicle Assembly Building and, as seen above, the Space Shuttle Launch Pad. There's a video past the break if you're interested in a quick preview, otherwise you can give it a go yourself by clicking the more coverage link below.

Continue reading Google takes one giant leap: now lets you Street View the Kennedy Space Center

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Google takes one giant leap: now lets you Street View the Kennedy Space Center originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Street View goes retro with unofficial ASCII treatment

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Google Street View goes retro with unofficial ASCII treatment

Nostalgia is a powerful force. It's driven some to search Google through a Bulletin Board System-like interface or, in the case of programmer Peter Nitsch, it's compelled him to graft ASCII art onto the physical world. Simply plug an address into his project's website and you'll be able to pan through an ASCII facsimile of a real-world Street View vista. Leveraging WebGL and Javascript, the system samples the search giant's images and generates text art using the appropriate characters and hues. Nitsch's fondness for retro visualizations don't end there, however, he also created a system that superimposes a gaggle of characters in the wake of a physical paintbrush using a Kinect and a projector. Built as a plugin for the openFrameworks toolkit, the code relies on a GPU for the real-time image conversion and is freely available for tinkering. Hit the source link below to see the modified Street View in action or head past the break for a video of the ASCII painting. For some of the technical nitty-gritty, tap the more coverage link.

Continue reading Google Street View goes retro with unofficial ASCII treatment

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Google Street View goes retro with unofficial ASCII treatment originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 06:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASCII Street View: Look at the Matrix

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Here’s a fun and trippy hack made by programmer Peter Nitsch. Nitsch’s website converts feed from Google’s Street View to ASCII art in real time. You can also search for locations, just like in the vanilla web app. And yep, it has a “green mode.”

ascii street view by peter nitsch

Here’s a closer look at that shot:

ascii street view by peter nitsch 2

And here’s the Matrix mode:

ascii street view by peter nitsch 3

You really should see it for yourself. Nitsch recommends using Chrome or Firefox 8 and above. The characters change as the view slowly pans. It’s like looking at the world from the point of view of a computer.

[via Waxy]


Google confirms it still has a ‘small portion’ of Street View WiFi data, apologizes

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Google confirms it still has a 'small portion' of controversial Street View data, apologizes

It has seemed like Google was close to putting its Street View snooping controversy behind it a few times now, but one thing or another keeps bringing it back to the forefront. Today, it's an admission from Google that it hasn't deleted all of the so-called payload data in question after all. That revelation comes in a letter from Google Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleisher to Steve Eckersley, head of enforcement at the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (or ICO), in which Fleisher says that Google is still in possession of a "small portion of payload data collected by our Street View vehicles in the UK." Fleisher adds that Google "apologizes for this error," and says that the data was discovered after an extensive review of its Street View data that it has been conducting in recent months. For its part, the ICO has acknowledged that it received the letter, and notes that the data was supposed to have been deleted in December of 2010, adding that "the fact that some of this information still exists appears to breach the undertaking to the ICO signed by Google in November 2010." You can find both statements in full at the ICO link below.

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Google confirms it still has a 'small portion' of Street View WiFi data, apologizes originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Street View heads back to the Antarctic, visits historic landmarks (video)

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Street View heads back to the Antarctic, visits historic landmarks
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Google has already taken us on a trip to the frigid shores of Antarctica before. Now the search giant is back with even more panoramic images, this time from deeper inside the frozen continent. With help from the Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota and the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust (not to mention a light-weight tripod and a fisheye lens), Street View can now bring to you the wonders of our most southern land mass. This isn't a short stroll in the footsteps of penguins either -- the ceremonial South Pole and Shackleton's Hut are among the numerous landmarks that get exposed to Google's image sensors. Enjoy the quick tour above and the video after the break.

Continue reading Street View heads back to the Antarctic, visits historic landmarks (video)

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Street View heads back to the Antarctic, visits historic landmarks (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google brings five California-based US National Parks into Street View

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Google brings five Californiabased US National Parks into Street View

Taking a virtual tour of the Amazon or Antarctica? Totally doable with Street View. But some of America's finest National Parks? Yeah, those have been a long time coming. Today, Google announced the inclusion of five California-based US National Parks in Street View, and for those who haven't had the opportunity (of a lifetime) to visit, they're absolutely worth a look. Starting at the top, Redwoods National Park provides a street level look at some of the world's most mysterious trees, while those looking for even more Treebeard-type characters can point their browser to Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. Naturally, Yosemite and Joshua Tree (shown above) are included as well, and the 360-degree views Google's cadre of motorcars managed to capture really do a fairly astounding job at capturing the splendor. The toughest part? Knowing which one to traverse first.

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Google brings five California-based US National Parks into Street View originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Jul 2012 09:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Navigon boosts iPhone app to version 2.1, discounts purchases through July 16th

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Navigon boosts iPhone app to version 21, discounts purchases through July 16th

Navigon's hitting those holiday roads a day early, releasing version 2.1 of its iPhone app. The free update adds Google Street View, which pops up as you approach a destination, along with a Cockpit display, which includes G-force, speed and compass information for an additional $6. There's also a new Manual Route Blocking feature, enabling you to force the app to offer an alternate path after identifying a section of road that you'd prefer to skip, along with improved start-up and map rendering performance, and Retina iPad compatibility. The USA version of the app is available for $30 (a $20 discount), while the North America version is also 20 bucks off, at $40, and regional flavors will be available for $20 ($10 off). In-app purchases are also discounted, including FreshMaps USA for $15 (normally $40), FreshMaps North America for $10 (down from $20), FreshMaps MyRegion for $20 (instead of $50) and the aforementioned Cockpit for $4 (regularly $6). All of the discounts run through July 16th, so hit up the App Store and get your download on now.

Continue reading Navigon boosts iPhone app to version 2.1, discounts purchases through July 16th

Navigon boosts iPhone app to version 2.1, discounts purchases through July 16th originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 08:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Maps offline for Android is available today in version 6.9, also Compass Mode for Street View

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Google showed off offline Google Maps at its event earlier this month, and now during I/O it's ready to turn the feature on. We've got a couple of video trailers for offline Google Maps here (embedded after the break), users with Android 2.2 devices and above should keep an eye on Google Play for the new version of the app. Also new in this version is the Compass Mode for Street View shown off today, that lets you look around places as though you were there based on your device's gyroscope and even go inside. We're not all seeing it on our devices yet, but the updated version has already been spotted on a Galaxy Nexus or two.

Continue reading Google Maps offline for Android is available today in version 6.9, also Compass Mode for Street View

Google Maps offline for Android is available today in version 6.9, also Compass Mode for Street View originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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