Google Street View displays panoramas of stitched images. Most photography is done by car, but some is done by trekker, tricycle, walking, boat, snowmobile, and underwater apparatus.
History and features
Street View had its inception in 2001 with The Stanford CityBlock Project, a Google-sponsored Stanford University research project. The project ended in June 2006, and its technology was folded into StreetView.
2007: Launched on May 25 in the United States using Immersive Media technology.
2008: In May Google announces that it was testing face-blurring technology on its photos of the busy streets of Manhattan. The technology uses a computer algorithm to search Google's image database for faces and blurs them. Street View integrated into Google Earth 4.3, the Maps application on the Apple iPhone, and the Maps application for S60 3rd Edition. In November, the drag and drop Pegman icon is introduced as the primary user interface element for connecting from Maps's 2D view into Street View's 3D view. When Pegman is dropped onto a particular set of coordinates in Google Maps for which Street View data is available, Street View opens and takes over the whole map window.
2009: Introduction of full-screen option. Smart Navigation introduced allowing users to navigate around the panoramas by double-clicking with their cursor on any place or object they want to see.
May 2011: Indoor views of businesses - Google Business Photos - announced. After the pilot phase of several months, the project rolled out in earnest in fall.
November 2012: With the release of Android 4.2, Google invites users to contribute panoramas of their own using supported devices. Google highlights user-contributed panoramas with blue circle icons on Maps. The company also created a website to highlight places in the world where one can find them.
2013: Business interior views are shown as small orange circles. Businesses such as shops, cafés and other premises can pay a photographer to take panoramic images of the interior of their premises which are then included in Street View. Google sets up program to let third parties borrow the Street View Trekker (a backpack mounted camera) and contribute imagery to Google Maps.
2014: Street-level imagery from the past can now be seen, if available for a given street view.
2015: A partnership was announced between Street View and the environmental monitoring company Aclima. Cars began carrying sensors to detect pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and particulate matter. In October, support for Google Cardboard was announced allowing users to explore street view in 360 degree virtual reality.
2017: Imagery inside the International Space Station is added to Street View.
May 2017: Google celebrates tenth anniversary of first published Street View images - 10 million miles mapped in 83 countries.
2017: Starting in August, Google allows users to create their own street view-like blue paths, for the connected photospheres that are sufficiently close to one another.
2017: On September 5, Google announced that they are improving the quality of the street view panoramic photo revamping its mapping vehicles with all-new high resolution camera systems and AI to capture even better imagery. The new Google cars have been seen in various American cities since March 2017 as well as in Japan since August.. The first images taken with the new generation of cameras were available online on September 13.
October 2017: The makers of the Insta360 Pro announce the certification of the first "Street View auto ready" camera for $3500USD; it uses 6 lenses for a 360º view and comes with Stitcher software. In addition to purchase, the camera rig is also available to qualified entities as part of the Google loaner program, with 50 cameras available to loan, making possible Google Street View imagery coverage of more places that Google might not visit, and to entities for whom a purchase is impractical or impossible.
2018: Google Japan now offers the street view from a dog's perspective.
August 2018: Street View covers two offshore gas-extraction platforms in the North Sea.
Technology and imaging
Vehicles
The raw data are digitized 360-degree panoramic images taken with specially equipped cars and bicycles. These special vehicles have mounted on the roof at about 2.9 meters (in Switzerland, 2 meters, the Google bike, apparently a bit lower) nine cameras: eight cameras for the 360-degree view, a camera is up directed. In addition, there are three laser measuring devices for three-dimensional measurement. The collected 3D data should give a spatial representation of the buildings with the Street View data as surfaces at a later date in Google Earth. The detection radius from the German company Sick AG producedLaser scanner is about 50 meters.
In addition, Google has taken pictures in various US national parks through pedestrians. A special backpack was used, which is also equipped with cameras at 2.5 m height.
Software
In addition to the photo and 3D data, data is collected over wireless networks. These data include the network name (SSID), the encryption strength, and the MAC addresses of the devices being used. These data should serve for WLAN-based positioning. In addition to these traffic data have been provided that the networks were not encrypted, recorded the data transmitted. Google uses the program Kismet. The method, including as wardriving, known for some time. In March 2011, the French data protection authority imposed CNILa fine against Google for collecting data.
To access the Street View data in Google Maps, the user enters the yellow-orange icon of a stylized male (Pegman) on the lower-right side of the Google Maps interface with the cursor in the selected area on a specific location draws. Streets for which Street View data is available are highlighted in blue. If Street View is not available for a specific map, the male is grayed out.
The image can be rotated 360 degrees with the mouse as well as up and down. In Google Maps, arrows are included in the image to go to the next or previous panorama. Since a picture is taken every ten meters, it is possible to "take off" a route virtually in Google Maps or Google Earth.
Cameras
Google has mounted four types of street-view cameras in the past. Generation 1, 2, 3 and 4 cameras were used to take photos in the United States. The first generation of cameras was quickly outdated, and more pictures were taken with the second and third generation. The second generation was used to take photos in Australia. The first, second and third generations of Street View cameras created an occasional visible shadow in the images taken in the morning and evening. The new fourth-generation camera is used to replace old shots taken with previous camera generations. The fourth generation Street View camera captures images in near HD quality, much better than previous cameras.
In February 2010, Google brought the fourth generation Street View camera on a snowmobile to take pictures of the "Whistler Blackcomb Ski Slopes" for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. In October 2011, Google has begun to acquire rail lines for Street View. The connection between Thusis via St. Moritz to Tirano is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Google was supported in the project by the Rhaetian Railway.
In May 2017, Google began to gradually upgrade all Street View cameras.
Implementation
Street View is available as a component of Google Maps, as a web application, and as a mobile application for Android and iOS. Originally, Google Maps used Adobe Flash for Street View. Google overhauled Google Maps in 2013. The newer version uses JavaScript extensively and provides a JavaScript application programming interface. At the time of their release, the new Google Maps and Street View are measured slower than the old version in various setups. A user can switch to the old version of Google Maps, which is especially useful when Google Maps is more sluggish than usual.
Data capturing equipment
Cameras: Street View imagery has come from several generations of camera systems from Immersive Media, Point Grey Research (now FLIR Systems) and developed in-house. The cameras contain no mechanical parts, including the shutter, instead using CMOS sensors and an electronic rolling shutter. Widely deployed versions are:
R2: the earliest after Immersive Media, photos were captured with a ring of eight 11-megapixel CCD sensors with commercial photographic wide-angle lenses, cameras with the same specs as those used for the Google Books project.
Ladybug2 cameras (resolution 1024 x 768 pixels) by Point Grey Research.
R5: uses a ring of eight 5-megapixel CMOS cameras by Elphel with custom low-flare lenses, plus a camera with fisheye lens on top to capture upper levels of buildings.
R7: is the first completely in-house built camera, it uses 15 of the same sensors and lenses as R5, but no fish-eye.
2017: uses 8 20MP cameras. Includes two facing left and right to read street signs and business names.
Positioning: recorded photographs must be associated with accurate positioning. This is done via a Global Positioning System, wheel speed sensor, and inertial navigation sensor data.
Laser range scanners from Sick AG for the measuring of up to 50 meters 180° in the front of the vehicle. These are used for recording the actual dimensions of the space being photographed.
LIDAR scanners from Velodyne were added in the 2017 update. Mounted at 45° to capture 3D depth information, and used for additional positional information.
Vehicles: data recording equipment is usually mounted on the roof of a car. A Trike (tricycle) was developed to record pedestrian routes including Stonehenge, and other UNESCO World Heritage sites. In 2010 a snowmobile-based system captured the 2010 Winter Olympics sites. Trolleys have been used to shoot the insides of museums, and in Venice the narrow roads were photographed with backpack-mounted cameras, and canals were photographed from boats.
A portable back-pack Google Trekker is used in outdoor terrain. For instance, the six main paths up Snowdon were mapped by the Google Trekker in 2015.
Pegman
As noted above, the drag-and-drop Pegman icon is the primary user interface element used by Google to connect Maps to Street View. His name comes from his resemblance to a clothespeg. When not in use, Pegman sits atop the Google Maps zoom controls. Occasionally Pegman "dresses up" for special events or is joined by peg friends in Google Maps. When dragged into Street View near Area 51, he becomes a flying saucer. When viewing older views, the Pegman in the minimap changes to Doc Brown from Back to the Future.
Pegman has occasionally appeared as a costumed character at Google events, such as the launch of Street View in France in 2008.
Privacy concerns
Google Street View will blur houses for any user who makes a request, in addition to the automatic blurring of faces and licence plates. Privacy advocates have objected to the Google Street View, pointing to views found to show men leaving strip clubs, protesters at an abortion clinic, sunbathers in bikinis, and people engaging in activities visible from public property in which they do not wish to be seen publicly. Another concern is the height of the cameras, and in at least two countries, Japan and Switzerland, Google has had to lower the height of its cameras so as to not peer over fences and hedges. The service also allows users themselves to flag inappropriate or sensitive imagery for Google to review and remove. Police Scotland received an apology for wasting police time in 2014 from a local business owner in Edinburgh who in 2012 had staged a fake murder for the Google camera car by lying in the road "while his colleague stood over him with a pickaxe handle". In May 2010, it was revealed that Google had collected and stored payload data from unencrypted Wi-Fi connections as part of Street View.
The concerns have led to Google not providing or suspending the service in countries around the world.
Austria: Google Street View was banned in Austria because Google was found to collect Wifi data unauthorized in 2010. After the ban was lifted rules were set up for how Street View can operate legally in Austria. Google has yet to resume service. Officially it welcomed the new guidelines but has ruled out operating under them. As of 2016 Google Street View is still unavailable.
Australia: In 2010, Google Street View ceased operations in Australia, following months of investigations from Australian authorities. However, this cessation has since ended, with Google announcing plans to continue production on May 4, 2011 and subsequently releasing updated Street View imagery for Australian towns and cities on July 27, 2011.
Germany: In 2011, after having put online the pictures of the 20 largest cities, Google stopped taking Street View images in Germany.
India: In 2011, Google stopped taking street images in India, after receiving a letter from police authorities in Bangalore.
Canada: Street View cars were spotted as early as September 2007, in Montreal, however service for Canada was delayed while they attempted to settle with the Canadian government over its privacy laws. Privacy and town beauty concerns were dealt with and Street View is available in Montreal and other Canadian cities (as of 2016).
Third-party use of images
Fine-art photographers have selected images for use in their own work. Although the images may be pixelated, the colours muddy, and the perspective warped, the photographs have been published in book form and exhibited in art galleries, such as the work of Jon Rafman at the Saatchi Gallery, London. In his personal appreciation of Street View material, Rafman sees images which evoke the "gritty urban life" depicted in American street photography and the images commissioned by the Farm Security Administration. He also invokes the "decisive moment" esthetic of Henri Cartier-Bresson "as if I were a photojournalist responding instantaneously to an emerging event".
Michael Wolf won an honourable mention in Daily Life in the 2011 World Press Photo competition for some of his work using Google Street View.
Mishka Henner was short-listed for the 2013 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in November 2012 for his series 'No Man's Land', which depicts sex workers at rural roadside locations.
Swedish programmer Anton Wallén developed a game called GeoGuessr, which places players into a Google Street View and has them guess its location.
Canadian artist, Sylvia Grace Borda, worked in conjunction with John M Lynch between 2013-14to insert the first staged tableaux into the Google Street View engine. Their efforts won them the Lumen Prize in 2016. Borda has continued independently to author in the Google Street View engine and in 2017 created the tableaux series, the Kissing Project.
Coverage
In June 2012, Google announced that it has captured 20 petabytes of data for Street View, comprising photos taken along 5 million miles of roads, covering 39 countries and about 3,000 cities. Coverage includes much of North and South America, from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut to Half Moon Island in the South Shetland Islands. Maps also include panoramic views taken under water such as in West Nusa Tenggara underwater coral, in the Grand Canyon, inside museums, and Liwa Desert in United Arab Emirates which are viewed from camelback. In a ten-day trek with Apa Sherpa, Google documented Khumbu, Nepal with its Mount Everest, Sherpa communities, monasteries and schools.
Google also added landmarks in Egypt, including the Pyramids of Giza, Cairo Citadel, Saqqara, Monastery of Saint Mina, and the Citadel of Qaitbay in the 9 September 2014 release.
Many places still have limited or no coverage, including:
The Caribbean except Puerto Rico, limited coverage in the United States Virgin Islands and Martinique
Central America except Guatemala and some landmarks in Costa Rica
French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela in South America
Africa except Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Nigeria, Réunion, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Tunisia, Uganda and some city views in Madagascar
Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Moldova and much of Germany and Austria in Europe
Asia except Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, much of Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia and Russia
The Middle East except Israel, Jordan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates
The South Pacific, except American Samoa, Australia, New Zealand and Pitcairn Islands (Pitcairn and Henderson Island)
Copyright
The Google Maps imagery is governed by Google's copyright and may not be used by individuals or companies unless Google's license terms are strictly adhered to. For example, a private individual using a picture or a section of Google Maps or Google Earth must leave the Google logo in this picture so as not to violate the license terms. In addition, approval is required in most cases.
Additional Services
Google Maps for Mobile
The Google Maps Street View images and maps can be viewed on mobile phones or PDAs. On devices with Apple iOS Google Maps with Street View up to and including iOS 5 was already installed. On many Android devices Google Maps is preinstalled, but can also be obtained from the Google Play Store. In addition to the two special versions for iOS and Android, there is a Java- based version that comes with Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm OSis compatible. The software can be installed either manually by download or automatically by detecting the mobile phone. From 2013 to 2016, the service under the name Wii Street U was also available on the Wii U from Nintendo.
Finally, in October 2012, Google created the ability to use Street View directly in the web browser without installing an additional application, if it supports HTML5 or Adobe Flash. Once users are in a location that has a three-dimensional view, Google Maps signals this with an additional icon. After a tap on this, the street view view opens. Compared to the desktop version only the zoom function is not available.
Integration into own pages
Google has a programming interface (API) that lets you integrate Google Street View and Google Maps into its own pages. The integration requires a key that allows your pages to submit requests to the Google Maps server. This can be obtained from Google for free. The API offers many possibilities to configure the 360 ° panorama images on your own page, for example a zoom bar can be displayed or the pixel dimensions of the maps can be defined in the code.
An example of this integration is the browser game GeoGuessr, in which the player a random panorama from Google Street View is displayed. The player now has to find out from the clues given by the image where this photo was taken.
Source from Wikipedia
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