During Where 2.0 yesterday, the company which is behind the technology of Google Maps StreetView presented – Immersive Media. One of the many secrets behind their technology is a patented 11 lens camera system that simultaneously takes photos in 11 directions based on a dodecahedron geometry. They can capture 30 frames a second of high resolution photography. That’s right – we’re talking high resolution video in digital 360. You can stop, start, back up, single-frame, etc. And they even showed technology where you can add 3D objects into the video scene (augmented reality). This technology has been used for things like planning state visits of dignitaries for security planning. The demonstration was very amazing to watch. There were lots of “oohs” and “ahhs” in the audience. I have to say it was the most awesome technology I saw demonstrated at Where this year. I managed to grab a small bit of the presentation with my camera (watch it all the way through, it is very cool!):
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
The early relative of the Google Eye – http://www.in8years.com/in_8_years/2007/04/google_eyes_aka.html
Thanks for keeping all us Geo-Geeks updated from the front lines Frank!
wow…just wow!
Amazing cool stuff….
Oh. My. God.
Can I chuck it all and just operate one of these things?
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Waverley+Street,+Palo+Alto+CA+94306&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=51.222969,75.322266&ie=UTF8&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.435142,-122.140461&cbp=1,133.010009765625,0.543864870914191,1&ll=37.44345,-122.140031&spn=0.019864,0.025234&z=15
i love steve’s benz without license plates;-) i gets stolen too often….
This is an old story. GOOGLE does not use this technology and dropped it after only a month or two. It wasn’t “high resolution” in fact the images sucked which is why they use different cameras now. I don’t see 30FPS anywhere even the company website only sows 12-15FPS video that is blurry and tiny.
Has anyone considered mounting the camera rig on gimbals and put it on a boat for a water based street view?