The Street View project, which Google launched in 2007, has been mapping out all things from roads to ski slopes ever since, and just recently, it has achieved a significant milestone-a captured footage of 10,000 miles. This is quite enough to stretch around the whole of the Earth, more than 400 times in a unique Street View car. This was stated by CNET. This is the first time the tech industry leader has released a hare data on a Street View scale.
Other than capturing images of the road, according to techradar.com, the Street View has extended down the footpaths up the mountains, inside the buildings, and even the International Space Station. The imagery gets refreshed every couple of years. According to Google Maps director of product, Ethan Russel, they are thinking of it "as the foundation of the whole map-making process."
10 Million Miles
The 10-million Street View miles landmark is probably less impressive for someone who thinks that Google has too much information and data on us already on file. Although, it undoubtedly does make going around much simpler and more accessible. One of the many ways Google is presently using Street Views is by powering the amplified reality waking directions: "If GPS is proving too undependable, Google Maps can work out where you are by cross-referencing Street View pictures." At present, another tech giant, Apple, has its own Street View feature, which it calls "Look Around," and launched in iOS 13 just this year. It is available, though, only in select parts of the U.S.
In addition, Google announced via CNET that its Google Earth satellite imagery is covering 98% of the populated world, and that's roughly 36 million square miles if one is to keep counting. The 10 million-mile achievement is Google's first time to reveal how much of the whole world it has captured in terms of image. This Google Earth number, as to how The Verge calls it, is specifically impressive. As mentioned, 98% of the different locations on Earth where people live, and the 10 million Street View imagery miles put Googles miles and miles ahead of its competitors like Apple for one, with its own start-level photography, Apple Maps.
The Use of Street Views Cars and Trekker Backpacks
Google recently released a blog post along with an animated map exhibiting how the worldwide street view coverage has, according to hexus.net, "expanded since 2007." Also, providing such coverage data, Google has cast light on the function of gathering it all. The company's fleet of Street View cars, with an array of nine cameras each, does not only capture images. They process the pictures and accurately gauge distance, too, through the use of Lidar sensors.
In the event that the cars are unable to gain access, Google is at times, sending out its Street View Trekker backpack. These backpacks are not just carried by hikers who are willing to do so. They are carried too, for deployment on camels, boats, sheep, and even the troops of Scouters. Like the cars, these backpacks can also capture high-resolution imagery for the user to share the stories places they go to. They also help capture difficult-to-access places or building maps for developing countries, as well as the cities that have complex structures.
