Friday, June 10, 2005

Google backs street-imaging project

Will Knight writes for NewScientist:

Having mapped the farthest corners of the internet, search-engine giant Google appears to be turning its attention to the “real world”, funding a project to scan the streets of San Francisco.

Researchers behind Stanford University’s CityBlock Project have developed a technique for creating realistic and panoramic street-level images using a combination of vehicle-mounted laser range-finding equipment and video cameras.

"We have been building technology for digitising commercial city blocks from sideways-looking video taken from a vehicle driving down the street," writes Stanford researcher Marc Levoy on the project's homepage. "Possible applications include in-car navigation, online route visualisation, and web-based tourism."

Google declined requests to comment on the project, but some experts see it as a natural extension of the company's existing services.



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