Over the years, the global reception to Google's Street View mapping project has been met with varying degrees of enthusiasm, ranging from clever photo-bombing participation to legal tussles in parts of Europe over privacy concerns. Now the company has decided to ratchet up the intensity of its Street View mapping project by opening up usage of its innovative Street View Trekker backpack device to third-party companies and organizations.
The Street View Trekker backpack is the device Google uses when it wants to map obscure trails and hard-to-reach terrain. In just the past year the device has been used to map the Grand Canyon, the Galapagos Islands, and New York City's Central Park. Google is calling this new effort a pilot program that is designed to primarily involve local tourism boards, universities, research organizations, non-profits, and governmental agencies.
Weighing in at roughly 42 pounds, the backpack and 15-camera array allows the wearer to capture 3D panoramas of any place reachable on foot, a dynamic that makes Google Maps far more detailed than any other competing map product. The Trekker's 5-megapixel cameras record images every 2.5 seconds, allowing the wearer to simply explore the terrain rather than fiddle with the device's controls in search of the perfect shot.
By crowdsourcing the effort, Google will essentially supercharge the granularity and resolution of its Street View imagery by several orders of magnitude. And, in addition to the heavy lifting being carried out by participants in the program, the initiative is likely to reveal hidden parts of the world that only local residents have knowledge of—another huge advantage for Google Maps.
Scheduled to start later this year, Google hasn't announced a specific timetable for the initiative, and there's no indication as to what kinds of organizations or individuals Google would prohibit from participating. Perhaps more importantly, there's no mention of any profit incentive for the participant's efforts, so joining the program would essentially be a volunteer act that will ultimately help Google's for-profit efforts.
Nevertheless, there are enough organizations out there looking to literally put their obscure areas "on the map" that Google's pilot program will probably attract a good deal of interest. One of the first members of the program is the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, a group that received special Street View Trekker training earlier this month. Others interested in the program can submit their proposals now by filling out Google's online application form.
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