**The Genesis of Street View: How it Became a Reality**
Street View, one of Google's most popular and iconic features, has been a game-changer for the way we explore and interact with our surroundings. But have you ever wondered how this technology became a reality? In this article, we'll delve into the story of how Street View was born, from its humble beginnings as a 20% project to its current status as a global phenomenon.
**The Early Days: A 20% Project**
It all started with an idea. Gary Amer, a member of Google's engineering team, had been brainstorming ways to improve Street View's capabilities. He decided that one area where the technology could be enhanced was in the ability to access remote locations without the need for a car or tricycle. This sparked a 20% project – a small-scale initiative to develop a portable version of the camera system. The team was excited about the prospect of making Street View more accessible and began exploring ways to miniaturize the technology.
**Making it Ultra Portable**
The challenge was significant, as the original camera system was massive and cumbersome. To overcome this, the team had to figure out how to shrink the camera system while maintaining its image quality. They took inspiration from the street view car and adapted their design to create a portable version that could be worn on someone's back. The result was an ultra-portable device that allowed users to capture high-quality images in areas previously inaccessible.
**The Trucker: A Revolutionary Concept**
As the team developed the portable camera system, they realized that it had the potential to revolutionize the way people explored their surroundings. They started calling this new concept the "trucker," a name that reflected its ability to traverse vast distances and capture stunning images along the way. The trucker was designed to be lightweight and compact, making it possible for users to take Street View imagery on location.
**From Concept to Reality**
The idea of taking Street View imagery to remote locations was met with excitement from Google's partners and colleagues. The company began collaborating with various organizations, including the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service, to capture high-quality images in these areas. As the technology improved, the team started to develop more advanced algorithms to blend together multiple images, creating seamless and detailed panoramas.
**The Power of Technology**
The Street View imagery was processed using 15 megapixel cameras with slight overlaps between each image. The resulting data was then blended together using complex algorithms, which adjusted for exposure, color, and other parameters. This process resulted in a stunning 75 megapixels of raw imagery, which was then resampled to create high-quality, distortion-free images.
**A Global Phenomenon: Expanding Horizons**
As Street View continued to grow in popularity, the company expanded its reach to 54 countries worldwide. The team prioritized areas with high tourist interest and aimed to be comprehensive in their coverage. From iconic landmarks like the White House and the Temple of the Pyramid to remote locations like ski resorts in the Colorado mountains, the team captured breathtaking images that showcased the world's diversity.
**Comprehensive Coverage: A Future Goal**
While Street View has made tremendous progress in its global coverage, the company remains committed to expanding its reach. The team uses data analysis to identify areas with high user interest and prioritizes those locations for imaging. With a focus on being comprehensive, Street View continues to push the boundaries of what's possible with mapping technology.
**Conclusion**
The story of Street View is one of innovation, perseverance, and collaboration. From humble beginnings as a 20% project to its current status as a global phenomenon, this technology has revolutionized the way we explore and interact with our surroundings. As Street View continues to evolve, it's clear that the team's commitment to excellence will drive the platform forward, providing users with unparalleled access to stunning imagery from around the world.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys it's Casey with the Verge so in 2007 Google started building street view it's on the ground map of every street and trail that the company could get access to and last year Google introduced treker a customized backpack that would let Google go places they could never get to Before from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the top of Mount Fuji we wanted to know what it's like to actually make one of these Maps so we came with a street view team to the Presidio in San Francisco where I got a try on the truer and actually see what it's like to make street view happen so the treker is a mobile image capture platform um we took some of the same technology from the street view car with the camera um and made it portable um Ultra portable um before that if we wanted to go you know down some steep St you know Hills upstairs um I think we were only able to do like maybe one of those I think we carried our 350lb trike up the stairs at The High Line in New York um just because that was a really cool location but there was no way we were going to go the bottom of the Grand Canyon or the top of Mount Fuji um and so that is like the whole justification for the trer is making it Ultra portable and being able to go to places that we've never been able to go before people are used to the image quality that we have with street view so we actually took this camera and it looks very much like the car because it's the same lenses it's the same sensors it's the same interface electronics and we had to figure out a way to get that off of a car onto someone's back so that was our biggest challenge so the trucker was again somebody's 20% project really uh guing the team name Gary Amer and and colleagues just decided that yes it we should try to put you know our camera on the backpack because there were so many places we could go with either cars or tricycles and uh and that that made sense again we we always you know what have more ideas and we have people to execute on them so it's not surprising that this started as a 20% all these Hardware prodct projects their Genesis is somebody getting excited about something or trying and solve a problem and then getting their colleagues excited to work on it our process here is um somebody will think up an idea so the trucker was a 20% project and 20% projects here are um hey boss I'd like to think about this a little more and the answer is usually okay um and it started growing and becoming developed um our engineering team said okay we're going to build one um and then when they got one working they said okay this is going to work so at a place like the Presidio um it starts with an idea this place would be cool to go on maps um and so then we will reach out to the partner or Partners will reach out to us through the there's a partner portal um on the street view site um and they'll request that we come out or we request of them that hey wouldn't it be cool if we got together and made these imagery uh available to everyone 15 5 megapixel camera cameras with slight overlaps between all the imagery if you just take that and you plot that on your desk it looks like these distorted blobs with of Unique Images the colors are off the the um exposures are all a bit off because the sensitivity is all a bit different so what we do is we will take those 15 images we'll blend the seams we'll adjust we'll match the color we'll match the exposure ures and then um even beyond that um we collect 75 megapixels raw uh there's 65 megabits of unique pixels then we do the magic there to resample that imagery and serve it up so that it gets to your to your device in the way that's appropriate for your device uh it's it's really a phenomenal bit of work that goes on after we put these pixels onto a disc and the way I think about it now I mean the analogy always give to people that we you know street view is like the physical equivalent of the Google crawler but we just sort of crawl the physical we're taking pictures and and try to make sense of them try to make them useful there's so many amazing ones I mean I mean where do you start so the White House or the Temple of the pyramid and Sun uh down in t Tian Mexico um five weeks going out doing ski resorts in the Colorado mountains the Grand Canyon um NASA Kennedy Space Center so there's me some really really cool ones so far we have uh data in 54 countries last time I checked and uh we of course we like to expand that I mean the the world is very large so I think when we start the project we're very opportunistic we just went wherever we could right so now we're trying to do a better job planning and we we we tend to go first to places where there's more user interest but you know we uh we want to go everywhere we want to be comprehensive one thing that's of huge interest to us is all the you know landmarks of the world and where we there's a you know interest of tourists from around the world but but of course we want to go we want to be comprehensive so it's just a matter of timehey guys it's Casey with the Verge so in 2007 Google started building street view it's on the ground map of every street and trail that the company could get access to and last year Google introduced treker a customized backpack that would let Google go places they could never get to Before from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the top of Mount Fuji we wanted to know what it's like to actually make one of these Maps so we came with a street view team to the Presidio in San Francisco where I got a try on the truer and actually see what it's like to make street view happen so the treker is a mobile image capture platform um we took some of the same technology from the street view car with the camera um and made it portable um Ultra portable um before that if we wanted to go you know down some steep St you know Hills upstairs um I think we were only able to do like maybe one of those I think we carried our 350lb trike up the stairs at The High Line in New York um just because that was a really cool location but there was no way we were going to go the bottom of the Grand Canyon or the top of Mount Fuji um and so that is like the whole justification for the trer is making it Ultra portable and being able to go to places that we've never been able to go before people are used to the image quality that we have with street view so we actually took this camera and it looks very much like the car because it's the same lenses it's the same sensors it's the same interface electronics and we had to figure out a way to get that off of a car onto someone's back so that was our biggest challenge so the trucker was again somebody's 20% project really uh guing the team name Gary Amer and and colleagues just decided that yes it we should try to put you know our camera on the backpack because there were so many places we could go with either cars or tricycles and uh and that that made sense again we we always you know what have more ideas and we have people to execute on them so it's not surprising that this started as a 20% all these Hardware prodct projects their Genesis is somebody getting excited about something or trying and solve a problem and then getting their colleagues excited to work on it our process here is um somebody will think up an idea so the trucker was a 20% project and 20% projects here are um hey boss I'd like to think about this a little more and the answer is usually okay um and it started growing and becoming developed um our engineering team said okay we're going to build one um and then when they got one working they said okay this is going to work so at a place like the Presidio um it starts with an idea this place would be cool to go on maps um and so then we will reach out to the partner or Partners will reach out to us through the there's a partner portal um on the street view site um and they'll request that we come out or we request of them that hey wouldn't it be cool if we got together and made these imagery uh available to everyone 15 5 megapixel camera cameras with slight overlaps between all the imagery if you just take that and you plot that on your desk it looks like these distorted blobs with of Unique Images the colors are off the the um exposures are all a bit off because the sensitivity is all a bit different so what we do is we will take those 15 images we'll blend the seams we'll adjust we'll match the color we'll match the exposure ures and then um even beyond that um we collect 75 megapixels raw uh there's 65 megabits of unique pixels then we do the magic there to resample that imagery and serve it up so that it gets to your to your device in the way that's appropriate for your device uh it's it's really a phenomenal bit of work that goes on after we put these pixels onto a disc and the way I think about it now I mean the analogy always give to people that we you know street view is like the physical equivalent of the Google crawler but we just sort of crawl the physical we're taking pictures and and try to make sense of them try to make them useful there's so many amazing ones I mean I mean where do you start so the White House or the Temple of the pyramid and Sun uh down in t Tian Mexico um five weeks going out doing ski resorts in the Colorado mountains the Grand Canyon um NASA Kennedy Space Center so there's me some really really cool ones so far we have uh data in 54 countries last time I checked and uh we of course we like to expand that I mean the the world is very large so I think when we start the project we're very opportunistic we just went wherever we could right so now we're trying to do a better job planning and we we we tend to go first to places where there's more user interest but you know we uh we want to go everywhere we want to be comprehensive one thing that's of huge interest to us is all the you know landmarks of the world and where we there's a you know interest of tourists from around the world but but of course we want to go we want to be comprehensive so it's just a matter of time\n"
