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Riding Shotgun With the Google Street View Beetle
longacre writes "Popular Mechanics takes a ride in an Immersive Media VW Beetle, one of the six cars that drives around America shooting images for Google Maps Street View. Mounted on the roof is the $45,000 Dodeca 2360 video camera, whose 11 lenses record a 360 degree field of view at 30 frames per second, sucking up as many as 200 miles of city scenes per day. The setup takes up the whole back seat and part of the front passenger seat, and is all controlled with an off-the-shelf Logitech game controller. Includes a cool interactive raw video of a drive through Manhattan."
While this is impressive (especially it being controlled by an off-the-self controller), I would be much more impressed if they rigged up the interior with a lot of HDTVs so that the walls seemed to be transparent to anyone inside.
Everything is subjective.
If it didn't require any user control (for the cameras at least). I mean why isn't the recording speed tied to the speed of the car? (or is it?) what need do you have to manipulate the cameras manually. Instead if the car is stuck in traffic, just stop recording. If the car is moving faster, increase the fps.
What purpose does the game controller have? Are the drivers allowed to track hotties? or is it for focusing in on billboards for corporate sponsors? Are they offering street view adwords or something?
Theres nothing like slapping a dozen fisheye lenses to a moving vehicle and building a movie out of it. My city just got google street view enabled. I was wondering how they got exact pics of where I was on the map. Now that I see it runs at 30 frames/sec I know how they captured so much data!
why? isn't that our right as US citizens?
What in the wide world of sports are you talking about? Did you know that the Constitution protects the right for anybody to record anything that happens in public?
This reminds me of when Data talks about how he records everything that he sees, and what his maximum storage capacity is. I always wondered "What compression algorithms does he use for all that? At what frame rate does he record it?" I think Google will create Data before they create Skynet. After all, they've already taken the first step
Crank up the halon system, this ought to be good.
I applaud your excellent argument.
I must disagree with yours and everyone else's statements that this is an invasion of privacy. What Google records on the public streets is A) protected by the first amendment and B) not a privacy issue because if something is viewable from a public street, then there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.
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Well maybe you should stop selling yourself on the streetcorner, or stop selling blow in front of a quickie mart.
pure blindness and hypocrisy at work on slashdot
Diversity of opinion? NO! That way lies madness!!
EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!
Seriously - it did occur to you that these points of view might be held by different individuals. Didn't it?
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
Thing is, when it's done by a company, ideally, they ought to be responsible for it.
* Google is using their own money for this venture, not taking it from the taxpayer.
* Google is upfront with what this is for. Government might install cameras for "safety" but once the infrastructure is in place there's all sorts of new things they can push by.
* It's not permanent. Just a car driving. It's not surveiling street corners.
* Google doesn't have the government database cross-references. The camera sees a car driving along the same road: they have no ability to figure out who's car it is and what it's doing there.
Training cameras at my street corner and watching my car drive through traffic and putting my records in a perpetual database ripe for corrupt public servants to cross-reference is completely apart from some dude recording the view outside a car window.
* Google can, potentially, be stopped by law: perhaps you should ask city hall? When it's opposition to government installing camera network, though, then it's clearly because you're a criminal/terrorist/pedophile.
More Twoson than Cupertino
Imagine future versions (with much lower prices) of the "Dodeca 2360" camera used as Police Dash-Cams (but on top of the car).
With the increased Law-Enforcement use of WiFi/Wireless-Data access and the necessitation of Computer capabilities in modern Police Vehicles, this device would make a nice streaming Police roof-cam.
(The quality looks good enough that "Cops" or other 'reality' police shows might just fund the costs for the cameras too.)
Now i can do every thing on the internet.
No longer do i need to get up and go out side. I can just surf to it via google.com!
l33t!
I have to return some videotapes...
Do they correct the Barrel distortion afterwards? If not, they should. Everything to the side of the car looks stretched and skewed.
Only one thing bugs me about this... the quality sucks..
Just because it works, Doesn't make it right. - JTM
Growing up in a rural area, I was always kinda dejected when the satellite images I'd look up were old and relatively low resolution compared to what was commonly available for more urbanized centers. Given the price tag for what Google is doing here (the article says between $125-$700), I understand why... there's less market for it, so there's less of a return on cost.
Still, the possibility that someday soon users will be able to submit their own images of various locations suggests that suburban and rural settings will start to be imaged in the same fashion. Does anybody want to put up some ideas regarding why this may or may not be a good thing?
Have you tried the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button?!
why? isn't that our right as US citizens?
Should be no problem so long as they don't record a policeman performing his job duties.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Wow, wouldn't it be cool to use this to make a DVD with angle selection? Or, even better, take the cameras off, and put them in a circle around a room, and film all those ancient martial arts masters from every angle. Oh, to have Bruce Lee, or Chang Man Ching, or TT Liang doing the sword form (in his prime, of course; not when he was 100 years old).
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
For those of you too lazy to follow the links, the Aspen Movie Map was a project done in 1978-81 by the MIT Architecture Machine Group (precursor to the Media Lab) to create an interactive map of the town of Aspen Colorado. Similar to Google, they mounted sideways facing cameras on a car, drove around the town collecting "street-view" imagery and loaded it all into an interactive map. They built an interactive videodisk and interface that allowed you to "drive around" the town. Video clip Here. I don't know if they patented any of the ideas, but I expect any patents would have expired by 2007.
--- Often in error; never in doubt!
I'd love to try this out with video from a formula1, nascar or superbike race - it'd be *really* amazing if it could be done live - you could actually simulate being in the driving seat live during a race!
I can predict that if the tech becomes cheap enough, it will lead to a slew of re-runs of the famous Rendezvoos video (cross-Paris maniac run in a Ferrari) or Gumball rally.
So is the "reasonable expectation of privacy" a digital thing? All or nothing? People behave differently when three, thirty, three hundred or three million people are watching them.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
what i care about is thinking the fbi is right/ wrong to do that, and thinking elsewise of google Same logic: if the FBI were doing it, it would be fine. There's no reasonable expectation of privacy of anything that can be viewed from a public street. Besides, the FBI, the ATF, and yes, your local and state police departments do this every day. It's called a stakeout. And it's been ruled legal by the courts over and over.
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Have you tried the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button?!
Wait until Google has enough data gathered on everyone.
Then it'll become the...
"Are you feeling lucky, punk?" button.
I've heard rumours these cars are handing out cookies so Google can track everybody!
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
Goatse!
Not to nitpick, but doesn't the FBI (and several other governmental offices) as well as private companies do this already? Think about any major bank branch, post office, or office buildings and I guarantee there are PTZ cameras all over the place.
Distrust Google if you want to, or fume at the 'fanboyism' that seems to occur around them from time to time. I'm not saying that Google is completely free from any wrongdoing, just that I don't think the vast majority of people here on Slashdot think taking pictures in a public place is a HUGE privacy issue and thus a point of division in your Google vs FBI comments.
One wouldn't really need much of a compression algorithm to store the string "I have no emotions, because I am an android. That makes me very sad."
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
I and a friend separately saw a couple of vehicles driving around the north area of a major Southwestern US city last month. This was no Google van or Google Beetle, it was just some rinky-dink car with a Google magnetic sign on the sides, and presumably a camera assembly set up on a pole about 3 foot from the car roof. It literally looked like Google ran an ad for any joker to bolt a camera to their car and drive around. My friend and I wondered what could be so exciting about the northern suburban area of a large city, rather than in the city itself, that needed to be on Google maps.
Anyway, it got me thinking that pretty much anyone really could put a Google sign or their car to presumably drive someplace they shouldn't, or use a brand like Google to lend themselves some authenticity, and nowadays people might probably not give them a second thought. Imagine if terrorists planned on attacking our imagination using Google as a cover! Or maybe someone could scam a press pass for being a member of "Google News", even though Google News isn't an actual news outlet.
If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
Dutch Company Cyclomedia recently finished a full overview of the Netherlands. You can see 360 degrees of every 20 metres or so. They even have tools that help you measure the sizes of things on the street and on houses. It's popular with municipalities and real estate agent. It's also featured at the major real estate site Funda.nl I hope it links through, but you can see a street view in front of the working palace of the Queen here.
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I have! The only thing it got me was a visit from the vice squad and sexual harassment suit.
Virginia is for lovers. EVE is for griefers.
Uhh...I think you have a tinfoil adjustment issue there.
Although I did blanch a little when I read the part about the $45,000 camera mounted on the roof. I guess I'd want to be real careful I could see that thing when I went in for lunch...I'd hate to have my paycheck docked for the cost of one of those, just because I picked the wrong McDonalds to take a bathroom break at.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Well, the cost of the Beetle is something like $20K, the camera another $45K. Outside my office right now there are plenty of $65K+ autos not being touched. And getting to the center of the roof of a car is no simple task. I think it'd probably be ok (:
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
Eh, it's actually pretty good... check out the flash file that that viewer is displaying: http://demos.immersivemedia.com/fvdemo_1/data/CylindricalFlashPlayerDemoSite/PopularMechanicsNYCDriveAlong/video.flv Open that without their custom flash player and you get 1024x512 video... And I'd imagine they're recording higher than that. Also, check out some of the actual shots in google: http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=32.734512,-117.159705&spn=0.024981,0.05373&z=15&om=1&layer=c&cbll=32.72197,-117.161636&cbp=2,356.38393784103107,,1,-18.177554028083662&title=Google Maps&source=k Pan around that one and double click to zoom in on the license plates of the cars on the street. You can zoom in VERY far.. and read them.
appleguru.org
Why? I can't see a point of contention; yes, Google's videotaping/photographing documentary footage for inclusion on its website, in order to show that "this is what 'here' looks like," but what's the problem with that? Presumably anything occurring in the public setting has no reasonable expectation of privacy. On the (presumably) rare occasions that a Google-Cam documents something through a window that should have an expectation of privacy I seem to recall reading that they obscure or block said footage. Though I have no real knowledge as to the truth of that, nor can I find the original article, or I'd link to it.
Eh, pardon the formatting on that last one.. accidentally chose html over plain text and didn't preview :/
In any case, here's it again, this time along with a mirror for the flash file in case their site gets hammered from the original link:
Eh, it's actually pretty good... check out the flash file that that viewer is displaying:
http://demos.immersivemedia.com/fvdemo_1/data/CylindricalFlashPlayerDemoSite/PopularMechanicsNYCDriveAlong/video.flv
Mirror here: http://g.appleguru.org/nycpano.flv
Open that without their custom flash player and you get 1024x512 video... And I'd imagine they're recording higher than that.
Also, check out some of the actual shots in google: http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=32.734512,-117.159705&spn=0.024981,0.05373&z=15&om=1&layer=c&cbll=32.72197,-117.161636&cbp=2,356.38393784103107,,1,-18.177554028083662&title=Google%20Maps&source=k
Pan around that one and double click to zoom in on the license plates of the cars on the street. You can zoom in VERY far.. and read them.
appleguru.org
Is there a way to find out where and when the Googlemobile will be driving past my house so that I can be standing outside dressed as a pirate? They have a schedule, it exists somewhere. How can I find it?
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Powder cocaine is far too upmarket to be sold in front of a convenience store, and is found more at homes and clubs. You must be thinking of crack.
where's the wankers who cry corporatocracy, that the government is owned completely by corporations not citizens, when i need them
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
i agree with you, that the fbi or google is ok to take pictures on a street corner
but the usual slashbot would cry high holy terror if the fbi were doing it, and swoon if google would do it
i don't care if google or the fbi take your pictures on a streetcorner. i care that the difference in reactions on slashdot is so retarded. so little trust here, so much trust there
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Especially after the Public/Private debate, I probably shouldn't say this...
But I want one!
In Blue! No Yellow! No, sorry, Blue.
and i don't have a problem with google doing it either
i have a problem with the usual slashbot who would cry high holy terror if the fbi did it, and swoon if google did it
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
but i expect them to be logically consistent and coherent
yu can't spout one opinion one monet, and then the opposite opinion the next, and not expect to be called out for it
that's what is happening with the government photographing you, or google. why is one mistrusted? why is the other trusted so much? makes no friggin sense
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
"i distrust government, but i wholeheartedly trust multinational corporations, even one who traffics in information, specifically my personal information, and has publicly stated it wants to track people's every query"
you'll excuse me, but your distrust of government and trust of google is fucking hypocritical and stupid
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
but if they are logically inconsistent and hypocritical, don't be surprised if you get called out on it
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
If the camera is called Dodeca, why does it only have 11 lenses?
Am I the only one who thought the name of the camera a little misleading? It has 11 cameras so it should be called the Hendeca 2360. If it had 12 then the Dodeca appellation would be accurate.
"Oh drat these computers, they're so naughty and so complex. I could pinch them."
Marvin the Martian
Thousands of little solar powered robot blimps. When they come into cell phone range, upload instructions like "go and explore these co-ordinates" and simply download their info when they come into cell tower range.
Deleted
small hint: if the government were to do any of those things, they'd probably get google's cooperation in recovering info on you
is your hypocrisy and misplaced trust and logical incoherence dawning on you yet?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
sorry but the street level views hurt my eyes. it's too damn blurry, cool yea, but I can't sit there looking at it for very long. Maybe a snapshot of a destination when getting directions, but I hate exploring town this way.
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
Nice to see that being a paranoid nutjob is still in style.
Did they have to make it look like the floating torture droid from Star Wars?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."--Feynman
Too bad I didn't find that one an hour ago before my last mod point expired... I was instead trying to find something to mod insightful in the post under how flamewars and trolls get started.
Obviously, I could have spent that time better.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Police? Yes, I'd like to report a stolen camera.
The parking lot at seven eleven.
To buy a slushie.
The roof of my car.
It cost over forty grand.
A Volkswagon Beatle.
No no, the camera.
That's right, a slushie.
No, just a slushie.
I don't think they sell that.
Yes, the roof.
Really big. And it takes round pictures.
No, really, I haven't.
No, this isn't.
Balls? Only two.
Yes they are, but that's not what I meant by round pictures.
Well, I guess it is.
I'm sure it wouldn't fit.
Same to you.
Gary Dunn
Open Slate Project
So far we've only seen 2d data, but from the look of the video, there's probably enough parallax information that you could perform 3d reconstruction of the scene. One really good aspect of this is that you could automatically remove objects such as people from the result.
Fight back against this Cyber Scum with some incognito wear.
Nice, but that Aspen project wasn't the first time this sort of thing has been done. Municipalities, insurance companies, and real estate firms have been doing this for decades. Since at least the 60's in some places. Probably longer.
For years you've been able to look at street-level pictures of every property in Cook County, Illinois (Chicago) on the internet through the Assessor's web site.
Just because Google's doing it, people pretend like this is something new.
-- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
That's not a google beetle, that's A TRANSFORMER!!!
Plus the drag from the camera would certainly ensure you had a great view of last place ;)
Driver: "Why is there a bloody great wind break on my car?"
Manager: "We're gonna video everything you do so we can sell it to the cable subscriber schmos."
Driver: "Can't you at least stick an aerofoil on it!?!?"
Manager: "If it's good enough for Google, it's good enough for you. Now race!"
Driver: "Bah."
*yawn*
Sorry, I'm tired.
Wait, I thought google had a huge fleet of Chevy Cobalts.
Those pictures show a LOT more than 6 cars.
http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2007/07/googles_secret_cameracar_armad.php
now where did i say slashbots=all of slashdot's user base?
i'm referring to the usual kneejerk twit
such a person doesn't exist?
you feel a need to defend such a person, or group yourself with them?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Watching the raw video, there appears to be someone that keeps honking. Was this the google car? or was this someone else that was following them? Or maybe it was just a friendly hello.
HD Trailers
We obviously need two slashdots one left and one right. Face it, we're all extremists here.
Oh Crap, I'm an optimist.....
1) NEW BREAKS! SQUEEEK... For real, get the VW serviced already. If you have the money for all that camera stuff, buy a pair of brake pads every 30K or so!
.01 seconds and now it is over... I know what my street looks like and my neighbors.. I GO OUTSIDE AND SEE THEM YOU F&&#@ ICEH#LES!
........
2) HONK-HONK... WHAT is it with these city drivers in New York and other places? All the Honking around... Maybe I'm just sheltered living in the smaller areas, but I NEVER have to Honk my horn. Oh, Ok, Once I Honked it to let the wife know I was waiting on her, but thats about all... How about some nice polite driving for a change?
3) Pointless... This is someones "escape from cube land" project. "Dude, we mount a camera on the roof. Tell the boss we'll digitize ever where we go and see, and we'll get free pizza, pussy and beer at motel 6's on the company charge!"
4) WASTE... How much Gas, Energy, Money, Tech and Human Service might be better saved/served/used(etc) if this project did not even exist. Instead Google should give me the money to feed/clothe some homeless people instead. What a waste of usable resources for a completely worthless tech. DO NO EVIL... How about DO NOTHING either...
Seriously, the idea and concept had a coolness factor for
We all need to just disconnect sometimes... Seriously... See what the real world is like outside of the glowing boxes... Do it now before winter sets in and you commit suicide because of lack of sunlight and vitamin D. Otherwise it was all a waste from your first breath, till your last.
Off grid is sounding more and more sane...
--- Relax, that mass muderer is just trying to reduce our carbon footprint, one fetus at a time...
But for Google Earth, not Google Maps:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoramio
One that hath name thou can not otter
1. create distributed project to track the googlemobile using google maps.
2. tailgate googlemobile.
3. ???
4. profit!
A guy in Vienna has put together his own Street View version using Google Maps and CleVR. It's pretty cool. It would be nice to see that expanded so that anyone could contribute.
Google is doing this in Canada and is having to blur out people's faces etc. because it violates privacy laws.
The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny - Aesop
I love the way the article refers to the eleven cameras as "nearly a dozen". Using that system, there are nearly 61 minutes in a hour, 2 + 2 is nearly 5, and I nearly ate one gnome for breakfast this morning.
What google gives you that the Cook County Assor's Database doesn't is the "fly through" visualization and the interface to control it. The Aspen Movie Map had a cruder version; it was a "drive through" visualization and interface; i.e. your point of view was limited to the paths on the street grid. Lemme know when Cook County gets their 3D fly-through visualization working.
--- Often in error; never in doubt!
Not exactly. Google's doing this everywhere. It's not because of privacy laws (there are very, very few privacy laws on the books in the U.S. and Canada, btw -- there is no such thing as a 'Constitutional right to privacy'), but only because of complaints. In the words of Google's Marissa Mayer: "[We] looked at it and we thought that's really silly because that's not the point of this product. The purpose is to show what the stores look like, what houses look like, if someone says, 'Hey, there's a face here,' ... it doesn't matter whose face it is." (source)
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The fictious Reasonable Man does not have access to machines that would allow him to see through walls, nor does he have any reasonable expectation that someone would want to look through his walls for harmless reasons. Thus, I do not believe the police are allowed to use the blimp that sees through walls without a warrant or probable cause (in the United States, that is). Your neighbors can't build magnifying devices that let them peek through tiny cracks in your shower wall and publish your pictures on the Internet, either.
Similarly, the Reasonable Man does not track the doings of Google like an obsessive technophile slashdotter, and thus has no reasonable expectation that someone's going to take high-quality images through his windows using brand-new technology. He has a "reasonable expectation of privacy" if he is naked in the upstairs bedroom next to a busy road, even if the window shade is occasionally blowing open, because he can't be expected to reasonably anticipate incredibly expensive imaging efforts that will capture his likeness for magnification and public display.
As I understand it, when you apply any sort of Reasonable Man test, the jury gets to look at the facts of the individual case and decide what "reasonable" meant at the time the incident occurred. Since Google has done ZERO prior notification to homeowners the jury may very well rule that they have no right to peer through people's windows with instruments that are much more sensitive than the naked eye. For the jury, it might come down to the difference between taking a picture of someone's house and focusing a web-connected telescope on someone's bedroom window... most likely, it will depend on local community standards and the particular images involved.