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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?
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.
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.)
Do they correct the Barrel distortion afterwards? If not, they should. Everything to the side of the car looks stretched and skewed.
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.
I've heard rumours these cars are handing out cookies so Google can track everybody!
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
If 30 or 40 or 300 or 3000 people driving by that day can see you, then you have to expect that everyone can.
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you are in public, about to take public transportation. People in public places may have access to technology that can broadcast to millions of people. The current state of technology changes the definition of reasonable.
There are no laws to prevent this, in fact, in many places the laws are CAUSING this (London, Chicago). Unfortunately for you, your expectations are no longer reasonable.
"how can they call it a MINE if everything here is THEIRS?!?!" -Straight Jacket
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
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?
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