Slashdot Mirror
Google Tricycles To Map Footpaths For Street View
CNETNate writes "To advance its Street View service this summer, Google is poised to unleash the unstoppable power of human legs. Google will deploy pedal-powered tricycles — the company calls them 'Google Trikes' — mounted with 360 degree Street View cameras to map areas inaccessible by its fleet of Street View cars." The article indicates that the trikes will first see use in the UK, to map out public walking paths, but one anonymous commenter said: "This must be bogus — you are not allowed to cycle on public footpaths in the UK, I can't believe Google would have overlooked such a fundamental fact. Not to mention that the vehicle pictured wouldn't fit down most paths." PC World features the trikes in Rome.
"The article indicates that the trikes will first see use in the UK"
He then goes on to link to pictures of them actually being used in Rome. Did the UK annex Rome?
Google Sherpa!
Soon there will be "Google Stuff in Your House" where a half dozen guys dressed head to toe in black with head mounted cameras will rifle through your belongings, cabinets, and drawers. So when you loose your cars keys, just Google it!
-- if you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine
gooba? scoogle? scooble?
just attach cameras to aquatic lifeforms and let us swim the depths of the oceans from our computers... no chance of being stabbed in the heart by a stingray, either!
It looks like the mast has 3 lidar eyes on it. How does StreetView use lidar?
With as much animosity as google street views has already been met with
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/02/1731231
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/13/0055234
I can just imagine what these guys riding around on bikes will meet up with - Can anyone say moving target?
"i lost my dignity on a slippery wiener"
I was a Seaworld in San Diego a few weeks back and one of these was driving around the various pathways taking shots for Street View. Haven't seen the data go live yet, though.
As a bicyclist, I'd love it if google had decent maps of off-street bike paths, such that I could use google maps' normal direction-finding feature with these. I've lived in lots of cities with numerous such paths, and they're usually out of the way and hard to find if you don't already know that they're there. It would be great to have a feature that a) lets me find them, and b) tells me exactly how far out of my way I'd need to go for the added safety/pleasantness of using them.
Then we hide in Vault 101.
Actually, extending StreetView to things off the street makes sense to me, for certain values of "things off the street" - there's a few businesses and the like I'd like to see mapped.
Example: I'd like to see my local zoo or one of our local museums set up so that I could use my GPS to find my way around - and being able to see some of the exhibits would be a bonus.
If *I* ran those places, I'd be begging Google to scan my site!
www.eFax.com are spammers
History has shown that the human leg is an often untapped behemoth of energy, having in the past powered generators, submarines and, of course, deep space hair dryers aboard Red Dwarf.
Next thing you know they'll be reporting that Lister has been hired to peddle the thing around London. They tried to hire Cat but he was afraid being outside in the summer heat and humidity would ruin his fantastically perfect hairdo.
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, For you are crunchy and go well with ketchup.
Regardless of whether Google is going to use Tricycles, they're not the first to market with this feature. http://www.mapjack.com/ already has many many trails mapped out, things that bicycles may even have a hard time on.
awesome. To the best of my knowledge, GPS's will show rivers, but if you are paddling on one, it won't give you a great ETA. Google Rivers, on the other hand, could record average current speed and all the bends in the river to a genuine geocoded object instead of a dumb jpeg. That would be pretty sweet.
Did the UK annex Rome?
No, it was the other way round. Rome invaded Britain in 43AD. I think they've mostly gone home now.
Smivs on the intertubes!
Just add some bells and a freezer and it can further add to Google revenue!!!
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
I'm sorry...What!?
That has to be the most retarded comment I've ever heard. No one should be limited to rights just because of how "Big" they are.
The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
Why is it ok in the public eye for google to do this, but when the gov't does this it's BigBrother and 1984 all over again?
I think rights should scale up. I really don't see a problem with that.
Oh, I see, you seem to have drunk the kool-aid and accepted that corporations are people who have rights. That's where the fault lies in all your examples, not with any inductive scaling.
All that said... in this particular example, I do want my house on Google. Or, to be specific, I want other people's houses on Google -- many times I've made use of the Street View pictures to see what my destination will look like. And I can see other people wanting the same when I give them directions to my house. And I don't mind the pictures being up, and I certainly don't intend to take up a hypocritical position on the matter.
I shall be twittering this with a sigh
On someone's blogs and blogs hence:
Two paths diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less googled by,
And that has made all the difference.
--RFrostie1977
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
When they said paths, I at first thought of a path into/through the woods...not a public place like mentioned in the article.
You were right to think that - 'footpaths' in the UK are often in the countryside, or along canals or through parks etc. When they are in a city, they often were there before the city; very old routes that have been public pathways for centurys. The laws governing them and right-of-way on them go right back to medieval times.