Google Tricycles To Map Footpaths For Street View 274
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.
Hmmm . . . . (Score:2, Interesting)
google + scuba = ? (Score:4, Interesting)
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!
LIDAR? (Score:4, Interesting)
Just saw one of these.... (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a few businesses and the like... (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [scz.org] or one of our local museums [oldcowtown.org] 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!
It's not legs, it's people! (Score:1, Interesting)
Google is missing a big opportunity here.
Granted that there's an eco-friendly message being delivered with pedal powered mobility. But the real problem is not putting a non-polluting vehicle on smaller paths, but putting a human directed camera system on smaller paths. This is a perfect job for wheelchair bound people.
So you may need a different vehicle design besides a tricycle and you'll need a small, electric motor. You'll still be running vehicles with a low carbon footprint. But you'll be able to put to work a huge group disabled people who normally wouldn't have outdoor opportunities like this. And I'm sure you'll find lots of tech-savvy folks in the mix too.
One could even argue that not designing the project to allow disabled individuals to perform the work is job discrimination.
Re:Forget street view, how about decent maps (Score:2, Interesting)
Be sure to check out Openstreetmap.org. It is basically a collaborative mapping project where you can upload your own features in a patent unencumbered manner.
I've been mapping a lot of my local bike and wooded paths in my area using GPS.
Your area may already have this information.
oh I was wondering (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Rights Do Not Scale Up (Score:3, Interesting)
The scale. The scale is the difference. Your post is exactly the kind of argument that I object to.
What you say is correct. It is legal for you to take a picture of my house, and many other house. It is legal for you post those pictures online. It is true that everyone else can legally do so to do so. Moreover, it is right and proper that it should be legal for them to do so.
But your reasoning is false. It is not right for Google to create something as grand and encompassing as Street View. You cannot inductively step from individuals snapping the odd photograph to a multinational corporation creating a comprehensive, unprecedented, worldwide, image database which is totally unaccountable to everyone it affects.
The laws of society are not a mathematical framework. The base case of one, or a few individuals doing this for a few house is fine. But the inductive step is flawed. This step assumes that if what your are doing is legal/fine/moral for k houses, then it must be legal/fine/moral for k+1 houses. It's only one extra house after all. This reasoning is inherently flawed, based as it is on a black and white, binary view of legality and rights.
The whole can be more than the sum of the parts. Sometimes, even if every single part of the whole is just and correct, the whole of the whole can be rotten to its core. It is not right for Google to do what it is doing, particularly in the way that it is doing it. Unilaterally, and without consultation or consent.
Re:LIDAR? (Score:3, Interesting)
First of, that are likely four LIDARs. Two horizontal (forward-backward), two vertical (left-right).
My semi-educated guess:
- Horizontal: Kind of SLAM [wikipedia.org]: Creating a map and improving the own position accuracy (as initially determined by GPS) through a map.
- Vertical: 3D surface-reconstruction.
Re:Pretty soon ... (Score:1, Interesting)
Actually, if you had a picture of your keys you might be able to construct a new one based on that. A while ago (can't find it at the moment) there was an article about people making copies of keys based on pictures posted on the Internet. I have even done it myself when I lost the key to my garage. I took an old spare key and a file and reshaped it to match "good enough" to open the garage. I still use that key.
Wouldn't work too well with modern car keys though because they often have a solid bar in the middle that makes it hard to determine the shape from a picture alone.
Re:Pretty soon ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Isn't this a problem we all often encounter at work? Those who do not understand the technology or process do not understand the limits of the technology or the process.
I've a coworker, a "well-seasoned" gentleman, who does not understand internal combustion engines, nor basic chemistry. He insists that it must be possible for them to run on water, and that the oil companies have bought up all the patents from the people who have invented cars that run on water. I tried to explain the nature of endothermic reactions to him (in non-chemistry speak, of course), but he could not be budged.
Or when S&M promises features to a client that can't possibly be delivered on top of the existing project architecture...
I think it's great though, that your Mom's friend thought Google Earth would be able to do that. It makes it easier to convince the stupid users that the BOFH can ruin their life, quite easily. Let them all believe that we have tools at our fingertips to spy on their every move.