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The Google Street View vehicle revealed
engadget.com — By now, we're pretty sure you've heard about Google's new Street View feature, right? If you're like us, you've been wondering about the vehicles they're using to create those voyeuristic, 360-degree, street-level images in Manhattan's concrete canyons and beyond. Well, here's a hint: that's Immersive Media's vehicle reflected in the Street View pi
Alex76- 2842 diggs
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- emiller, on 10/11/2007, -51/+31"FREE CANDY"
- TomPlansMedia, on 10/11/2007, -8/+200really google, an astro van?
- wild, on 10/11/2007, -2/+72You know, for being around about a day, people sure are finding a ton of crazy *****.
Makes you wonder what will never be found, doesn't it? - smoothmedia, on 10/11/2007, -4/+179I await the "Google Streetview Nipslip" photos
- lordofhaha, on 10/11/2007, -6/+51I apologize for the comment abuse but direct link on google maps of the van:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.871827,-122.268356&cbp=2,263.306329353911,0.560851827385273,3&ll=37.89057,-122.264528&spn=0.037187,0.113554&z=14 - GawtMilk, on 10/11/2007, -4/+104Hey kid...we've got PageRank, get in the van.
- lava, on 10/11/2007, -9/+32My favorite thing to do is find a car and click the arrows to see if I can catch up to it.
And no one gets the free candy reference?
http://myspaceantics.com/images/funny/free-candy.jpg - inio, on 10/11/2007, -3/+28Here's a better view, where you can see the camera on top:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.783829,-122.407851&cbp=1,225.3991796875,0.521163934062604,2&ll=37.801307,-122.404604&spn=0.03418,0.073299&z=14
er, wait, the "camera" is a lamp on the other side of the street... - zetamilk, on 10/11/2007, -1/+36Go around the corner and you can see the driver:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.87209,-122.268739&cbp=1,171.866525168823,0.542561703493093,3&ll=37.890841,-122.264872&spn=0.052495,0.071497&z=14 - vibri2001, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13@zetamilk-actually since this is a reflection that would be the passenger.
- sonaboy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+56somehow i'm disappointed that it's not a Delorean that runs on garbage and socks.
- roosterjm2k2, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7Dang...
Beat to it. I was going all over new york looking for reflective buildings...could never really catch a reflection with enough definition to see what the vehicle was.
Good find... - nickconsumtion, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10I actually saw one of these vans when it was driving around taking pictures. I remember my wife and I going "what the hell is that?" I wish I could remember where we were, 'cause I'd love to see if there's a photo of us in our car out there.
- allywilson, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8If only they'd made it look like the A-Team's van...
- marm0t, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1I happened to see one of these vans about 2-3 months ago while visiting family in Texas.
- pyrophire, on 10/11/2007, -4/+13"You know, for being around about a day, people sure are finding a ton of crazy *****.
Makes you wonder what will never be found, doesn't it?"
No, it makes you wonder why these people dont have something better to do. - sjl127, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1Google bows down to communist china. ***** them.
- TinFoil209, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.87209,-122.268739&cbp=1,171.866525168823,0.542561703493093,3&ll=37.890841,-122.264872&spn=0.052495,0.071497&z=14
The tire is missing a center cap, and is really low on air. Or tons of equipment in it. Maybe that van IS GOOGLE! have all the equipment to push the site and how they can do the free wifi cause they just drive around all day! - Shenanigans, on 10/11/2007, -3/+4Edit: Bury this
- Scotepi, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1check out the last InDigital, they have a little segment on it
- lockedon, on 10/11/2007, -141/+1GAY
- frodsteamin2, on 10/11/2007, -1/+175this is not the place or time to come out...
- scispaz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4There is a time and a place for everything. It is called college. In a few years, you might actually get to go there.
- digitalmadman, on 10/11/2007, -29/+2Whats with the FBI style black van..and whats the round white antenna on the back? Google Wardriving maps next feature to come out?
- dahuf, on 10/11/2007, -6/+31FBI is going to LOVE this. London Police are gonna cream their pants. "What that car? Our surveillance vehicle? Nooo... thats the local street mapping company..."
- rspeed, on 10/11/2007, -2/+7You think maybe it's a GPS antenna?
- johoshua, on 10/11/2007, -1/+31That is a Trimble GPS receiver by the looks of it. Basically it stamps the 360 pic files with a "geocoding", or coordinate system values. Probably in UTM (Universal Trans-Mercator). So that being said, you can dump the 360 pics into a geodatabase, probably an ESRI platform. Then when Google Maps is queried, it "looks" for the nearest coord match, and PRESTO, your caught in front of a Adult Theater!
- allywilson, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2@johoshua
What - do you work for 'em like? - jlettee, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"What - do you work for 'em like?"
I do, and he's right. By the looks of it, it's a Trimble R7. Flatter than most. I HAVE to send this link to the rest of the office!
- RealmDown, on 10/11/2007, -8/+22I foresee a new Google Gone Wild page when they get to Florida.
- Gerolsteiner, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5As a Miami resident, I gotta admit, the city looks pretty dull with this, at least the areas I just drove through.
- KnightMareInc, on 10/11/2007, -4/+5Yeah they said on buzz outloud that it was a van.Alot of people were wondering why a van was driving around their house taking pics.
- mannymix03, on 10/11/2007, -3/+13heres a link to the companies website, with a flash demo of how it works
http://immersivemedia.com/demo/demo.php#- jeffeb3, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1I don't think that's the camera used. If you look at the demo video, you can see areas of darkness that follow a soccer ball shape. That makes sense, because if you look at the spherical camera, there are lenses on all sides, up and down, left and right. The Street View stuff has dark lines two, in a similar way, but the lines are vertical and there are six of them. That kind of reminds me of the Stanford grand challenge vehicle that had 6 lenses and one CCD. I think that's what's being used.
Here's an article from about a week ago. http://www.i4u.com/article9044.html about Stanford and Google striking a deal, I think it's probably related. - TinFoil209, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1They must like Apple cause their using some Apple's sound loops. Listen!
- jeffeb3, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1I don't think that's the camera used. If you look at the demo video, you can see areas of darkness that follow a soccer ball shape. That makes sense, because if you look at the spherical camera, there are lenses on all sides, up and down, left and right. The Street View stuff has dark lines two, in a similar way, but the lines are vertical and there are six of them. That kind of reminds me of the Stanford grand challenge vehicle that had 6 lenses and one CCD. I think that's what's being used.
- tdrizzle, on 10/11/2007, -116/+2I wouldn't exactly say that one crappy cellphone camera spy-shot "revealed" a whole bunch.
- dannyboy3020, on 10/11/2007, -3/+89Um, it is the reflection of the van from a picture taken by the van itself...
- Crispin, on 10/11/2007, -22/+8I think the van just caught a reflection of itself in a window.
Damn, Danny beat me by 2 minutes. - speaker219, on 10/11/2007, -2/+51@tdrizzle
You, sir, are a dumbass.
Read much?
- tdrizzle, on 10/11/2007, -14/+46OH God, they've activated the Ion cannon.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=new+york&ie=UTF8&om=1&layer=c&cbll=40.673835,-74.406761&cbp=1,234.924811093247,0.61024115755627,1&ll=40.69795,-74.405594&spn=0.099562,0.150032&z=13- merreborn, on 10/11/2007, -3/+10If you "go down the street" by clicking the "SE" arrow, the "ion cannon" follows the van. It even reappears after going under an overpass half a mile down the road. Apparently light was leaking into the camera in some way.
- coit, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1That's not an Ion cannon, that's ET phoning home.
- LatvianHedgehog, on 10/11/2007, -6/+4Poor E.T. standing right beside that ion cannon ray
- SevanElevan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1They were just filming a cutscene for Halo 3.
- supaneko, on 10/11/2007, -14/+1Hmm... So, they "found" ET? I'm curious because I haven't found any articles to explain this to me: Why is ET pictured on one of the streets with an accompanying laser beam?
- StandardsDT, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2It's simple either light leaked into the camera or it's a lens flare. Either way that picture was taken in New Jersey so it doesn't surprise me much something like that happened since all of the weird things tend to happen here, even on that highway near the street.
- StandardsDT, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2It's simple either light leaked into the camera or it's a lens flare. Either way that picture was taken in New Jersey so it doesn't surprise me much something like that happened since all of the weird things tend to happen here, even on that highway near the street.
- joshua5, on 10/11/2007, -2/+41surprise surprise. much to Digg's disappointment its not some futuristic Google hovercraft but just a regular guy with a blue van and digital camera
- RealmDown, on 10/11/2007, -4/+15Pay no attention to the man with camera.
These aren't the spys you are looking for.
- RealmDown, on 10/11/2007, -4/+15Pay no attention to the man with camera.
- DuhStupid, on 10/11/2007, -18/+1Auto Bury: Engadget ARticle.
- empeethree, on 10/11/2007, -1/+88If you knew when this van was going to be in your city, you could follow it around and be in every picture.
- RealmDown, on 10/11/2007, -2/+30Now there is a good task for a "Flash Crowd."
- graystar, on 10/11/2007, -2/+64Maybe people could hold up signs advertising.
- ctc803, on 10/11/2007, -9/+1@empeethree
aahha wow your comment cracked me up
- RealmDown, on 10/11/2007, -2/+30Now there is a good task for a "Flash Crowd."
- speaker219, on 10/11/2007, -8/+2Check out this awesome 360-degree streaming video:
(you can actually rotate around while the video is playing)
http://demos.immersivemedia.com/index_directorfound.php?scene=N3 - TomT223, on 10/11/2007, -10/+1Until it comes to Paris, Texas what good is it?
- 3mpire, on 10/11/2007, -14/+4I don't see what the big deal is. Amazon's A9 maps did this back in the ohFive.
- troub, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5If I remember that correctly, though, they weren't completely 360-degree panoramic, zoomable, etc.
- NinjaBoy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+21Because unlike A5, i actually use google maps.
- rewber, on 10/11/2007, -5/+0They've actually been doing 360 Panoramic live streaming movies since real player video came out, I remember back in like '99 realplayer was doing this with one of the first 360 lens camera. Same thing but flash makes it much more compatible
- jrowa, on 10/11/2007, -6/+3Is that Larry Page in the driving seat?
- mattrobuck, on 10/11/2007, -10/+4Its not Google you dummies, its Mr. T and the A-team!!
- RealmDown, on 10/11/2007, -8/+1shudup fool! you give us away! Murdoch, get your head back in the window.
- FreydNot, on 10/11/2007, -1/+14Quit your jibber jabber
- RealmDown, on 10/11/2007, -8/+1shudup fool! you give us away! Murdoch, get your head back in the window.
- pvtjohndoe, on 10/11/2007, -2/+26Microsoft uses a slightly more conspicuous SUV (plastered with ads) to take photos for it's similar Windows Live Local beta.
http://onemanshouting.com/tech/2006/06/11/IfYouSeeThisTruckSayCheese.aspx- RealmDown, on 10/11/2007, -8/+5Egg magnet.
- snotrokit, on 10/11/2007, -1/+28if I see the MS truck, I'm dropping trou.
- Tsen, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11Why is "Chewbacca" painted on the back?
- RealmDown, on 10/11/2007, -8/+5Egg magnet.
- SteveCUBE, on 10/11/2007, -3/+49We're so trusting of Google. If the government did this we would all be up in arms. My emails, calendars, schedules, documents are all under Google control :p
- BenKenobi88, on 10/11/2007, -1/+32Exactly. And nobody will really care when Google buys the entire island of Madagascar for "server farms."
Google Army? Sure, it needs security for its server farms.
Google Navy? Well...um...Google doesn't really need that...
Google Nuclear? And thus Google takes over the world. - isleshocky77, on 10/11/2007, -4/+8Yeah, I'm waiting for someone to have a problem that their license plate number is now on google.
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.871293,-122.268296&cbp=1,166.320084440828,0.595265680364251,3&ll=37.885828,-122.264442&spn=0.028383,0.080338&z=14 - LonesomeFighter, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1i own Google stocks, therefore i make money off Google, therefore i will let them do whatever they please.
- grumpyrain, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1> Yeah, I'm waiting for someone to have a problem that their license plate number is now on google.
Zooming out a bit, he has bigger problems with crazy clouds that are eating buildings. - BluSkreenOfDeth, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@Grumpyrain
It's the fog...quick, everyone inside!!!
- BenKenobi88, on 10/11/2007, -1/+32Exactly. And nobody will really care when Google buys the entire island of Madagascar for "server farms."
- yujie, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1I thought it was a big truck with cameras.
- limpits, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0hopefully they will put up dates when they expect to have different cities updated. (that would also aide in empeethree's idea above)
- eatasandwich, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6I live in Edmonds, WA (which is far from being a sprawling metropolis).
I saw a van similar to the one in the photo - driving slowly around town. I forget what the name of the company was, but the van had advertising pasted all over it (which explained that it was doing exactly what the van in this photo is doing).
So anyway - SOMEONE (maybe google related) is already taking mapping service 360 degree photos in the small towns.
- eatasandwich, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6I live in Edmonds, WA (which is far from being a sprawling metropolis).
- djdigital, on 10/11/2007, -12/+3I found this 12 hours ago......
http://digg.com/tech_news/The_Google_Maps_Street_View_Van - john95127, on 10/11/2007, -3/+145I found Borat!
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=172+bush+street+san+jose+ca&sll=37.331125,-121.90412&sspn=0.001766,0.005305&ie=UTF8&ll=37.333842,-121.904383&spn=0.007063,0.014184&t=h&z=16&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.330215,-121.904609&cbp=1,228.524445849344,0.569515768951404,3- sipsyrup, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14... how did you even find this
- NtHammer, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7you have a very keen eye, and a lot of time on your hands
- nick2, on 10/11/2007, -0/+17$10 says its where you live...
- Sashdaman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6GREAT SUCCESS!
- kfritzy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1VERY NIICE!!!!
- adam07, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Very nice!
bah beaten, oh well.
I like sex!
- SailRacer, on 10/11/2007, -7/+1That picture is terrible.
- Hexxagonal, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5Indigital had a whole segment on one of their shows about these vans.
http://revision3.com/indigital/winner
Well, it's the tele atlas van, but it gets the point across - lunchmeat, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10The best story I heard so far was of a friend whose HR manager found an image of him on street view having coffee at a cafe next to his workplace and sent it to him with a note saying "now even google knows you are a slacker". He sent me the picture. The funny thing is, he looks kind of surprised and guilty in the picture.
- elucubra, on 10/11/2007, -3/+0A while back I saw a rather junkish van drive by my town, a small town near Madrid, Spain, with a roof rack with eight or so cameras mounted pointing to all directions (horizontal). I guessed they were doing something like this for a GPS software company.
I wonder, what do the anti-terrorist goons think of this? - displaynone, on 10/11/2007, -2/+14Here's the team revealed
http://digg.com/programming/The_Google_Maps_Street_View_Team_Pic- bowl, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.420894,-122.084098&cbp=1,356.927512057877,0.501172314593583,0&ll=37.424826,-122.084391&spn=0.007685,0.020084&t=h&z=16
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.420908,-122.084369&cbp=1,442.505850582796,0.496767923680336,0&t=h&ll=37.425338,-122.082009&spn=0.008708,0.016673&z=16
I like how if you go down the block a little ways you can still see them from all different angles.
- bowl, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.420894,-122.084098&cbp=1,356.927512057877,0.501172314593583,0&ll=37.424826,-122.084391&spn=0.007685,0.020084&t=h&z=16
- bradg2, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2They made the van black so people wouldn't spot it and know what it was. If that happened, there would be people running along side the van for 8 blocks flipping it off.
- jibijibi, on 10/11/2007, -3/+16that looks like a rape van from the early '90
- aquataine, on 10/11/2007, -6/+11http://streetviewr.com FTW
- RealmDown, on 10/11/2007, -3/+0If they use a Hummer instead of a van, they might get into Area 51 this time...
- lcarsdeveloper, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Wow, I spent 15 minutes trying to find some kind of reflective building in New York so I could see what the van looked like with no luck, thanks for posting this!
I remember I saw the van back when Amazon had their A9 Maps, but that only showed the left and right side of the streets. It didn't have full 360 degree views, and it closed down last year anyway. - thedarkrabbit, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5If you need your city photographed... and you can find them... you can call:
THE A-TEAM! (or Google) - rauz, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1The car shown here looks quite different - for starters it's a new Beetle, not a van.
http://www.prdifferently.com/2007/05/what_the_immers.html- markdr123, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I'd imagine they have a fleet of various vehicles doing the photographing.
Incidentally, there may be hope for having street view of smaller towns in the fullness of time - as I said in the comments of the original story about street view I saw one of these vehicles in my small UK town a while ago, and it looked just like these ones that are coming up.
- markdr123, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I'd imagine they have a fleet of various vehicles doing the photographing.
- MikeOSX, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7I better see them driving around Chicago sometime soon.
- gmillerd, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Lots of companies do this, its not google its contractors. Yo ucan already go to other map websites and see chicago. i believe the MS webmap thing has the loop and east to the lake done.
- Pimpalicious316, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1apple store:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=apple+store,+ny&ie=UTF8&ll=40.764513,-73.973144&spn=0.001245,0.003814&t=k&z=19&om=1&layer=c&cbll=40.763939,-73.973264&cbp=1,101.933822347267,0.5,0 - bobojen, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0Google for President!
- tablatronix, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1Do you guys not remember these projects being on digg like 6 months ago ?
- Chronicgaming, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Man, I can't even remember projects that were posted 6 hours ago... Wasn't there a story about some Street View program from Google posted recently?
- NinjaBoy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2They are doing this with different types of vehicles in different places. Thats why some of the images will let you look upwards and others wont.
- trzynascie, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I think it's Citibank's viral ad...
- phredgreen, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2i'm pretty sure that when the phoenix area pictures go live, there'll be an image of me checking the air pressure on the tires of my car.
i was working outside in my cul-de-sac and saw a brown astrovan with a wacky camera setup on its roof pull into the street, pull a hard u-turn at the end of the street, and wander back out, me looking bemusedly at it the whole time.
i look forward to seeing if my suspicions are correct. - nicku, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Now I'll be mooning every Astro van that drives by.
- skyteria, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12I was doing that long before Google Street View.
- faz9, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3This was the best refection of a van I've seen. Not sure if its been posted http://www.google.com/maps?q=970+OFarrell+St,+San+Francisco,+CA+94109,+USA&ie=UTF8&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.786917,-122.398094&cbp=1,313.526530345659,0.527702791882909,3&ll=37.803409,-122.407608&spn=0.032145,0.086517&z=14
- smaisch, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Whoa! I just was looking at an Immersive Media VW Bug the other day because it had camera rigs attached to it! Expect Savannah, GA to be on the map sometime in the near future!
- howdog, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0
I don't know about you all, but I'm getting motion sickness playing with this thing.
/barfs - surfmore, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0I have seen this car driving down Lincoln in Anaheim CA about a month ago. It looks like something the Ghost Busters would ride around in. From what I can remember, it was a dark blue suburban with the camera's mounted on top (looking very odd) and had decals all over it, I remember one being a Microsoft ad. If I see it again, I will be sure to take pictures.
- vibri2001, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9California gas at $2.59 a gallon? When did this project start? 1994?
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=fulton+st+and+Lyon+st,+san+francisco,+ca+94117&sll=37.769079,-122.444932&sspn=0.03847,0.068407&ie=UTF8&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.742378,-122.421968&cbp=1,227.747991107315,0.430411636585284,2&ll=37.757755,-122.415934&spn=0.041597,0.090637&z=14- Tabou, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7Quite the short memory you have. Gas WAS that low a mere couple of months ago.
- dirvish, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1April: http://sitez.foundnews.com/2007/05/31/bonds-740/
- Allanon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1InDigital Episode 16 had a segment about the Tele Atlas GPS van that collects the GPS, video, photos, etc. information for maps and GPS devices.
Segment starts at about 6:32
http://revision3.com/indigital/winner -
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