Mountain View, California — Relentlessly striving to simplify things for its users, global search engine leader Google has recently gone to remarkable heights and marched through the jungle in the name of comprehensive, accurate mapping to provide users with great directions to extraordinary places. Now soon enough, visitors to the Grand Canyon will be able to get an early look at what awaits them, courtesy of Google Maps.
In its latest mission, Google has embarked on exploring the Grand Canyon with hefty backpacks to gather Street View photography, continuing its expansion of Google Maps and cocking a further snook at Apple’s upstart iOS rival app.
Now, the company is taking the plunge, with its Street View team sporting a Trekker backpacks, complete with bulbous 360-degree cameras that can gather imagery from all angles simultaneously.
Google’s Ryan Falor operates the Trekker with his Android phone at the Grand Canyon… (Credit: Google)
“We are collecting imagery from a place no car, trike or snowmobile has ever been before,” Google Street View product manager Ryan Falor wrote in a blog post.
Moving on to capture the marvelous landscapes, the Street View team is using the Trekker system, a wearable backpack with a camera system on top, trekked through through the Grand Canyon to capture 360 degree view of one of the most beautiful places in the world, which Falor called “one of the most breathtaking natural landscapes on the planet.”
The Trekker is operated via an Android smartphone but is generally autonomous, snapping shots as the wearer wanders around. Through the team’s efforts, Google Maps is now able to show the narrow ridges and steep, exposed trails and it was simply done by walking. The team did not need to photograph everything–the Trekker did it for them.
According to Google, through the use of the Street View feature on Google Maps, people around the globe have been able to discover and view panoramic views of impressive places like the Swiss Alps, the Amazon, Antarctica, and a variety of other locations around the world.
Well, if you cannot physically visit the place, then why not have Google bring it to you, right? As the Grand Canyon is…well…grand, this week the team has been capturing photos from the South Rim at Grand Canyon National Park, including the ridge, the Bright Angel Trail, South Kaibab Trail, and many others.
Besides, these photos are not just one view, it is a panoramic one meaning you will be able to see all the way around and almost visualize yourself right there. Also, it is not clear how many Trekker cameras the team has taken with it, though there are at least three being used.
According to Falor, these new panoramic views will be live soon on Google Maps, “giving everyone from real-life visitors to armchair travelers the opportunity to marvel at this beautiful, majestic site from the comfort of their computers or mobile devices.”
Although Google’s Street View photography cars have become a more frequent sighting on roads — Google Maps added 25 million new building footprints, now covering Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and the San Francisco Bay Area, aimed at helping users orient themselves among local landmarks or familiar structures. Expanded coverage runs through the U.S. and Canada, as well as the U.K., Macau, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Taiwan, Italy, Denmark, and Norway.
While you are waiting, you could always take a Street View tour through one of Google’s data centers, where all that photography will soon be residing, as well as those new roads and landscapes will all be accessible via Web and mobile browsers, including Apple’s new iOS 6 platform, the browser version of which recently got a Street View update.
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