Today, May 24, the Street View feature of Google Maps has received several major improvements in honor of the 15th anniversary of this project. For example, the “time machine” function for viewing the history of images in a particular section of Street View is now available to owners of smartphones on Android and iOS. For the first time, Google introduced this feature in 2014 – then, in the “Street View” mode, users could look at some important building, studying how it changed over time. True, the timeline scroll slider was implemented only in the desktop version of Maps, while now the same feature has appeared on smartphones.
To access the new feature, the user in Street View mode needs to click anywhere on the screen, and then click on the “View more dates” item. Then a line with several photos will appear on the screen, thanks to which you can study the historical data about some location. Google said that the feature will show footage starting in 2007, but, of course, only in certain locations. This means that some important buildings, reconstructions or locations will indeed fall into the “time machine”, but this does not apply to absolutely all buildings.
The second major update to celebrate the anniversary of the service is a brand new handheld camera built to capture 360-degree images. The fact is that at the moment Google uses either special cars with a camera system, or specialists with large Trekkers backpacks. In order to simplify the task of capturing content, the search giant has created a more compact camera that weighs about 7 kilograms – it is compact, relatively light and comfortable. The Google blog even states that this camera is about the size of a domestic cat.
This camera was specifically designed to make it easier for Google employees to capture images for Street View around the world – thanks to its lighter weight and dimensions, as well as simplified operation, it will be easier to update content. In addition, this will save the company a lot of money, since now there is no need to rent special cars with equipment – the new camera can be mounted on any car in order to travel around the location and shoot the appropriate shots. Most likely, this camera will go into operation next year.
Source: Trash Box
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