The Google Earth blog had a link to the technology behind Google Maps’ new Street View feature. The technology was created by Immersive Media, and features a camera with eleven lenses arranged in geodesically on a sphere. The camera not only takes still images, but does video as well.
Immersive Media has put several demos on their site using the new technology. These are truly amazing. You can watch the video from just about any angle or perspective. You can turn your head to look left and right as your driving down a street, look down while flying over terrain, etc. etc.
I haven’t looked to see how large each movie file is, but I’m guessing that space would be an issue unless they have some phenomenal compression going on. I also would hate to guess what one of these development systems would cost.
[tags]immersive media, street view, google maps, 3D[/tags]