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Google Street View..

GRDadof3

By GRDadof3
in Grand Rapids Coffee House

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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..will blow your mind. It's not available for GR yet, but check out a city like Chicago. How do they do this? Did they actually have photographers canvas the entire city and document every street?

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=41....6819,-87.627077

Follow the instructions and just move your guy to a blue-outlined area. Then you can move up and down the street, and click on the angled aarrows to get a 360 view in place or zoom in/out. :w00t: Now they just need to make it so you can tip up and down like a virtual tour!

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Rizzo City

Rizzo

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What they do is -- I'm speculating -- drive down the street with a camera on each axis. They might have a laptop in the vehicle with the camera and GPS attached. The camera is set to go off at equally spaced intervals, say every 200 feet. Each time the camera updates the laptop with a new photo the computer pulls the coordinates from the GPS device. After pulling the data it attaches it to individual picture frames. Since this concept has quite a bit of automation, I'm assuming all that's involved is driving down the street.

Someone in GR could do that with a few stuff -- probably all under a thousand dollars and a Sunday's drive.

I'm not kidding, but MapQuest employs an army of people to drive around neighborhoods with GPS device to record the street grid. :shok:

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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Would you believe a VW Beetle with an 11 camera orb slapped on top?

Google Street View car

[EDIT: Deeper in the above link is another link to a site where folks send in interesting images captured in Street View. Oddly facinating in a mundane way... the Ultimate Easter Egg Hunt]

Mapmole.com

Thanks Kib! Too funny.

It does have me thinking that someone saw something like that in GR??

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  • 2 weeks later...
uncus Whistle-Stop

uncus

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Did someone mention seeing one of these cars in the area recently? I swear someone saw a car with a bunch of cameras driving around downtown...

I few day ago i saw a car driving down my street with google sign on the side. On the top was an about 4 foot pole with something that could have been a camera on top. Has anyone else seen this?

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Rhino6885 Hamlet

Rhino6885

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I few day ago i saw a car driving down my street with google sign on the side. On the top was an about 4 foot pole with something that could have been a camera on top. Has anyone else seen this?

Yep...saw it in EGR the other day. I think it was a VW Jetta or something? That thing was flying around...almost blew the stop sign where I saw them.

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GR_Urbanist Burg

GR_Urbanist

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Did someone mention seeing one of these cars in the area recently? I swear someone saw a car with a bunch of cameras driving around downtown...

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/Street-L...l&hl=Google

I did mention seeing a car with cameras on it last September around Creston Heights. It didn't have a Google logo on it though.

Was the Jetta that was seen also yellow by any chance?

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towermart Unincorporated Area

towermart

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I just realized how bad my memory was. I don't remember what color it was exactly, and I can't say 100% if it was a Jetta...though I'm pretty sure it was at least a VW.

Edit: the thing on the top of the car looked exactly like the pictures uncus.

They have been in Holland also.

I tried looking for some info on the time frame from image capture and availability on Street View, but found nothing. Anybody have any idea how long that takes?

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  • 3 years later...
Kib Whistle-Stop

Kib

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Looks like the Street View car (although it might have been the 'Bing' flavor car, couldn't make out ownership as it flew by) is on the prowl again. Spotted near 5 Mile and Beltline early afternoon. Looked like a VW Bug with a sizable camera mast.

Be sure and smile as it goes by...

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Veloise City

Veloise

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They have been in Holland also.

I tried looking for some info on the time frame from image capture and availability on Street View, but found nothing. Anybody have any idea how long that takes?

Look on the Rachel Maddow blog. One of her producers was on a NYC street when it rolled by (he took a photo of it) and he later found a him-shaped blur on Google.

ETA: found it for you.

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walker Burg

walker

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Speaking of Google Street View, there is a new web site, www.whatwasthere.com, which superimposes old photographs over their locations in Google Street View. You can fade out the old picture and see how it compares to the current Google photo of the same location. Surprisingly many, but not all, of the photos align pretty close. Since this is new, they haven't loaded many Grand Rapids area photos yet.

Here is one of the old Wyoming Interurban Station around the intersection of Porter and Lee Streets:

Wyoming Interurban

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  • 3 months later...
Gorath Whistle-Stop

Gorath

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I noticed this a couple weeks ago and thought I would pass it along.

map.google.com has a new 45° view. This is similar to the Birds Eye view available on Bing. Except that the Goggle view has more recent imagery (spring/summer 2011). Zoom in close enough on satellite view it will automatically switch to the 45° view. Zoom in closer and you will get the "classic" street view. Just like in Bing's Birds Eye view you can rotate around North South East and West. To rotate drag the "N" on the compass in the upper left.

Here's a list of Cities with the 45° Imagery.

http://maps.google.c...p=&source=embed

Grand Rapids appears to be the only city in the state with this new tech.

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RegalTDP Burg

RegalTDP

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I noticed this a couple weeks ago and thought I would pass it along.

map.google.com has a new 45° view. This is similar to the Birds Eye view available on Bing. Except that the Goggle view has more recent imagery (spring/summer 2011). Zoom in close enough on satellite view it will automatically switch to the 45° view. Zoom in closer and you will get the "classic" street view. Just like in Bing's Birds Eye view you can rotate around North South East and West. To rotate drag the "N" on the compass in the upper left.

Here's a list of Cities with the 45° Imagery.

http://maps.google.c...p=&source=embed

Grand Rapids appears to be the only city in the state with this new tech.

I noticed it too and thought the city looked great - a lot has changed since they snapped the shots on Bing. Plus somehow it seems like the weather and foliage looks better on Google.

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Veloise City

Veloise

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...new web site, www.whatwasthere.com, which superimposes old photographs over their locations in Google Street View. You can fade out the old picture and see how it compares to the current Google photo of the same location. ..

Thanks for this. Finally, a place to share my old postcard collection. Added my image of the Federal soldier (Monument Park) this morning.

Discovered a limitation: if the Google car didn't snag an image at the right location, the effect is lost. I have a great postcard of the original GRPL, from the NW corner outside of Park Church, but Google hit "save" on Ransom Street and the intersection close to Memorial Park.

ETA: this is probably the best one of mine.

http://www.whatwasthere.com/browse.aspx#!/ll/42.965326,-85.670748/id/17485/info/sv/zoom/12/

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walker Burg

walker

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Good work Veloise. You are more ambitious than I am. Not to be too picky but there are a few other mismatches as well – although some of them may be Google’s fault:

  • The 1890’s YMCA was not at the location that is now the FitzGerald but rather was the building now called the Federal Square Building:

    http://farm4.static....cc0401613_z.jpg

    • The old Grand Rapids Press building was across the street from the Google placement where the surface parking lot is.

    • The Old City Hall (someone else’s picture) would have been at Lyon NW not Lyon NE several blocks to the west.

    It is interesting that the Masonic Temple postcard shows an addition that I don’t believe was ever built.

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Veloise City

Veloise

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Good work Veloise. You are more ambitious than I am. Not to be too picky but there are a few other mismatches as well – although some of them may be Google’s fault:

  • The 1890’s YMCA was not at the location that is now the FitzGerald but rather was the building now called the Federal Square Building:

    http://farm4.static....cc0401613_z.jpg

    • The old Grand Rapids Press building was across the street from the Google placement where the surface parking lot is.

    • The Old City Hall (someone else’s picture) would have been at Lyon NW not Lyon NE several blocks to the west.

    It is interesting that the Masonic Temple postcard shows an addition that I don’t believe was ever built.

    Gonna make me work, eh? Tell me the orientation on the old Evening News building and I'll reposition it. And help with OCH location and orientation, I'll put that one in too.

    ETA: just found a flag which leads to sending a dispute e-mail to the Grand Poo-Bah of the site.

    Need to find the old J.W. York factory image. I am familiar with its location.

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