However, while these cameras made it possible for Google to capture many more remote places, they tended to be bulky and heavy and required a bunch of computing power that had to be added within the Street View vehicles.
Google on Tuesday unveiled a new Street View camera that it believes will make it much easier to take pictures of the world, especially in remote areas like small islands and mountaintops. The camera weighs 15 pounds (about one-tenth the weight of the current camera plus all the electronics required by the current camera); modular so that it can be customized with different sensors such as lidar when needed; It can be quickly attached to the top of the car roof rack without having to customize the car (making it possible to connect it to many types of cars).
As with the current Street View camera, it includes seven individual cameras, each with a 20MP sensor, that can take 140MP panoramic photos.
Last week, Google gave CNN Business an exclusive look at the new camera in the company’s Street View garage in Mountain View, California, along with a tour of the array of cameras and vehicles Street View has used over the years.
The camera is nice – even for a monitor. It’s the size of a cat or a small dog, and the top is blue, with a white circle surrounding each of the large camera lenses (which look like the eyes of a large insect).
Some of the cut-outs in the plastic make it look, from certain angles, like it has a small mustache. The bulk of its rectangular body is silver in color, with black handles for easy portability (which naturally look like little arms too).
Maria Biggs, who leads the team that designed and built the new camera, said her team was trying to make the camera portable so that it could be shipped on its own, rather than in an entire car, to various locations where it could at that time be connected to cars.[منأجلالقيامبذلك،فإنالأجهزةالإلكترونيةالتيتموضعهاعادةًفيالمقعدالخلفيلسيارةالتجوّلالافتراضيكانتمناسبةللكاميراالجديدةقالتبيغزإنهمنأجلتقليصإلكترونياتالكاميرا،صممفريقهالوحاتطاقةومعالجةأصغرمنحجميدهايمكنتشغيلهبواسطةسيارةأوتوصيلهمباشرةبالبطارية[nordertodothistheelectronicsthattypicallyhavebeenfitintothebackseatofaStreetViewcarhavebeenfitintothenewcameraBiggssaidthatinordertoshrinkthecamera’selectronicsherteamdesignedpowerandprocessingboardssmallerthanthesizeofherhandItcanbepoweredbyacarorconnecteddirectlytoabattery[منأجلالقيامبذلك،فإنالأجهزةالإلكترونيةالتيتموضعهاعادةًفيالمقعدالخلفيلسيارةالتجوّلالافتراضيكانتمناسبةللكاميراالجديدةقالتبيغزإنهمنأجلتقليصإلكترونياتالكاميرا،صممفريقهالوحاتطاقةومعالجةأصغرمنحجميدهايمكنتشغيلهبواسطةسيارةأوتوصيلهمباشرةبالبطارية[nordertodothistheelectronicsthattypicallyhavebeenfitintothebackseatofaStreetViewcarhavebeenfitintothenewcameraBiggssaidthatinordertoshrinkthecamera’selectronicsherteamdesignedpowerandprocessingboardssmallerthanthesizeofherhandItcanbepoweredbyacarorconnecteddirectlytoabattery
The Street View team is testing the new camera near its headquarters in Mountain View, and plans to start using it on a large scale next year.
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