This High-Tech Backpack Is Mapping the Remotest Corners for Google (Video)
Most people know about the fleet of Google cars that go around filming streets.
But what about the submarines and the tricycles and the backpacks? At Google I/O this week, the company showed off the collection of off-road gear it uses to map the places the cars can’t go.
One of the latest additions to Google’s arsenal is a 42-pound backpack equipped with 15 cameras that takes a picture every 2.5 seconds as a hiker lugs it up a mountain, along a trail or through narrow streets unreachable by other means.
So far, Google has used it to map the Grand Canyon and remote areas from Brazil to the Arctic to Venice, Italy.
At I/O, Google hooked the footage taken with the backpack to three monitors connected to a treadmill. As attendees walked along the treadmill a new image would pop up for every few meters covered.
In a video interview, Steve Silverman, program manager for Google Maps, talked about the effort.
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