Google knows.
This crazy article about how Google builds their maps pretty much blew my mind. And unless you're the only person still using MapQuest (shoutout to Mom, their most loyal customer!) you probably use Google Maps to tell you how to get places, via pretty much any method of transportation save horseback, or what your destination actually looks like in real life, or even how long it will take you to get from A to B. In current traffic.
To achieve this goal of bridging online and offline information, Google uses cameras on cars. (And bikes - I have seen many Google employees in Kendall Square with a camera atop their bike helmet ...and may be caught gawking at them in the street view of this are. Haven't looked; ignorance is bliss.)
Enough of my pro-Google bloggin'. The coolest part of the article speaks for itself:
"Google is up to five million miles driven now. Each drive generates two kinds of really useful data for mapping. One is the actual tracks the cars have taken; these are proof-positive that certain routes can be taken. The other are all the photos. And what's significant about the photographs in Street View is that Google can run algorithms that extract the traffic signs and can even paste them onto the deep map within their Atlas tool."
No comments:
Post a Comment