With an aim to let people share wonderful images of their surroundings with their family and friends, Google has announced a new "Street View ready" certification standard, integrated with 20 new 360-degree cameras, which will be available in the market in 2017.
You may ask if you can avail the technology with your smartphone camera. Well, the answer is no. You just need any mobile phone with video camera feature to vlog but specific cameras are required to share your experience through Google's street view ready programme.
The search giant said that 20 new 360-degree cameras that meet its certification standard will be released over the coming months.
Also read: India turns down Google's Street View technology
The certification standard programme covers four categories of cameras and they are:
1) Street View mobile ready: To publish photos on Street View directly from a mobile app
2) Street View auto ready: It is tailored for vehicle-based collection
3) Street View vr ready: To capture geometry for VR content
4) Street View workflow ready: Publishing tools that can upload to Street View accounts
If you have a camera that meets Google's set standard, you can download the Street View app and experience the new programme.
"You can walk, run, bike, drive -- even ride a horse -- while we do the heavy lifting of connecting each frame of your video into a traditional, interactive Street View experience," wrote Charles Armstrong, Product Manager for Google Street View, on a blog post.
It may be mentioned that India has reportedly turned down Google's request to feature it in its Street View technology last year over security concerns. However, the technology has been launched in some tourist spots like Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Mysore Palace, Jantar Mantar, Chinnaswamy stadium and several others in partnership with the Archaeological Society of India (ASI) on an experimental basis.
Google Street View technology was first launched in 2017 and has been extensively used in the U.S., Canada and several European countries.
