Those Google Street View cars are great. We’ve all quickly got used to the fact that we can log onto Google Maps and instantly view pretty much any road, lane or house in the country. There’s even a bike and back-pack version for covering the more remote areas, but now Google have come up with something else.
Now, if you have a DSLR camera or a certain type of Android handset, you can submit your own Street View routes, simply by using the “sphere” option in the camera settings. The announcement, made today in the Google Blog, means that individuals, groups, businesses and charities can create their very own maps which will display on Google Street View.
Getting involved is pretty easy, but you do need to have a device like the Nexus which has the new camera and gallery app which introduces this functionality. Luckily for me, someone made an APK which you can download. Don’t worry, it doesn’t replace your original camera or gallery app, instead it runs alongside it and you can select whether you’d like to use it as the default app.
On my handset it installed and worked flawlessly. All you need to do (after installing) is choose the “Photo Sphere” mode to create a full 360 degree panorama. Just stand still in your chosen location (preferably with the phone held vertically and fairly close to you) and line up the phone with the on-screen dots.
After a few rotations you’ll have a panorama. You can do this again and again around the map / route you’d like to cover, then you can share them on Google Views so that they can be included in Google Street View. Good huh?
If you don’t have the Photo Sphere option on your camera, grab the APK here. You could cover your favourite cycle route, forest trail or even the local beer garden.
Update – Download link now fixed! Sorry guys 🙂