Google Street View Comes To The Grand Canyon With Camera Backpack

Google Street View Comes To The Grand Canyon With Camera Backpack

Google is taking its quest to photograph the world to an amazing new extreme with its new generation of Trekker camera backpacks.

Street View lets Google Maps users 'walk' through an area via a series of 360-degree photographs.

Since its launch in 2007 the service has expanded from covering just a few cities to include five million miles of panoramic photos. Recently Google added 250,000 miles of new roads in a single update, and it has already published pictures taken on a modified tricycle, from the cobblestone lanes of a Spanish village, and under the oceans off Australia's Coral Reef.

The kit weighs 40 pounds, and takes an image every 2.5 seconds with 15 (5-megapixel) cameras.

It was announced earlier this year, but Google recently showed it off when it took the kit into the Grand Canyon, to take photographs of some of the most popular walking trails.

Google Street View In The Grand Canyon

The company's engineering director Luc Vincent took the backpack into the Bright Angel Trail to the Colorado River, a 10-mile hike.

Google says it wants to send the packs to Everest, the streets of Venice and ancient castles around the world - including, possibly, here in Britain.

Take a look at the kit in action below.

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