Google has announced that individuals can now apply for a Trekker backpack to help map the remoter parts of the planet and released a promo video (below) to that effect.
They’re looking for tourism boards, non-profits, research organizations, or “other third parties” (read: someone we can trust with our expensive equipment) who are interested in helping Google’s effort to map everything everywhere.
The Trekker is just one of the devices in Google’s arsenal for gathering Street View data. But cars can’t go everywhere, hence this forty-two pound backpack with a really big camera. Google has a more technical description:
“The Trekker is operated by an Android device and consists of 15 lenses angled in a different direction so the images can be stitched together into 360-degree panoramic views. As the operator walks, photos are taken roughly every 2.5 seconds. Our first collection using this camera technology was taken along the rough, rocky terrain of Arizona’s Grand Canyon.”
The Trekker has already seen action in the Grand Canyon, and we’ll admit that it looks pretty great. If you’re off adventuring for the summer, want to contribute to mapping something so everyone can see it, and don’t mind carrying forty-two pounds, check out the application here.
[youtube width=”640″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuiEmxDklKw[/youtube]
