Google develops a new camera system for historical street views

Google Street View celebrated its 15th anniversary recently, wherein it received some fantastic features. First, it received a new camera that could capture a 360 degrees view of the world. It could capture the images of mountain tops, remote islands, local towns, and under-mapped areas like Amazon jungles.

One of its many unique features is the time capsule of places. Whether you are an Android or iOS user, you can now tap on a place and get a historical view of that place. You will be able to see how it looked in a specific year and how it evolved. You will also be able to see its street view imagery simultaneously.

You have to tap on a place and select see more dates. You will be able to see images as far as 2007, the year of the introduction of Google Street View. One of its other takeaway features is that it is modular and portable. According to Google, “it is roughly the size of a house cat.”


Even though it is small, it can take his resolution images and process them surprisingly well. It weighs 15 pounds and can house various camera components. Street View can be beneficial in adding business details to Google Maps, enhancing its Live View feature, and providing viewers with immersive images of places.

The camera can be customized to add or remove various features like laser scanners, lidar sensors, etc. You can fit it on any street view cars, vehicles with roof racks, and trekkers and use it with just your phone. The absence of the need for complex processing equipment or specialized vehicles makes it a must-have.

Google Street View has more than 220 billion street view images from 100 countries and territories. These images are sourced by Google and its partners worldwide.