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by Glenn Chapman <\/p>\n
Mountain View \u2013 Fifteen years after its launch, a Google Maps feature that lets people explore faraway places as though standing right there is providing a glimpse of the metaverse being heralded as the future of the internet.<\/p>\n
There was not yet talk of online life moving to virtual worlds when a \u201cfar-fetched\u201d musing by Google co-founder Larry Page prompted Street View, which lets users of the company\u2019s free navigation service see imagery of map locations from the perspective of being there.<\/p>\n
Now the metaverse is a tech-world buzz, with companies including Facebook parent Meta investing in creating online realms where people represented by video game-like characters work, play, shop and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cLarry Page took a video camera and stuck it out the window of his car,\u201d Google senior technical program manager Steven Silverman said, while showing AFP the garage where the company builds cameras for cars, bikes, backpacks, and even snowmobiles dispatched to capture 360-degree images worldwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was talking to some of his colleagues at the time, saying, \u2018I bet we can do something with this.\u2019 That was the start of Street View.\u201d<\/p>\n
Street View lets people click on locations in Google Maps to see what it might look like were they at that spot, and even look around.<\/p>\n
Now, the internet behemoth is introducing an \u201cimmersive view\u201d that fuses Street View images with artificial intelligence to create \u201ca rich, digital model of the world,\u201d Miriam Daniel, Google Maps Experiences vice president, said in a post.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll be able to experience what a neighbourhood, landmark, restaurant or popular venue is like \u2014 and even feel like you\u2019re right there before you ever set foot inside,\u201d Daniel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a quick search, you can virtually soar over Westminster to see the neighbourhood and stunning architecture of places, like Big Ben, up close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Google will start rolling out immersive view later this year, starting in Los Angeles, London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo.<\/p>\n
From maps to metaverse<\/strong><\/p>\n Street View imagery has been gathered in more than 100 countries and territories, ranging from places such as Mount Fuji and Grand Canyon National Park to the Great Barrier Reef.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to see what it\u2019s like to go down a ski slope, you can see where that snowmobile has gone,\u201d Silverman said, nodding toward a maroon snowmobile in the garage in the Silicon Valley city of Mountain View, California.<\/p>\n \u201cThat trike was really funny because it went around Stonehenge; and we put it on a barge and went down the Amazon River,\u201c he said of another vehicle.<\/p>\n He pointed to a backpack camera system taken for a zip-line ride in the Amazon, to provide a bird\u2019s-eye perspective.<\/p>\n Years spent capturing the real world in 360\u00ba imagery bodes well for Google when it comes to a future in which internet life shifts to immersive digital worlds, said Creative Strategies tech analyst Carolina Milanesi.<\/p>\n \u201cIt absolutely plays into the metaverse,\u201d Milanesi said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea of a digital twin of the world is certainly one aspect of it that Google will solve.\u201d<\/p>\n Silverman reasoned that, in a sense, Street View has been giving users a virtual experience for more than a decade, and the imagery naturally lends itself to depicting the real world in virtual settings.<\/p>\n \u201cIdeally, that metaverse, that world that we move into, we\u2019re going to be there,\u201d Silverman said.<\/p>\n Scores of tech firms have been rushing to invest in building the metaverse, a loose term covering the growing ecosystem of interactive online worlds, games and 3D meeting places that are already attracting millions of users.<\/p>\n Facebook renamed its parent company to Meta last year to emphasize its virtual reality vision, and opened Horizon World virtual reality platform to the North American public.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Japanese giant Sony and Lego\u2019s Danish parent firm announced a $2 billion investment in US gaming powerhouse Epic Games for its work toward joining the metaverse vision for the internet\u2019s future.<\/p>\n In the form of video games such as Epic\u2019s hit Fortnite, the precursors of the metaverse already exist in minimalist ways, with people coming together not only to play, but also to interact and participate in events.<\/p>\n What started as a \u201cfar-fetched idea\u201d by Page is \u201ccritical to our mapping efforts\u00a0\u2013 letting you see the most up-to-date information about the world, while laying the foundation for a more immersive, intuitive map\u201d, Google Maps product director Ethan Russell said in a blog post.<\/p>\n