From Google’s ever-expanding ways to help people (the lazy ones who heavily rely on the internet, that is), they bring us the Google Street View. But with those very intensive shots, did you know that a Volkswagen Beetle is one of the cars that are responsible for creating these images? Yes, the flag-bearer of the VW parts is indeed chosen to be modified for some street-picture-tripping. Popular Mechanics took a ride at how this went, and they hopped onto the “Immersive Media VW Beetle” to see how it works its magic.

There is a $45,000 Dodeca 2360 video camera atop the Beetle’s roof. This wonder camera works 11 lenses which record a 360 degree field of view at 30 frames per second. (The film Exorcist suddenly gets into my head by explaining that, reminding me of the scene where the girl’s head made a 360 degree-turn. I guess that is how this camera works.) With that span of time, 200 miles of city scenes per day were recorded. Now that is pretty amazing. The VW parts of the Beetle were like given an overhaul—the whole back seat and front passenger seat is occupied by all the gadgets that the camera needs. Impressively, it is controlled by an “off-the-shelf Logitech game controller”. The softball-sized video camera is now considered as a revolutionary tool, especially for making Street View Map possible.

The hi-tech Beetle is being driven by Kevin Nanzer, 23, a “geoimmersive data producer for Immersive Media”. He specializes mainly on spherical video—a technology that has been known to support Google advocacies like Google earth, etc. Nanzer, together with a co-worker, traverse through the streets of the country in order to get these shots.

“By the end, you’ll get to know the city better than the one you grew up in,” he says in an interview by Popular Mechanics. “You can call me if you’re lost in Oklahoma City, and I can tell you how to get somewhere. I know all the streets.”

This teched-out Volkswagen Beetle is just one out of the six cars in the States which drive around for the same purpose. The Beetle has definitely seen it all—from Hitler’s dictatorship to this modern age of video capturing—and they will last to see more.

Source: Popular Mechanics

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 at 3:31 am and is filed under Beetle News, Beetle Facts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.