Comments on: StreetView coming to Italy

By: Manhattan gets a StreetView refresh | Digital Earth Blog

Manhattan gets a StreetView refresh | Digital Earth Blog — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:42:00 +0000

[...] on their post, it seems that the Manhattan refresh is the only new imagery for now — no Italy or Atlanta yet. Along with fresh, sharper imagery, you’ll now be able to look upward as [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:00:34 +0000

Have a look at an illustration of the process here:
http://www-video.eecs.berkeley.edu/~frueh/3d/proc/index.html

As you can see from the pics, it’s not perfect, but it does a reasonable job.

By: mickey

mickey — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:47:36 +0000

Mark – Thanks for the info. I’m sure it must be very hard for the system to determine things like:

“Is that two light poles, or two columns sticking out from the building?”

I agree with your last statement — if anyone can do it large scale, it’s Google.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:46:15 +0000

Good question – Getting rid of all the foreground stuff like cars and bushes is a real problem. In the example 3D model I linked, the system strips out all the foreground clutter, and then fills in the holes in the building façade by interpolation.
No question that doing this kind of reconstruction on a large scale is a really hard problem. But it has been done for pretty large examples by the research group at Berkeley, and if anyone can make it work on the large scale, it’s Google.

By: mickey

mickey — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:05:51 +0000

I wonder about that myself. I don’t have enough knowledge about the laser systems to be able to give a qualified answer. If I find out how that works, I’ll be sure to post it.

By: FlagFreak

FlagFreak — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:43:05 +0000

3D buildings from Street View could be a good idea, but what about all those bushes, trees, cars, people, bicycles, signs, pets, etc., getting in the way?