Aerial View of My House

With the modern advent of personal GPS it has become gradually more popular to use computer tools to help navigate. Features such as road maps superimposed over

satellite images have made it increasingly easy to “see” the place you intend to travel to before going there. The ability to travel without leaving home also allows for personal exploration of the world without having to get out of a chair.

The latest trend in navigation and exploring with images is the use of panoramic street images taken from cars as they drive down the street. Google Streetview has been driving down every street that sees at least moderate traffic and taking panoramic pictures. They then upload the pictures with the corresponding GPS location the picture was taken and it provides images from the street at any address you could search for.

The data can be used to see the destination before going there. For instance if you are looking for a store in the downtown area, you can browse storefronts before actually traveling there. This can help save you from accidently going to the wrong place, because you will already be able to recognize your surroundings, which can save you time and the frustration of getting lost in an unfamiliar area.

Another up and coming method to view street images of your house is Microsoft’s “Streetslide”. This tool allows you to view the street front of an entire span of road. It also allows you to slide the view so you can travel down the street and view the storefronts, or house fronts without having to navigate with a map. This is great for viewing storefronts without knowing beforehand what you are looking for. For instance say you want to go shopping on a certain popular stretch of road. You can view the whole street front, slide along and view all the stores, pick out the ones you want to go to and travel there with a plan, knowing what you are looking for.

For the sake of privacy, the street view images use an algorythym that automatically blurs peoples faces. There have been a few instances of people complaining about their privacy being violated by the cameras. Some of the camera shots can clearly see into houses, which offends many people. However none of the camera shots taken are viewing anything any person couldn’t see by just travelling down the street.