Sunday, January 24, 2010

When will we have live street view?

I've been thinking. Today we can use the Internet to look at street-level view in Google, see photos on a map taken by Flickr users, immerse ourselves in photos stitched together by Microsoft Photosynth, and even walk indoors with EveryScape. And of course we can look at live webcams, like this high quality camera in Amsterdam.

So when will we bring all of this together, so we have the best of everything in one place? Heck, imagine adding in the video from webcams mounted on street lamps, city buses, light rail, garbage trucks, UPS trucks, and the like. And then imagine bringing in photos and video streaming from smart phones, cameras, and other personal items like Rovio.

Ultimately, we'll have live street view for the world. Sure, it will bring a host of privacy issues. But mostly, it'll just be cool.