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The now decade-old tool many have come to rely on to view the streets of the world from their desktops and mobile phones, Google Street View, just got a major upgrade.

In fact, this is the first major upgrade to the Google Street View system in eight years. The changes promise to transform the system from a mere panoramic visual index of the world into a data-rich layer of information that makes nearly every inch of the world searchable in a new way.

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The new upgrades were highlighted in a report on Wiredon Tuesday, in which Google revealed that its new Street View cars will be equipped with seven cameras (down from 15), each using a 20 megapixel sensor behind its lens. The upgrade, as demonstrated in a video demonstration (below), delivers far clearer images and fewer image stitching errors.

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Within the camera array are two cameras, one in front and one in back, which are used for laser radar positioning. Another two cameras, looking out on either side of the vehicle, are tasked with capturing still HD images. Those two side-looking HD cameras are meant to pick out things like business names and street signs. That data is filtered through Google's AI framework to parse relevant information, which will allow users to conduct incredibly specific Street View search queries that correspond to on-the-ground information like store names and opening and closing times.

Aside from helping users more easily navigate the real world, this also seems to offer Google a powerful new advertising tool when it comes to mapping and monetizing the real world retail landscape.

In addition to Google's own fleet of Street View cars, users of the Street View app can also use their own off-the-shelf 360 cameras to contribute street imagery to Street View, a feature that was introduced back in 2015.

The newly equipped Street View cars just began hitting the road last month, so it may take a while to notice the differences. But as the new layer of Street View imagery and data takes hold, Street View's virtual panorama will start to look and feel a lot more like a mirror of the real world.

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TopicsArtificial IntelligenceGoogle

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