Google's Virtual Roaming Service... A Glimpse Of Metaverse?

The Street View service, created by Google co-founder Larry Page, is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year... and on this occasion it looks like it was made to fit in with the parallel universe of Metaverse and augmented reality technologies.

Google Technical Program Manager Stephen Silverman at his studio in Mountain View, California on August 29, 2022

However, both virtual and immersive worlds were not available at the launch of this tool that allows users of Google Maps to move along a street, road or path in a panoramic view.

The Metaverse universe has since become a central field in the tech sector, with networks like Meta, the parent company of Facebook, investing billions of dollars to create digital worlds where avatars can work, play and shop.

"Larry Page grabbed a camera and hung it on his car window," Google technical program manager Stephen Silverman told AFP, referring to the garage where the US giant makes cameras for cars, bikes, backpacks and even snowmobiles that take 360-degree panoramic photos around the world. .

"[Paige] was talking to his colleagues at the time and saying 'I bet I can do something with that''", Silverman recalled, launching Street View.

Google recently announced the launch of an immersive feature that combines Street View images with artificial intelligence to create a “rich digital version of the world,” as VP of “Google Maps Experiences” Miriam Daniel explained in a blog post.

Users will be able to explore places of interest (monuments, neighborhoods, restaurants) by flying over them like drones, thanks to the 3D aerial views.

The feature will roll out this year in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo and London.

"You can actually fly over Westminster to see the neighborhood and the amazing architecture of places like Big Ben up close," Danielle explained.

- Maps for metaverses -

Google's cameras have captured images in more than 100 countries and regions, including locations such as Japan's Mount Fuji, the US Grand Canyon, the Amazon rainforest and Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

"If you want to know what it's like to slide down the slope, imagine where that sled went," Silverman says, pointing to a red cart in a Mountain View garage in Silicon Valley, California.

"The story of this tricycle is really funny, because it was going around Stonehenge and we also put it on a barge that was cruising in the Amazon," he adds.

Silverman also showcases a backpacking camera array that is mounted on a zip line in the Amazon rainforest for a panoramic view.

And the panoramic images that Google has collected over the years can be useful in metaverses, according to Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Creative Strategies.

"The idea of ​​creating a digital version of the real world is undoubtedly an area that Google is investing in," she says.

According to Silverman, Street View has been giving users a virtual experience for more than a decade, and its visuals naturally lend themselves to representing the world through virtual tools.

"Ideally, we'd be present in the metaverses, the world we're heading towards," he explains.

Many other technology companies have flocked to metaverse, an umbrella term describing a network of virtual and immersive worlds with millions of users.

Facebook changed its name to META last year to focus on this strategic turning point, and developed its virtual reality platform, Horizon Worlds, which is available in North America as well as in France and Spain.

Japanese giant Sony and parent company LEGO announced in April that they would invest $2 billion in video game studio Epic Games, developer of the massive Fortnite game, to develop projects in metaverses.

Initially considered a "crazy idea", Street View has become a "critical tool in our mapping efforts by allowing us to visualize the latest information around the world, while laying the foundations for immersive maps." And more intuitive,” Ethan Russell, product manager at Google Maps, wrote in a recent blog post.