Google tricycle street-mapping WWU campus
BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- Soon you'll be able to enjoy the beauty of Western Washington University without having to step foot on campus.
A Google team spent Monday riding around campus on a specially-outfitted tricycle to take panoramic photographs of the campus from the ground.
The university reports Western is participating in the Google Maps Street View Partner Program, which includes use of the trike to photograph pedestrian-only public areas of campus.
"In addition to showing off the incredible beauty of Western's campus, inclusion of the campus in Google Street View will allow prospective students and others to see our university close-up and to better understand our campus geography before visiting," Paul Cocke, director of University Communications, said in a news release.
Western joins a number of other university campuses, including San Diego State University, Penn State, Cornell University, Dartmouth and others in the Google program.
The "Street View Trike," which weighs more than 200 pounds, is outfitted with a special multi-lens camera apparatus that collects the images for the 360-degree street-level views.
Once the images are stitched together into panoramics and published on Google Maps, users will be able to visually explore and navigate the campus by zooming into the lowest map level or dragging the orange "Pegman" icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a path outlined in blue. To protect individual privacy, the faces of pedestrians on campus will automatically be blurred.
A Google team spent Monday riding around campus on a specially-outfitted tricycle to take panoramic photographs of the campus from the ground.
The university reports Western is participating in the Google Maps Street View Partner Program, which includes use of the trike to photograph pedestrian-only public areas of campus.
"In addition to showing off the incredible beauty of Western's campus, inclusion of the campus in Google Street View will allow prospective students and others to see our university close-up and to better understand our campus geography before visiting," Paul Cocke, director of University Communications, said in a news release.
Western joins a number of other university campuses, including San Diego State University, Penn State, Cornell University, Dartmouth and others in the Google program.
The "Street View Trike," which weighs more than 200 pounds, is outfitted with a special multi-lens camera apparatus that collects the images for the 360-degree street-level views.
Once the images are stitched together into panoramics and published on Google Maps, users will be able to visually explore and navigate the campus by zooming into the lowest map level or dragging the orange "Pegman" icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a path outlined in blue. To protect individual privacy, the faces of pedestrians on campus will automatically be blurred.
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