Borrow the Google Street View Trekker for adventures
Fancy yourself as a photographer for Google? Applications are open for taking the Street View Trekker out for a walk to some remote locations.
- Webby Award honoree, 2x Gold Telly Award winner
Google first unveiled its Trekker imaging backpack in 2012 to help document areas that were out of reach for cars, trikes, snowmobiles or any other forms of Street View cameras.
The backpack weighs around 15 kilograms, and the camera unit is made up of 15 5-megapixel lenses -- so you have to be fairly fit to carry this around all day. It's all controlled through an Android smartphone, and photos are snapped every 2.5 seconds to create the 360-degree Street View panoramas.
There are, of course, some caveats to the loaner program. Applicants need to be working for a tourism board, non-profit, university or research organisation for Google to lend you the pack. If you fit the bill, though, you might be lucky enough to capture such sights as the Grand Canyon.
Find the application form over at the Google Street View page.