Google hires camel to capture Street View imagery of the Arabian desert

[Himanshu Arora]

While most imagery for Google Street View has been shot with car-mounted cameras, there have been instances when cameras have been mounted on boats as well as on people's back. But now, for the first time, the company has mounted its Trekker camera onto the back of a 10-year-old camel called Raffia.

The aim was to capture the desert around Liwa Oasis (UAE) that stretches around 62 miles from east to west. "Using camels for the collection allowed us to collect authentic imagery and minimize our disruption of this fragile environment", Google said in a blog post.

According to The National, shooting began as early as 6am, the quietest time of day and also the clearest weather-wise, managing to capture awesome views of sand dunes, beautiful palm trees, and more. An Indian guide lead the camel on the Journey.

Liwa Oasis is the largest oasis in the Arabian peninsula, and is known to be one of the most history rich in the desert. Google hopes that Street View exposure will boost tourist influx in the region, although those who can't stand the heat can go for a virtual tour as the latest images are now available online.

Launched back in 2007, Street View enables people around the globe explore cities from the comfort of their homes. Initially only available in five American cities: San Francisco, Denver, Las Vegas, Miami and New York City, has now captured images from 59 countries.

However, the program has also been mired in controversies. Back in 2010, the search giant admitted that its Street View cars had mistakenly collected private information, including emails and passwords, from open Wi-Fi networks.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/58392-google-hires-camel-capture-street-view-imagery-arabian.html

 

[BlueDrake]

"I'm wandering through the desert with a camera with no name."

All I can think of sorry, but it's really a neat thing and rather odd too. Just the need to capture all these images, it's just unusual in my opinion.

 

[davislane1]

From CNN: When approached by a journalist inquiring about the compensation Google is providing for the labor involved with the project, the contracting camel is reported to have offered no comment, instead opting to stand up and walk past the journalist as if she weren't even there. The air of superiority the beast left in its wake was, as one local put it, "typical behavior for those smug camel bastards."

 

[sdms96825]

I thought an oasis had vegetation. I don't see anything but sand in the clip.

davislane1 -- hilarious

 

[TheDreams]

No offense, but I bet they had to assign some security, in order to insure it the camera wasn't stolen.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

So while the camel and handler were trekking through the desert wasteland mapping things out the boys from Google who were supposed to be doing this job were sitting on their asses at the oasis smoking Camels instead.

 

[VitalyT]

Must have cost them lots of dates.

 

[cliffordcooley]

What no jokes about Google being hump-back now?

 

[Adhmuz]

No Offense to anyone who lives in the Liwa Oasis but, History Rich? See that sand dune over there? Nothing happened on it, or that one, or that one, or th... Seriously the Wiki page for the Liwa Desert has this in the "History" section

"The oasis is the place of birth of the ruling families of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. In 1793, the ruling family Al Nahyan moved their residence from Liwa to the city of Abu Dhabi."
and
"Traditionally, men from Liwa (Bani Yas tribe) were pearl divers on the coast during the summer months. Pearl diving offered an additional source of income."

That's it, that's all, some history rich area indeed... Or as a tourist destination they list the Tal Mireb Sand Dune, used as a hill climb by 4x4s, FASCINATING! I honestly don't see the attraction to a whole lot of uninhabitable sand.

What a waste of camel power I tell you. My assumption is Google got paid to do this by the Al Nahyan family to help richen their own culture.

 

[RustyTech]

" "Using camels for the collection allowed us to collect authentic imagery and minimize our disruption of this fragile environment", Google said in a blog post. "

Doesn't a desert mean that there is no "environment" to disturb?

 

[cliffordcooley]

" "Using camels for the collection allowed us to collect authentic imagery and minimize our disruption of this fragile environment", Google said in a blog post. "

Doesn't a desert mean that there is no "environment" to disturb?

And as soon as the wind blows, there is no disturbance left to worry about.

Google doesn't want the thought of their employees getting lost in the desert while using Google Maps hitting the headlines.