Google using 3-wheeled bike to add panoramic views of Mayan ruins to ‘Street View’ feature

[Judi Lynn]

Google using 3-wheeled bike to add panoramic views of Mayan ruins to ‘Street View’ feature
By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, August 16, 5:23 PM

MEXICO CITY — Google is adding interactive images of dozens of pre-Hispanic ruins to the “Street View” feature on its Google Maps website.

Google Mexico and Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History announced Thursday that 30 sites have been added to Street View, and dozens more will be coming online this year. The eventual goal is 90 sites.

The feature allows users to click on map locations to obtain 360-degree, interactive images composed of millions of photos taken at street level by specially equipped vehicles. Google uses a special, three-wheeled bicycle to generate images of the Mexican sites, many of which don’t have paved areas.

The sites already online include Chichen Itza, Teotihuacan and Monte Alban.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/google-using-3-wheeled-bike-to-add-panoramic-views-of-mayan-ruins-to-street-view-feature/2012/08/16/ffa45c7a-e7f0-11e1-9739-eef99c5fb285_story.html

(Short article, no more at link.)

[center]

Chichen Itza



Teotihuacan



Monte Alban[/center]

Hoping whoever sees the google photos will post them A.S.A.P.! Should be wonderful.

[arcane1]

1. Now THIS is what I'm talking about!!

[bluedigger]

2. This is a great idea!

I hope it helps preservation from overuse by tourists.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Google Street View offers new imagery of Brazil and Mexican sites

Google Street View offers new imagery of Brazil and Mexican sites
17.08.2012

Internet search giant Google is enabling virtual travellers to further explore Brazil and Mexico through new imagery on its Street View service in Google Maps.

~snip~
Google has also unveiled Street View imagery of 30 Mesoamerican archaeological sites in Mexico.

Virtual travellers can visit Kukulkan’s Temple, the 1,100-year-old pyramid; the pyramids of Teotihuacan; and emblematic sites for the Mayans such as Chichén Itzá or "seaside archaeological jewels", such as Tulum.

These new additions to Google Maps follow Google's addition of new panoramic imagery features to its Street View portrayal of the Antarctic last month, including explorer Ernest Shackleton’s hut.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/digital-life/item/28827-google-street-view-offers-n

[center]

Piramide de Kukulkán, Chichén Itza, Mexico



Reconstruction image of the complex at Teotihuacan
See this Wiki site for views of details from monuments there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_the_Feathered_Serpent,_Teotihuacan







Tulum, Mexico[/center]

[dantay]

4. Google virtual tours

would prefer to see a quality virtual tour than the quality street view displays.

See these and you'll see what they could have done:
http://www.destination360.com/north-america/mexico/mexico-city/teotihuacan
http://www.destination360.com/north-america/mexico/chichen-itza
http://www.destination360.com/north-america/mexico/playa-del-carmen/tulum-ruins

[Judi Lynn]

5. Great looks at these three sites. Gives a far better sense of the scale of things

at Teotihuacan, for sure!

A DU'er posted the virtual tour of Machu Picchu a couple of years ago at DU Anthropology. This one has been developed over time until you actually feel you almost have been there already!

Here's the link:
http://www.machupicchu360.travel/

For a place like Machupicchu, more people taking virtual tours could mean everything for protecting the actual site itself. in time. Have heard the traffic has really weakened the precarious hold it has on the mountain, and that they have been cutting back on the numbers of people allowed there at one time.

Welcome to D.U., dantay.