Google Maps Trails in Grand Canyon

by SDCStaff Writer

Google has extended their mapping skills and technology to Arizona’s Grand Canyon.  Google has perfected Street View technology where you can zoom into city locations and view the actual street with photographic detail.  The Mountain View California firm is outfitting camera systems for hikers that will map trails with the same photographic clarity.  This is the latest evolution in mapping technology for the internet.  Users of Google Maps will soon be able to access a treasure trove of visual hiking data.  Now you will be able to see the trail before you hike it with a click of your mouse.  The Google camera system brings a 360 degree view of locations along the way.

The backpack equipment that will be used to visually record the trails weighs 40 lbs and records images every 2.5 seconds.  The 360 degree images are HD quality 5 megapixels.  This will give hikers the opportunity to gauge the difficulty of a trail and what provisions they will need.  Hikers that are encountered along the trails will have their faces blurred in the images to maintain privacy.  The Grand Canyon mapping data will be made available sometime in 2013.

Google launched its Street View feature in 2007 and has expanded from five cities in the United States to more than 3,000 in 43 countries.  Google teams and volunteers have covered more than 5 million miles with the Street View vehicles. 

Sourced from an internet post by Mercury News.com written byFelicia Fonseca with the Associated Press, Google Official Blog.   Images were provided by Google under fair use policy.