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Hidden View / 2019

Google captures the world. Google Street View was launched in 2007 and has since then they photographed more than 10 million miles of our world. On Google Earth they even mapped out 98% of the places where people live. Google Maps is with 1 billion monthly users the company's most popular product.

The Street View car is is nothing new and is almost part of daily traffic. With every picture taken, Google gathers information, images, local Wi-Fi network data and 3D building imagery. After a photo is taken, they can (and probably will) analyse those pictures and use its data for deep learning, training their algorithms too. To prevent traffic jams for example.

Google is not the only one who tries to capture the entire world. Humans have a habit of capturing remote, extraordinary areas. From holiday pictures to research images, most abandoned places are being registered. Since the arrival of the smartphone and the 360-degree camera these places are being photographed in such a way they could be uploaded to Google Street View.

When the pictures reaches Google's servers, they can be analysed and used in the same way Google can use their own pictures.

Hidden View is a collection of eight locations, captured by someone with a 360-degree camera. Right next to this location is a new location marked: the same picture with additional data. The original photo is analysed by a computer vision system that localises and describes the most important regions of the image.

When the collection of Google Street View grows, an Artificial Intelligence's understanding of our world will grow as well. By capturing world's most remote places, we will train the machine. Google's Artificial Intelligence will know how our world looks like, without any effort.




Locations:

Malawi, Africa
-11.6119798, 34.3034825

Antartica
-67.3983843, 64.0652867

Iraq, Middle East
37.2700628, 42.7842707

Northern Australia
-15.0739009, 145.1365409
Central India
21.6411215, 78.053897

Kazakhstan, Central Asia
47.4385309, 74.8268258

Pyongyang, North Korea
39.0322075, 125.7534714

Northern Russia
71.6939159, 128.8657706


Update September 2020: some of the locations may appear black, this could be the result of Google's policy of blocking or deleting 'incorrect' pictures uploaded by users.





Mark
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