Street View images of Venice’s canals will be available thanks to a device dubbed the “Google Gondola,” reports British newspaper ‘The Guardian’. The newspaper reports that Google is planning to photograph Venice from a boat as it wends through the city’s canals. The resulting 360-degree panoramic views will be added to Street View, which started as an experimental project in 2007 and now includes imagery of locations on all seven continents. The company also mapped the city’s streets, squares and alleys in spring 2013 using the Street View Trekker, which consists of a camera device mounted on a backpack. ‘The Guardian’ reveals that two technicians mapped the city on foot sporting the 4-foot-high backpacks. Each rucksack has a camera that protrudes above the wearer’s head. The pictures shot will be merged into panoramic views of the city that are due to appear online by the end of the year. The much-awaited Venetian canal images will follow later. Google has been undaunted in assembling images to use in Street View, with staff taking to cars, snowmobiles, trolleys and tricycles equipped with cameras to take photographs in some 50 countries. The views of Venice will join those of locations as diverse as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and the snow-capped peaks of Mount Everest in the Himalayas.
