DIY Google Street View Project?

Ismenio writes "Does anyone have any ideas for a do-it-yourself Google-Street-View-like project on the cheap? I am planning to visit a few places outside the US that are important to me, and would like to be able to set up a site for friends and family to visit and give them the Street View-like experience so that they could navigate, pan and zoom in the areas I have. Though being able to use GPS coordinates would be great, that's certainly something I can do without. I know I can take pictures and stitch them together to create panoramic views, but I would like to be able to also navigate though some streets. Would it make sense to record it with an HD camera, then batch export frames as pictures? Is there any software in the open source community that I can use?" Ismenio includes links to some related pages: Popular Mechanics' look at the camera tech used for Street View, and a company that claims better panoramic image technology than Google's.

Obvious

[adolf]

I know I'll be modded down for this, but it seems that the best, most efficient, and cheapest answer to this problem is as follows:

If you feel so strongly abotu sharing your vacation with people you know, then take some of them with you.

And then, gasp, instead of spending huge piles of money so that you can occupy your vacation fucking with technology that nobody wants to use anyway (Hey, Martha! Look! George sent more pictures of the LOVELY GREAT FUCKING TIME HE'S HAVING over there! Start the fire!), you'll be able to take a few folks who might actually be interested in this stuff along with you.

Just a thought.

(And: To answer the original question of, "Can I do this?" No. No, you can't. Don't bother. Give up.)

Use 'New' Technology

[jo42]

There is this new fangled thing called a "video camera". It takes moving pictures. You can also record a "voice over" describing what you are seeing. I understand that there are even "video cameras" that shoot in "High Definition" and record to something called a "hard disk". Apparently you can even upload your moving pictures, or "videos", to some web site called "YouTube". Try it, you might like it.

Plan with Google

[SEWilco]

So all he has to do is choose his routes to go places where StreetView has gone, and post his GPS track. Problem solved.

Re:Microsoft Photosynth

[Anonymous Coward]

How fucking dare you recomend a Microsoft project. You should be shot. SHOT. ARE YOU A TERRORIST???

Re:Why not do a Mashup?

[beav007]

That's because, even at Google, they can't work out WTF a hook turn [wikipedia.org] is.