360-degree cameras are coming thick and fast these days, they’re an interesting piece of tech which are still finding their place. Google is hoping to make one use – uploading photos to Google Street View – a little easier with a new certification program for 360-degree cameras.
The new “street view ready” certification standard will be integrated with 20 new 360-degree cameras which will be coming to market this year, some of which will be announced at the Street View Summit in Tokyo, Japan this week.
Street View Ready certification falls into one of four categories, making it easy for consumers to see exactly how much work and which additional tools are required to upload images or video to Street View. Some simply require the Google Street View app installed on their phone, while others require publishing tools to get those images off the camera, processed and into Google Street View:
- Street View mobile ready: 360 cameras that can publish Street View directly from a mobile app—without requiring a desktop workflow
- Street View auto ready: 360 cameras tailored for vehicle-based collection with the highest accuracy
- Street View vr ready: 360 cameras or systems that collect geometry in addition to generating sets of connected 360 photos
- Street View workflow ready: Publishing tools (sometimes bundled with cameras) that can upload to Street View accounts
We’re quite excited for 360-degree cameras and the potential for use, and we’ve got even more reviews of 360-degree cameras coming up soon.
What happened to disqus?
We got rid of it. Their free tier was always ad optional, but now they’re forcing ads on publishers and they’re not relevant. The one I saw which broke the camel’s back was some ridiculous ad for weight loss – “Lose 13kg of fat with this one old trick” with a picture of some overweight person. Not relevant for a tech site and they weren’t interested in any feedback or improving their targetting process.
So, we got rid of Disqus and we won’t be going back.