DIY Streetview?

June 12, 2009 8:04 AM

I'd like to make a DIY Google StreetView clone. I have a computer in my car. What kind of camera(s) should I get and what's a creative way to take pictures once every 1-2 seconds, downloading them to the in-car computer afterwards?

I can deal with the software to geo-reference the images, but I can't find a image capture source that works:

>2MP webcams will let me take still shots of their video quick enough, but I haven't really come up with any quality images. I can control point and shoot digicams with gPhoto2, but it takes 5-20 seconds to take the picture and download for every frame.

Can the hive mind think of any creative ideas to solve this DIY conundrum?

posted by yellowbkpk to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Can you use a dSLR that can be controlled via USB? This would give you good quality photos, but you might have to work around getting the image off and tagged so you know where it was taken. I know the Cannon d20 has some extra software on the cd so use can use the pc to take a picture.
posted by Climber at 8:20 AM on June 12

I don't think you necessarily want to take pictures at specific time intervals. It would be better to take them at distance intervals otherwise you will have lots of similar pix when you are stuck at stoplights, train tracks and the like.
posted by JJ86 at 8:20 AM on June 12

The very excellent GB Timelapse software will handle getting the photo's taken at regular intervals that you specify and straight onto your computer. Works with lots of different Canon camera's (including my Rebel XTi). I think to do the all round view thing available on Google Street View you'll be wanting two SLR cameras with 180 degree fish eye lenses taking pictures simultaneously and some clever software to stitch together your two 180 degree shots. All pretty doable if time consuming!

Let us know how you get on!
posted by merocet at 8:33 AM on June 12

Climber: The gPhoto2 software will allow me to control Canon and Nikon DSLRs and take images programmatically from the computer, but not fast enough (unless I'm missing a "go faster!" option).

JJ86: I agree. I will probably end up taking distance interval shots, but I thought taking timed shots is a good start. Once I have computer control of the camera either way will be doable.
posted by yellowbkpk at 8:36 AM on June 12

Canon cameras can be hacked with CHDK.
I can't guarantee it will let you take fast pics, but it's worth a look.

CHDK is a temporary firmware update that you install via SD card. The best part is that it leaves no trace when you remove the card.
posted by soelo at 8:51 AM on June 12

If you use a very wide-angle lens, you will not have to take pictures nearly as often.
posted by fake at 9:04 AM on June 12

You could get a Point Grey Ladybug (Note: May cost $10,000+)

You could look into industrial vision cameras, like some on this list of firewire cameras; it's entirely possible to get high-speed high-resolution cameras which can be computer-controlled and can be fitted with high quality external lenses. However, because there's little demand you don't enjoy the economies of scale that apply to webcams and SLR cameras, so you might not like the price.

I think to do the all round view thing available on Google Street View you'll be wanting two SLR cameras with 180 degree fish eye lenses taking pictures simultaneously

Yes, broadly your options are to either put several cameras in different directions, like you can see in Microsoft's RingCam, or to photograph a polished sphere

The gPhoto2 software will allow me to [...] DSLRs take images programmatically from the computer, but not fast enough (unless I'm missing a "go faster!" option).

Is it just that gphoto2 won't accept an interval less than one second? Because you could see how it handles the sigusr signal.
posted by Mike1024 at 9:15 AM on June 12

You could use two cameras per side, so they alternate and therefore you only need a camera with twice the refresh rate.

e.g. if both could take pictures at a maximum rate of one per 5 seconds, with two of them, the second offest from the first by 2.5 seconds, you could be taking a photo every 2.5 seconds. As long as you accurately set the internal clocks you can sort by time on the cameras EXIF data.

The CHDK script for automatic timelapse shooting lets me take photos every 5 seconds on my (older) canon A560. It might go faster than this (especially with flash explicity turned off) - I haven't tried.
posted by trialex at 9:36 PM on June 14