<Li> 2018: Google Japan now offers the street view from a dog's perspective . </Li> <Li> August 2018: Street View covers two offshore gas - extraction platforms in the North Sea . </Li> <P> Street View is available as a component of Google Maps, as a web application, and as a mobile application for Android and iOS . Originally, Google Maps used Adobe Flash for Street View . Google overhauled Google Maps in 2013 . The newer version uses JavaScript extensively and provides a JavaScript application programming interface . At the time of their release, the new Google Maps and Street View are measured slower than the old version in various setups . A user can switch to the old version of Google Maps, which is especially useful when Google Maps is more sluggish than usual . </P> <Ul> <Li> Cameras: Street View imagery has come from several generations of camera systems from Immersive Media (1), Point Grey Research (now FLIR Systems) (2) and developed in - house . The cameras contain no mechanical parts, including the shutter, instead using CMOS sensors and an electronic rolling shutter . Widely deployed versions are: <Ul> <Li> R2: the earliest after Immersive Media, photos were captured with a ring of eight 11 - megapixel CCD sensors with commercial photographic wide - angle lenses, cameras with the same specs as those used for the Google Books project . </Li> <Li> Ladybug2 cameras (resolution 1024 x 768 pixels) by Point Grey Research . </Li> <Li> R5: uses a ring of eight 5 - megapixel CMOS cameras by Elphel with custom low - flare lenses, plus a camera with fisheye lens on top to capture upper levels of buildings . </Li> <Li> R7: is the first completely in - house built camera, it uses 15 of the same sensors and lenses as R5, but no fish - eye . </Li> <Li> 2017: uses 8 20MP cameras . Includes two facing left and right to read street signs and business names . </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Positioning: recorded photographs must be associated with accurate positioning . This is done via a Global Positioning System, wheel speed sensor, and inertial navigation sensor data . </Li> <Li> Laser range scanners from Sick AG for the measuring of up to 50 meters 180 ° in the front of the vehicle . These are used for recording the actual dimensions of the space being photographed . </Li> <Li> LIDAR scanners from Velodyne were added in the 2017 update . Mounted at 45 ° to capture 3D depth information, and used for additional positional information . </Li> <Li> Vehicles: data recording equipment is usually mounted on the roof of a car . A Trike (tricycle) was developed to record pedestrian routes including Stonehenge, and other UNESCO World Heritage sites . In 2010 a snowmobile - based system captured the 2010 Winter Olympics sites . Trolleys have been used to shoot the insides of museums, and in Venice the narrow roads were photographed with backpack - mounted cameras, and canals were photographed from boats . </Li> <Li> A portable back - pack Google Trekker is used in outdoor terrain . For instance, the six main paths up Snowdon were mapped by the Google Trekker in 2015 . </Li> </Ul>

When do they take google street view pictures