‘Petition: We Want Google Street View!,’ is what Durita Dahl Andreassen’s blog read. Andreassen, tourism advocate of Faroe Islands, lives in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. However, it doesn’t exist on Google Maps. Taking matters into her hands, she decided to create her own version of Street View using sheeps.
Yes, you read that right! For the past few months, Andreassen has been placing a 360-degree camera, powered by a solar panel, on the back of a sheep to take photographs of the unexplored regions of the Faroe Islands. Photos are transmitted back to her mobile phone and she then manually uploads them to Google Street View.
However, she has now come to a standstill wherein she requires Google’s help to do the needful. “My sheep are great for capturing the tracks and trails of the Faroe Islands, but in order to cover the big sweeping Faroese roads and the whole of the breath-taking landscapes, we need Google to come and map them,” the blog read.
Fortunately, Google has finally decided to help the Faroese by supplying them with a Street View Trekker and 360 degree cameras via their Street View camera loan program. A team of experts were sent to Faroe Islands last week to help train and equip the local community to capture Street View imagery. They can now make use of the same to document the rest of the Faroe Islands for the world to see.
“Now that the Faroe Islands is supplied with a Trekker and 360 cameras, residents and tourists can assist the sheep in collecting Street View imagery of their beautiful lands using selfie-sticks, bikes, backpacks, cars, kayaks, horses, ships and even wheelbarrows,” Google Maps blog post read.
“The Faroe Islands have shown us that even sheep can contribute to Street View. If your hometown or favorite hiking trail hasn’t made it into Google Maps yet, grab your own 360 camera or apply to borrow one from us through our Street View camera loan program. We’re excited to see what ewe map!,” the blog concluded.
