Google Street View Hyperlapse creates virtual road-trips

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Hyperlapse is Teehan+Lax’s application that enables users to turn flat Street View imagery into dynamic timelapse-style road trips.

The company’s motion designer has stitched together a highly-tweaked demonstration Street View hyperlapse, showcasing what can be expected from future devopments.

google-street-view-hyperlapse Google Street View Hyperlapse creates virtual road-trips News and Reviews

Teehan+Lax’s Hyperlapse Street View over Washington Bridge, N.Y.C.

Couch road trips are now a (virtual) reality

Due to its visual nature, Google Street View is a great tool for orientation. Whether used for checking out what a business’ front window looks like, or for scouting places to visit when in a new town, it’s an essential application for navigating urban environments.

When it comes to exploring the countryside though, there are only so many forward clicks you can push before growing tired of the slow advancement.

Fortunately, the Lab department from Canadian design firm Teehan+Lax has created an application that’s a great first step for couch road trips. Stitching together consecutive Street View images, it renders road animations that can become wonderful desktop screensavers, for a start.

On the app’s website, you may choose to go sight-seeing, by picking one of the predefined routes. The majestic Yosemite Waterfall, the busy Hong Kong Port, and a rough Australian outback road are featured, among a couple of other interesting landmarks. Bear in mind that these routes are very short.

Creating your own travel animation is easy

You can make your own though. Using Google Maps View, you choose a route, setting the beginning and end markers. You then pick the focal point – which can be modified during the time-lapse. Then, you click “create” and… wait. It takes a while for the animation to be generated but of course, it’s worth it.

Teehan+Lax’s Street View Hyperlapse works best with the Chrome browser, and because it requires a lot of work from your processor, it’s advised to keep other applications running at the same time to a minimum.

It is also recommended to pick short distances, because no matter the length of your desired road trip, the animation will always slide through just 60 frames. This is due to load times and memory constraints.

The application code is open source though. So we’ll probably see a tweaked, improved version soon, with more frames and longer route possibilities.

The team’s motion designer has created a complex hyper-lapse

Right now, the application’s options are pretty limited for the public, but the motion designer from Teehan+Lax Lab has put together a demonstration hyper-lapse, for a showcase of possibilities.

Although it’s a very immersive experience, the timelapse isn’t the most spectacular, and a bit dizzying.

Nevertheless, you get an idea about what to expect from future developments in this great project.

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