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ASCII Google Streetview

tllabs.io

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Re: ASCII Google Streetview

#41

Post by mistercow »

TheBoff wrote: post #22

It's interesting that to me, this looks more "3D" than normal street view. I would guess it's the thing about the human brain filling in the detail...

Actually, that's not because of the ASCII, but because of the GSVPano.js demo that it's based on: http://www.clicktorelease.com/code/street/

Pick a location and compare it to the standard street view on google maps, and you'll notice a similar "more 3D" appearance.

The reason is that it's using three.js to map the panorama onto a spherical geometry. This is actually quite an old trick used to give a more immersive feel to panorama viewers dating at least back to the days of QTVR.

Re: ASCII Google Streetview

#42

Post by Trufa »

Trufa wrote: post #36

The site is incredibly unfriendly to mobile. You can't use it from an iPhone.

I'm not sure why I'm being down-voted, is it frowned upon to complain about that? I'm simply stating that the site is unusable from a popular mobile device. Sometimes the site maintainer reads the thread and he might not be aware.

Re: ASCII Google Streetview

#43

Post by mistercow »

csphy wrote: post #2

How is it that this and GSVPano does not violate Google's term of service, since they pull images from Google's undocumented street view API? I have a related project, but am not sure if I can make it public because of this issue. Does Google simply not care?

I would guess google doesn't care for five reasons:

1. There's a documented API to fetch these images, but it's less convenient.

2. These demos make Google look good.

3. There's no potential to squeeze money out of the creators of these demos, because they aren't monetized in any way.

4. Shutting down people who are playing (relatively) harmlessly with their technology would hurt Google's community image.

5. The demos are of no practical use, so if Google breaks compatibility, nobody will care.

So if you look at the costs and benefits, it would be unwise for Google to crack down on this sort of thing. But if you started selling an iOS app that used this, I'd be shocked if they didn't smack you down.

Re: ASCII Google Streetview

#45

Post by path411 »

Trufa wrote: post #42
Trufa wrote: post #36

The site is incredibly unfriendly to mobile. You can't use it from an iPhone.

I'm not sure why I'm being down-voted, is it frowned upon to complain about that? I'm simply stating that the site is unusable from a popular mobile device. Sometimes the site maintainer reads the thread and he might not be aware.

WebGL isn't really supported by any mobile device.
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