Here, we present a method that estimates socioeconomic characteristics of regions spanning 200 US cities by using 50 million images of street scenes gathered with Google Street View cars. As digital imagery becomes ubiquitous and machine vision techniques improve, automated data analysis may become an increasingly practical supplement to the ACS. Although a comprehensive source of data, the lag between demographic changes and their appearance in the ACS can exceed several years. Updated December 16: Modified use cases for clarity & added reference to Business Photos.The United States spends more than $250 million each year on the American Community Survey (ACS), a labor-intensive door-to-door study that measures statistics relating to race, gender, education, occupation, unemployment, and other demographic factors. Whether you’re photographing exotic islands or your favorite neighborhood hangout, mountain peaks or city streets, historic castles or your town center, we’re thrilled to see the places you love coming to life on Google Maps.īusinesses, as a reminder, you can showcase the beauty of your interiors through Business Photos.Įvan Rapoport, Product Manager, Google Maps & Photo Sphere We hope this new feature will enable people to share and witness the beauty and breadth of our planet through Google Maps.

You can learn more about solutions for developers. It also opens up a new tool for photographers to showcase diversity in a specific location - by times of day, weather conditions or cultural events - in a way that Street View currently doesn’t cover.Īnd, just like with Street View, you can embed our interactive viewer on your own website or build applications with it using the Google Maps API. For example, this feature can now enable environmental non-profits to document and promote the beautiful places they strive to protect. We are excited to see the different types of Street View experiences that everyone will contribute. Now everyone can virtually explore this beautiful location I visited on my vacation. I built this Street View experience from photo spheres I created with both my Android phone (Nexus 4) and my DSLR camera.

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