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Google street view - coming to a croft near you             3/8/09

Google is photographing crofts and villages on Lewis this week to add to its expanding virtual maps.

The internet company sent its Street View car to the islands to take pictures of different locations.

The vehicle is conspicuous by its high roof top camera. It zipped up and down streets around Stornoway this morning before covering the outskirts of the town.

Nine directional cameras are enclosed in an unit on top of the roof mast which give an all-round view of the locality. Three laser range scanners sweep the area in front of the vehicle. The operator uses a satellite GPS to determine its precise position.

It will take some months - probably into next year - before the island images are processed and carefully stitched together.  They will then be uploaded in Street View on Google Maps.

A Google spokesperson said that the street car would not enter private land but took photos from public roads.

Street View is popular feature of Google Maps and is also available in Google Earth. The Street View imagery was launched in the UK three months ago.

It  allows people to view and navigate 360 degree street-level imagery and currently covers 25 British towns. It includes four Scottish cities and Stornoway will now be added to that list.

The Google street view car on Lewis today