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It was only a matter of time. After the cars came the trikes. After the trikes came the backpacks. And lo, the possibility of extending StreetView from roads into more interesting areas beckoned. Now Google have made a StreetView tour around Chesters fort on Hadrian's Wall for both Maps and Earth, hinting at the likelihood that Housesteads, Corbridge, abnd Birdoswald will follow, and ultimately (I would like to think) the whole of the Hadrian's Wall Path National Trail. Well, one can dream...
The Chesters tour sadly does not include the museum and just peeps over the fence at the barracks and bath-house (so I am guessing it was done with a trike) but its better than nothing and Google should be applauded (in a week when we are examining in detail HMG's tax-take from the colourful non-evil-doers).
You can keep in touch with subsequent developments through my Twitter feed.
Mike Bishop
You know my method. It is founded upon the observance of trifles
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Very nice! As you said, this was probably done with the trike so there aren't much in the way of close up views or coverage from difficult terrain. If they do roll this out for other forts, they would have to be done with the backpack simply because they are far less accessible. Look forward to seeing how this develops though!
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Quote:Very nice! As you said, this was probably done with the trike so there aren't much in the way of close up views or coverage from difficult terrain. If they do roll this out for other forts, they would have to be done with the backpack simply because they are far less accessible. Look forward to seeing how this develops though!
A little birdie (of the Twitter variety) says there is more to come, but confirmed it was the trike and that there were 'problems with the weather and the terrain' (so that would be Housesteads?!).
Mike Bishop
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Thanks! Indeed housteads would be a walking job!
And Vindolanda! I look forward to this, nice to see it when you are trying to envisage an idea!
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
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Quote: that there were 'problems with the weather and the terrain' (so that would be Housesteads?!).
That could apply to the entirety of Hadrian's Wall! As I can well attest from Vindolanda this year...
Is this being done specifically in cooperation with English Heritage, or is it on a site-by-site basis? Do they plan to do the more accessible sites (e.g. Wallsend, South Shields) or just the ones that are remote/in interesting surroundings?
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Where Robert mentions in cooperation with English Heritage Vindolanda is of course governed by EH so one would imagin the Vindolanda Trust will go along with this project. In fact knowing them well as we do they should welcome the overall PR of it all to boost the visitor figures I'm sure.
Brian Stobbs
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Quote:Is this being done specifically in cooperation with English Heritage, or is it on a site-by-site basis? Do they plan to do the more accessible sites (e.g. Wallsend, South Shields) or just the ones that are remote/in interesting surroundings?
It appears to be an EH/Google nationwide venture, although it has not exactly been trumpeted until now. To be honest, the 360° panorama feature on Android Jelly Bean (4.2) (there's something similar for the FruitPhone) would allow any Tom, Dick, or Arrius to achieve something similar, albeit rather slowly (and without the strategic pixellation of otherwise-innocent notices – that one says 'Hadrian's Wall'!).
Mike Bishop
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Great, I have google earth and am glad to see this.
I wish they still had that 3D reconstruction of Rome Project. They should add the Constantinople 1200 one too.
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Hehe, my group and LEG XX Deva were just getting ready for a weekend event there while the Google crew were there. We started setting up the tents a couple of hours after they finished and had also began getting into kit less than an hour after they had finished. Damn
Conor Boyle
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And for those wondering how the Street View technology might progress, hold on to your seats and give this a go. Not about Romans, the Roman army or anything connected (it's actually mountain biking, if you must know) but as a demonstration of what the technology can do, it is pretty impressive (try panning round, or up and down, as you are going along).
Perhaps a bobble-hat-mounted camera could be used to walk the Wall, or a helmet-crest-mounted one in a re-enactors' testudo...
Mike Bishop
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Blogging, tweeting, and mapping Hadrian\'s Wall... because it\'s there
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Quote:or a helmet-crest-mounted one in a re-enactors' testudo...
Bit gloomy surely? Still, that is some truly amazing tech and a fascinating video.
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