Google Street View is maybe one of the most interesting and under appreciated technical developments of the past decade, but it's all a little static when viewed through standard channels like Google Maps on the desktop or on a mobile device. A new project from Toronto UX design firm Teehan+Lax (http://teehanlax.com), which operates a Labs unit to explore its more playful side, threads together Street View imagery to create time-lapse animations called Hyperlapses (http://hyperlapse.tllabs.io/), which makes Street View a more immersive experience.
You can choose from one of the pre-defined routes set up by Teehan+Lax, like a trip across the Golden Gate Bridge or a dusty drive in the Australian outback, or you can simply search for a location, set point A and point B, as well as a focal point, and generate your own street view. Impressive scenery and architecture makes for a more interesting Hyperlapse, but even one I created of just the few blocks before and after my front door was enthralling enough in a short loop.
The project is little more than an interesting tech demo at this point, without much in the way of actual use value, but Teehan+Lax have made the source code freely available to all on github (https://github.com/TeehanLax/Hyperlapse.js). The tool also works best in Chrome, and will get your fan running since it has some steep processor requirements. On a day when The Postal Service's 10th Anniversary Edition is out, however, it's maybe the perfect time-waster, since that album makes a pretty near perfect soundtrack for virtually any Street View Hyperlapse.
Via: TechCrunch