Introducing smart navigation in Street View: double-click to go (anywhere!)

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009/06/introducing-smart-navigation-in-street.html

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2009/06/major_street_view_upgrade_-_3d_feat_1.html

[Edit: Changed titled from "Google Street View Offers Additional 3D-Style Navigation" to "Google Street View Offers an Additional Navigation Option".]

>> "using laser point clouds"

I don't understand how they can detect shapes.
Did they use physical lasers*, or do they detect common points on pics in rows and so they guess the lines?

(*) there are rumours about Google cars have tools to detect shapes in order to make a 3D Street View.

Philipp, the zoom in/out with the mouse scroll wheel works fine for me, as long as I'm within Google Maps. If the map is embedded on another web page, the scroll wheel zoom in/out doesn't work.

Overall, this nav works pretty well and does make moving around much quicker.

Tom, based on the high-tech cameras they use, I'd guess they are actual lasers measuring many distance points and them comparing consecutive pics to generate the approximate 3D building:ground representation.

> Philipp, the zoom in/out with the mouse scroll wheel
> works fine for me, as long as I'm within Google Maps

It works for me too except when in Street View mode. Does it work for you in Street View too, to zoom out when zoomed in on an object?

Yes, the scroll wheel zooms in and out while in Street View for me too.

Tom,
They use time-of-flight laser scanners which measure the distances to surrounding objects. That allows a 3D model of the surroundings to be recovered. See here:
http://www.educatingsilicon.com/2008/04/18/google-street-view-soon-in-3d/

This is what the typical raw output of a laser scanning system looks like:
http://www.vimeo.com/916008