Google Street View will soon add another Alberta landmark to its list of renowned sites despite the fact the area is not accessible to its camera cars.
Virtual tours of the pathways of Horseshoe Canyon, located west of Drumheller, will be available on computers and mobile devices following a partnership between the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Google.
Kyle Meller, a Southern Alberta Institute of Technology photojournalism student who is working as a summer assistant with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, served as the two legged equivalent of a Google Street View car.
“It’s pretty heavy to be honest,” explained Meller at the end of his five kilometre hike. “Coming down that hill right there was interesting, I had to take it pretty slow.”
After finishing a short online course, Meller received the Trekker, a backpack mounted 360 degree camera from Google. The 20 kilogram camera collects an image every 2.5 seconds and attaches a Global Positioning System (CPS) marker to the image.
“Google’s going to stitch it together and create a 3D map and people can view what I’ve trekked today.”
Luc Thomas, manager of digital services with Nature Conservancy of Canada, says the partnership with Google will allow people around the globe to experience the unique, protected landscape.
‘We want to be part of that,” explains Thomas. “There are some beautiful, natural areas that we want to capture and show the world. This is why we’re doing what we do.”
The Horseshoe Canyon images should be available within the next few months. During the Google Trekker’s time with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, street view images will be captured at locations in British Columbia, Quebec, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick.
With files from CTV’s Alesia Fieldberg
