A tiny car from a tiny company in a tiny country is doing what Google couldn't -- filming streets in Belgium that were too narrow for the search giant's Street View vehicles to drive through and capture.
The project called iQ Street View was developed by Belgium-based communications agency Happiness Brussels. One
The car -- known as The Brick -- is outfitted with computers, cables and an extended 360-degree camera.
Google started to capture Belgian streets in 2011. The Google Street View project started in 2007 as an experiment, but is now a permanent part of Google Maps. Google cars are making their way through the world capturing 360-degree views of streets. Check the company's global progress here.
"We came up with the idea after seeing that lots of our own streets weren't on Street View," says Happiness Brussels' concept provider Patrick Glorieux. "Then found the right Street View guy to help us. The design we did in house, but the programming was at Bliss Interactive in Vietnam."
The agency got the project go-ahead from Google and contacted three Street View camera suppliers in Germany, Holland and Spain. The next step was to make a list of missing streets from Google Maps.
Crowdsourcing became the easiest way to compile an extensive list of streets that hadn't been captured yet. On iQStreetView.be, anyone can tag a roadway or street on an interactive map. About 250 streets have been tagged so far.
Though the project is not sponsored or officially affiliated with the company, the Google Creative Sandbox has noted the project's creativity.
"We will hand over all data and images to Google, so they can see how they can use them," he says. "That's also why we took some time to find the right Street View camera crew, so that the images are Google quality."
Residents of Belgium should continue to tag streets they find missing from Google Street Views, Glorieux says: "We really have no idea how much there will be at the end. That's what makes it so exciting."
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