Thursday, January 21, 2010

Personal Tourism Robots

When I was small, I was looking forward to the invention of devices I thought of as tourist robots. I envisioned having a remotely controlled robot with a video camera. I figured it could be controlled from my living room and I'd watch robot's progress on a television. I figured I could visit places all around the world this way.

Well, now I'm 50 so I doubt I'll get a chance to see the exact implementation of my idea. Yet honestly, I'm quite impressed with a weaker alternative. At the present time I cannot drop into a city and roam the streets in real time. Google's Street View has made it possible, however, to do a fair bit of exploring. It's a common habit by now:
1) Open http://maps.google.com.

2) Type in a city or town for exploring.

3) Press the + side of the zoom slider two or three times.

4) Select the little guy from to top of the slider and drop him on a street of interest.

5) Click the tiny 'full screen' icon on the top right side of the image.

6) Use the keyboard arrow keys to navigate on a virtual walk around the location.

012110

Following these instructions, I just explored Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I chose to navigate the beach area near the Zona Romantica. To follow in my virtual footsteps just click on the image above. It's not quite as good as being there ...


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