Microsoft researchers have developed a new software package called Street Slide, which could leave Google's Street View looking a little pedestrian.
Street Slide adds an extra vantage point in addition to existing panoramic "bubbles". Wherever you're "standing" in the bubble in Street View, for example, you can see a perfect 360 degree panoramic image around you. However, the only way to look further down a street is by zooming in, which reduces the resolution of the image, forcing users to step into the next bubble to get closer.
"Navigating such photo collections is thus laborious and similar to hunting for a given location on foot: walk “along” the street (jumping from bubble to bubble in Street View) looking around, until you find the location of interest," the Microsoft Research paper notes.
With Street Slide, users still have the panoramic bubble, but can also step back to a wider, flat panoramic view of the street, making it easier to find store fronts or look down the entire street.
The Street Slide photos are essentially the panoramic images flattened out into 2m slivers, shifted about to match the way real streets would look as we step backwards or look left or right, rather than just zooming out.
"Dynamically altering the alignment and visible portions of each image simulates a pseudo-perspective view of the streetside from a distance," the paper notes, adding this increases the "sense of immersion".
As the strip photo view leaves space above and below the image, the researchers added in navigational tools, a map view, street names, building addresses and even store logos.
In user tests of Street Slide, users found a location an average of 17 seconds faster than with Google's Street View, according to Microsoft.
Recognising the shift to mobile devices, the researchers have already created a test version to work on the iPhone - but as it's all still in the research stage, only a few streets have been captured, so don't expect an app any time soon.
