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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Google Maps has helped find cars, reunited parents with abducted children and even given peeks down some of the world's finest slopes.
Now Google is conquering the Burj Khalifa, tallest building in the world, and making anyone with Internet access a traveler and architecture connoisseur. The images come in the form of an advanced Street View of the colossal building, but the famous Google car didn't drive its way to the top.
"This is the first time we've captured a skyscraper on Street View," Google posted in its official blog. "The imagery was collected over three days using the Street View Trekker and Trolley, capturing high-resolution 360-degree panoramic imagery of several indoor and outdoor locations of the building."
The Trekker is a backpack-like contraption weighing in at 35 pounds. The individual wearing the Trekker can walk and gather images simultaneously, making it easy to catch off-road scenes. It has been used in gathering images of geographic wonders, like the Grand Canyon and the Galapagos Islands.
The Trolley, on the other hand, is a skinny, four-wheeled machine that has been used to map museums and artworks. It's known for its svelte figure, according to CNET, and is just small enough to fit through doors and not bump over statues. The Trekker and Trolley are just two of Google's gadgets used to gather images for its comprehensive database over the years.
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While searching for his family, Luo Gang came across a bridge on Google Maps and it ended up being a clue to find his family."The Burj Khalifa is special because it's the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world," Pascal Malite, Street View Program Manager, said in a video posted about the data gathering process. "We are here to bring to the user this possibility to see this huge, immense, wonderful building inside out."
The building is located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and houses a hotel, residences, corporate offices, restaurants, a fitness complex and a park.
To gather the images, Google took its devices all over the building, including the window cleaning baskets at the 80th floor of the building.
"It was amazing to stand outside of the building (and) see the beautiful Dubai," she said. "You have the sea, you have the islands. You can see everything from there."
The crew even scaled the spiral, where winds reached more than 40 miles per hour.
While Google said the 2,171-foot-tall building's 160 floors are available for viewing on Street View, they said a better bet would be for users to peruse the building's Street View Gallery.
Photo Credit: Google
