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Anyone willing to pay for a Google Streets version of National Park Trails?

by EwanG·15y ago·7 comments·view on hn ↗

Since I have been bothering people (including Google) for some time about this, and no one else seems willing to do this, I guess it's time to see if it's "just me". My middle daughter is handicapped, and so I've always wanted some way to take her down a virtual version of the trails I've hiked. I take a lot of photos, but it's not the same. Also, sometimes when I get frustrated, it would be nice to take a virtual walk down one of my favorite trails and recharge. I doubt that this would be something that could be ad-supported since you kind of don't want that type of distraction. So I presume it would have to be subscription based - perhaps $X per park and $Y for all of them that the service makes available. Startup costs are going to be a bit of an issue also. You effectively need a backpack that has cameras attached at all four cardinal points, and that is somewhat stabilized. Then you need someone like myself who is willing to hike 20 miles a day wearing such a thing. SO, anyone interested in such a service?

7 comments

Kickstarter bro, this is what it was made for. Post on hiking forums and nature online communities to get buzz and attention.

Sounds definitely like something I would be really interested in. If there was a way that anyone with moderate funds could build a device or method to do the Street View job while hiking, and it was propagated enough to have a community like the global GeoCaching community, that could be one vector to try out.

Maybe post on Reddit's http://www.reddit.com/r/SomebodyMakeThis as well?

Thanks to you (and the other) commentors on here for the ideas. I will see what I can come up with, and let y'all know what ends up happening.

Sounds great - I've got a national parks web site that I'm planning to re-launch in the near future, it would make a great feature to add.

What I don't have is any knowledge of is the costs of the imaging hardware you'd need - it would have to be fairly ruggedized to deal with the trail dust or if the backpacker fell. I don't know if consumer-grade video cameras that mountain bikers use would be good enough.

I'd start with the most heavily hiked trails first, South Kaibab and Bright Angel in the Grand Canyon, Half Dome in Yosemite, South Rim in Big Bend, and so on.

Luckily myself and a lot of my friends are trail runners, so I could probably get a few of them to do video trips in exchange for airfare :)

I really like the idea, and would definitely be interested, but to be honest, I probably wouldn't be willing to pay. Maybe an ad supported version, and you can pay to remove the ads or something? It would be nice to be able to take a quick glance at a trail, and see what it looks like.

It does look like google has started to do this:

http://blog.cheaptents.com/street-view-google-sherpa-cam/

I wonder if there are any grants available for a project like this? That would probably be the best way to get something like this going, but it would be more for the greater good as opposed to a business.

Sounds like a personal mission, and you could start with a small NP or National Seashore, then build from there. Effective ways to make a return may present themselves thru experience with it.

I love this idea. And while I don't hike enough to justify a subscription, I would certainly pay for a specific map. Good luck!