The process of gathering geodata-rich images from AIT began on 1 September 2015, when the Google Street View car traversed the roads and lanes of the Institute for an entire day filming AIT's clean and green campus. The Google Trekker, which is a 40-pound camera device includes a Global Positioning System (GPS), lasers scanner and has 15 lenses pointing at different directions enabling the creation of a 360-degree panoramic views.
After the imagery is captured via various means and the photographs have been collected, they are processed and stitched together to create a panorama view. Google also uses face and license plate blurring technology to ensure that passers-by are not identifiable.
"We were considering different options to create a virtual campus so that people around the world can access beautiful our campus via the Internet, and it was decided to invite Google Street View to visit AIT," Dr. Sarawut Ninsawat of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems (RS/GIS) field of study said. "This will help promote AIT, enable our students to gain experience, and it is a move towards building a collaboration with Google Maps," Dr. Sarawut added.
The Street View team visited the Institute in mid-August, when they consulted Dr. Sarawut and Dr. Sanit Arunpold of RS&GIS, along with their students.
For places where the car cannot travel, AIT students volunteered to carry the backpack and walk through the various green areas and corridors. This will ensure complete coverage of the AIT campus, and help produce a panoramic view. Further, once the process is completed, volunteers can also submit photographs which can be added to Google Maps, Dr. Sarawut added.
Besides the car and the backpack cameras, the visiting team used a tripod-based camera to capture images from the lobby of the AIT Conference Center. In the coming weeks, this process will also be extended to include the AIT Library, Dr. Sarawut revealed.
AIT President Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai appreciated the initiative and thanked volunteer students, commending them for carrying the "heavy backpacks" around the campus. The initiative adds to the modernization campaign of the AIT library, where a state-of-the-art facility is being created ensuring that AIT remains at the cutting-edge of technology.
Volunteer students included Mr. Jaturong Som-ard and Mr. Sajja Sravan (Google Trekker and survey team), Mr. Zahid Mushtaq Wani (Trajectory Design), and Mr. Chairath Sirirattanapol, Mr. Sai Kolasani and Mr.Sathi Reddy (team support).
A select number of university campuses are currently on Street View. They can be viewed at this link: https://www.google.com/maps/streetview/#university-campuses