Google Maps™ Street View™ cameras

Google Maps Street View cameras are mobile panoramic cameras that capture ground-level imagery for the Google Maps Street View feature. The cameras contain multiple image sensors and lenses to capture images simultaneously in all directions. The cameras include position sensing for image pose and geolocation data. The cameras interface with a standard Linux server PC for camera control and data storage.

• Company

  Google LLC

• Design Engineer

  Gary L. Embler

• Product Design and Development Areas

  Camera system

  Lead system electrical engineer for the Google R7 Trekker backpack camera system. Designed the Linux server board interfaces and system battery-based power supply.

  Camera circuits

  Designed and developed all or portions of the following camera circuits:

  • Avago CMOS image sensor power supplies and data interface (R5 and R7)
  • Xilinx FPGA support circuitry (R7)
  • Flash memory support circuitry (R7)
  • Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet physical layer circuit (R7)
  • Atmel ARM microcontroller and associated circuitry (R7)
  • Camera power supplies (R7)
  • Camera-server interface, cabling, and connectors (R7)
  • u-blox GPS receivers support circuitry (R7 Trekker)
  • Analog Devices IMU module support circuit (R7 Trekker)

  Camera boards

  Designed all or portions of the following camera boards using Eagle and KiCAD schematic and board design tools:

  • Image sensor board (R5 and R7)
  • FPGA, flash memory, and Gigabit Ethernet board (R7)
  • Microcontroller board (R7)
  • Sensor, GPS, and power supply board (R7 Trekker)

  Camera code

  Designed and developed portions of the following camera code:

  • Linux server BASH shell script code (R5 and R7)
  • FPGA Verilog RTL code (R7)
  • ARM microcontroller C and assembly code (R7)
  • Linux server network and storage driver C++ code (R7)

  Camera tests

  Designed and developed camera image quality engineering test processes and equipment for Google R5 and R7 cameras. Developed factory test procedures and Linux server shell scripts. Wrote a flat-field image test target calibration toolbox in MATLAB®.

• References

  1. "Google Street View - Data capturing equipment". Wikipedia. 11 May 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  2. "A Brief History of Google's Street View Cameras". David G. Trek View. 22 November 2019. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  3. "Google Maps Street View". Google LLC. Retrieved 2023-05-19.