You read that correctly, apparently Atlanta has been added to Google Maps street view in celebration of their service turning one year old! The above picture is the street-view of The World Of Coke (located downtown) but it has worked well with every other location i’ve thrown at it so far. Go check it out by going to http://maps.google.com and search for an address in Atlanta. Clicking on the street will bring up the box you see above, or select the “street view” link. Live traffic is also up and running so you can also use google maps to check how bad I-20 is before heading out to work.

If you’ve ever wondered about the technology behind Google Maps Street View, here’s a quick diagram taken from Popular Mechanics:

That’s about as basic as it gets, so if the above info-graphic seems like common sense to you and you’d like to know more behind the actual specifications behind the process, checkout this great article on their website. It even includes a ride-along with the google street view truck in action.

They’ve got a whole gallery up of cool ones (which is where I pulled the above example from), plus you can register to upload your own photos to be sent through their computer algorithm.
To Make your own 3D photos, or to just learn more about the science behind the process, visit the stanford site here – http://make3d.stanford.edu/ or just for the quick (i.e. layman’s) version of how it works, here’s a link directly to their FAQ.
Pretty cool stuff.

Here’s something similar that also passed my way, 360Cities.net – 5.000 VR-panorama-shots in more than 42 cities…. all integrated in a Google Maps mashup.. if you live in a big city, chances are you can get a 3D view of your town, for instance, here’s a 3D Atlanta…..and of course, you have to check-out their page for Egypt…. simply amazing.