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Just Say Cheese: A Camera Car Is Rolling Your Way

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By RICHARD MULLINS

rmullins@tampatrib.com

Published: February 17, 2009

TAMPA - If you see a cute white Nissan hatchback with a pole sticking out of the sunroof, smile and wave, because it's taking your picture.

A small fleet of such cars is crisscrossing the Tampa Bay area during the next few weeks, taking high-resolution images of every house, lot, building, yard and road - you, too, if you happen to walk by.

The project is similar to Google's online Street View system, which shows ground-level images of nearly every road in the nation. Google drove Bay area streets in 2008.

The similarities end there.

Miami-based Blue Dasher Technologies takes higher resolution images than Google and takes more of them, forming near cinema-quality scenes of roadscapes.

It has a fleet of a dozen cars, each with seven high-resolution cameras pointed in seven directions, including straight up. As the car proceeds along a road, the cameras take three to four images every second, matched to GPS coordinates.

Technicians later blend images from each camera to create a 360-degree photographic tunnel so users can virtually drive through the landscape. What will Blue Dasher do with all those images? Sell them, it hopes.

Blue Dasher says real estate companies could use the images on home advertisements, telling potential buyers, "Click here to watch your drive to school."
Commercial developers could quickly scan potential sites for projects.

Web services companies could buy the maps for things such as online illustrated driving directions, running and biking routes or other trips.

Blue Dasher drivers cover 70 to 80 miles a day on set routes.

"People seem to be very curious," said Teca Albuquerque, a driver and field operations manager with Blue Dasher. "They see the car, stop by, ask what we're doing, wave."

The system is being used by the Beacon Council, Miami-Dade County's economic development agency, which makes images available for companies considering locating in the area.

There are places Blue Dasher's camera cars can't reach. In the Bay area, some private developments and gated communities have declined to let in the cars. Drivers mark those areas for a follow-up call.

As for privacy concerns, company executives vow to remove images upon request.

Google could be catching up, however. Google is driving America's streets again, this time with higher resolution cameras and a plan to take more images.

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919. Keyword: Blue Dasher, to take a sample tour through the street view product.

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