Google’s ‘time machine’ maps its way into the past
New function shows old images as Trekker backpack with panoramic camera system adds 23 new city locations to tech giant's Street View
Remember how West Kowloon looked without the high-speed railway construction going on? A new function on Google Maps may help refresh your memory.
The technology giant launched a new worldwide upgrade of its maps yesterday, allowing users to not only see what streets look like today, but also what they used to look like.
In addition, 23 new locations - images of 14 hiking trails, four reservoirs, three outlying islands and two special areas - have also been added, made possible by a new backpack camera device brought to Hong Kong in August last year.
Six months of trekking around the city by foot with the Trekker - an 18-kilogram backpack with a camera system which can take panoramic views by stitching 15 photos together - added images of previously unreachable spots in the city.
Google took its first street views in Hong Kong in 2010 - before the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, developments on the West Kowloon waterfront and changes to shopfronts across the city.
There are now street views of 170 locations, streets or areas in Hong Kong.