Osprey Reef screenshot from Google Street View
Raise your hand if you’ve used Google’s Street View feature to creep on your own house. (In case, you know, you forgot what it looked like.) We’ve all been there. But besides scoping out your own neighborhood street for no productive reason whatsoever, you can use Street View for various purposes, ranging from wincing at embarrassing moments caught on the Street View camera to virtually revisiting famous movie scenes. Google has gone a step further in its impressive Street View project, bringing its cameras Down Under to launch the Great Barrier Reef’s first 3D mapping. Now, instead of just looking at boring 2D pictures of underwater sea life, you can see it in eye-shattering 3D! Technology, yo.
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is just the most recent addition to Google’s 3D mapping project, which you can use to virtually explore other reefs around the world. They accomplish this using cameras specifically designed for the project, which take 360-degree images every 3 seconds and are later stitched together to make the viewing experience seamless. Give it a try! Not included in the experience: the sting of saltwater in your eyes or the pain of stepping on sharp shells (been there, done that).