Forget Google Street View, now there’s Sheep View.
Despite mapping out millions of miles of streets around the world, Google has still not sent its 360-degree camera cars to the Faroe Islands. The locals have had enough and have improvised their own version of the technology to map out their islands. Small, handheld 360-degree cameras have been attached to a lightweight harnesses, which the sheep wear. The harness carries a battery, and also has solar panels so that the cameras can operate for longer. The images, along with their GPS co-ordinates, will then be collated and uploaded to Google Street View’s servers.
The project is being managed by Durita Dahl Andreassen from Visit Faroe Islands.
She said: “The tiny capital of the Faroes, Tórshavn, is my home, and my colleagues and I want to share our beautiful, green and undiscovered land with friends and acquaintances around the world via Google Street View.
“As Google won’t come to the Faroe Islands, we decided to bring the Faroes to the world in another way – Sheep View 360.”
While the project itself is clearly an attempt at generating tourism interest in the islands, it also highlights how significant Street View has become. Holidaymakers are known to use Street View to glance at the streets surrounding potential hotels, for example, before booking a holiday. A petition has also been launched by the tourist board to encourage Google to visit the islands with their Street View cars. The Faroe Islands is a self-governing island country within the Danish realm, and sits about halfway between Norway and Iceland, to the north of Scotland. Some 50,000 people live on the island, and they are outnumbered by sheep.