Night Walk in Marseille [video]

[Magi604]

This was great.

I didn't care much for the narration, but perhaps that's because when I travel I prefer to explore things on my own. The captions and videos were helpful though.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that you didn't have to follow the green track (though you miss out on the pictures and videos). I discovered it by accident, actually. At some point in time I found out that I had become disoriented and had been going backwards for some time. Rather than go through the entire track again, I wanted to see if I could take a shortcut. It works.

You know what would be cool? Incorporating some sort of "Choose Your Own Adventure" elements into something like this. Kind of like Myst, but in real-world settings.

[cclogg]

I wonder if someday we can get to the point where StreetView is a continuous flow... like instead of tapping the arrow and waiting for the next slide to load, you would just smoothly walk forward or backwards along a track using up/down arrow.

I guess it would be technically possible already, but Google would have to snap their images with much smaller distances, and make them load in much faster... space requirements would be huge lol.

[mankyd]

Microsoft's PhotoSynth has an impressive demo of this. Check out: http://photosynth.net/preview/view/31e5927d-af4b-4678-8bba-c...

[optimusclimb]

I think we have that already, but it requires you go outside :P

[krilnon]

In areas where Google already lets you view 3D imagery, it's already possible for them to show you a crude, continuous StreetView. It's just that the UI doesn't let you angle the camera such that it's oriented at street/eye-level

[sehr]

Most immersive experience I've had on the internet so far, the added videos & interviews absolutely made it.

[cshimmin]

Honestly. This reminds me of the old educational software disks my folks would check out for me at the library back in the late 90's. And I mean that the best way possible!

[bemmu]

Did my own graffiti spotting during this walk: http://i.imgur.com/JX9uJLn.png

Same guy disappearing into the wall in two different places, I wonder if there is more of him?

[TeMPOraL]

Someone's thinking with P0rtals. ;).

[hawkharris]

A few weeks ago I purchased a Leap Motion Controller: one of those devices that tracks your finger movements and translates them into actions on your laptop screen. I was pretty impressed with the device's accuracy, but I ended up returning it because I didn't see how it had practical applications for my own work. After the initial excitement of moving windows with your hands (pretending you're in a sci-fi movie) fades off, the old-fashioned method of clicking is simply easier and more convenient.

Viewing this "Night Walk" demonstration, I felt an inkling of regret about returning Leap Motion. As others have noted, the experience is very immersive and exciting. The only thing holding it back, in my opinion, is the medium of mouse and keyboard. I wanted to move fluidly through Marseille instead of incrementally, through clicking and jerky motions of the mouse. If this kind of 3D / WebGL / geospatial content becomes more prevalent on the web, I can see a stronger practical use case for everyone owning Leap, or something like it.

[spyder]

I think for this use case the Oculus with it's head tracking would be a better fit, because when you walk in a city you don't really use your hands like you do with the LeapMotion.

[dalek2point3]

Did you try the Leap with Google Earth? it works great! Lots of fun.

[mikkom]

> Ah snap. The Night Walk experience is not optimised for your device or operating system.

Great. Please don't tell me what's wrong with my browser or os.

[anigbrowl]

Yeah, I use Chrome but I find the error messages uncomfortably reminiscent of MacOS (ie not helpful or informative).

[chippy]

it's probably over a year old .... or not running webGL

[leoc]

A camera taking lurching steps through the Marseilles nightlife? Meh, it's been done. ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuOecH5NoXs

[VeejayRampay]

More like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guM99-MqLtI am I right. And that's immersive as well.

[petercooper]

Oh wow, I've struggled to find this on YouTube for some reason. Best non-English hip hop music video I've seen so far :-)

[p4bl0]

Haha. I would have linked to "Marseille la nuit" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIWG167J1To. Marseille really is the most hiphop city in France (Europe ?).

[doe88]

Sweet, it's great to see his hometown in a post on HN :)

[p4bl0]

Héhé same here! Aïoli !

[amgin3]

I think it is broken in Chrome on Linux.. unless it is supposed to be a series of stretched out looking pictures taking up a small portion of the screen that spin around on their central axis and flip upside-down when you drag your mouse, and you can only navigate with keyboard arrows..

[Zigurd]

I'm using in in Chrome version 33.0.1750.152 on Ubuntu 14.04 Linux with no apparent problems.

[inportb]

it does the same for me in Chromium 33.0.1750.152, but works with Firefox 28.0

[ebabchick]

Does anyone know what team(s) are responsible for these kinds of projects at Google?

[WikiChen]

Would love to know this as well!

[ISL]

Page seems non-functional, wants me to plug in headphones? Chromium Version 33.0.1750.152, linux box.

Edit: reloading made it work.

[rev087]

That seems to be the "loading indicator". I was confused for a second, then it just faded away. I don't think there's a browser API to actually know wether the user has headphones plugged in or not.

[tommydiaz]

Anyone know what this is and why it's blurred out? http://imgur.com/yi0sCEC

Also, videos are not playing right for me on firefox (audio only).

[seszett]

Maybe it was recognized by Google's algorithms as numbers, or something.

House street numbers and car plates are blurred on Street View in France, and often some small squares with text are also blurred by error.

[rev087]

Videos are not loading for me at all using Safari 7.0.3

[dave809]

possibly logos/advertisements.

[abdullahkhalids]

videos not showing for me either, only the audio..

[mentos]

Cool! Very immersive and this is coming from an oculus rift owner.

I was thinking the next step up from this would be to setup 360 degree cameras every 10 or so feet along this path and have them all record for say an hour. Then you could 'walk' from point to point and see/hear/track the city.

But I actually think this curated approach is much better as it helps you cut out the noise and tell a better story.

[p4bl0]

This is awesome even if you know the place pretty well, and the sounds and music totally enhance the experience! Thanks for sharing.

[evanlivingston]

This is pretty cool.

Neal Stephenson's "Command Line" comes to mind, where he talks about how experiences are distilled and summarized for an end user. I have a vague negative feeling toward this, but I can present no argument.

[faddotio]

This is the Web version of walking around a museum with an audio guide around your neck.

[ISL]

It's an opt-in experience. You can still go for a walk :).

[sethbannon]

Totally engrossing.

[jevinskie]

Agreed. The audio alone was enough to immerse me. Right now it is in a background tab and I change the location every few minutes to change the sound!

[richtr]

Please hook this (and Street View) up to https://github.com/richtr/threeVR.

How it works: http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/w3c-device-orientation-us...

Live demo: http://richtr.github.io/threeVR/examples/vr_basic.html

[Nux]

"Ah snap. The Night Walk experience is not optimised for your device or operating system."

No night walk if you're not in the googleverse.

[icebraining]

Works in Firefox.

[leoc]

"Your headphones will give you the best experience." I'm wearing my headphones, thanks Google. Can I watch this now?

[spike021]

Happened to me at first too. Refreshing the page worked. Not sure if that's an intentional pause or not.

[MichaelTieso]

I'm having the same issue. I can't start it. Edit: Keep refreshing the page to get it to load.

[ilbe]

This is a taste of augmented reality. I like it. I'm left a bit unsatisfied though. I want to experience the real thing now.