Google unleashes backpack camera as latest device in its bid to map entire world
Street View Trekker camera can go ‘offroad’
Campaigners warn privacy is being sacrificed in race between Google and Apple
By VANESSA ALLEN and DAVID GARDNER
For all its planes and vans mapping out the world, there have been places even Google cannot reach.
Now thanks to its latest weapon, the internet giant will be able to chart everywhere from the depths of the jungle to the narrowest city alley.
Its backpack camera, which is carried by a trekker on foot, will be able to get to places that Google wings and wheels cannot.
The device, a more portable version of its controversial Street View cameras, is able to go ‘offroad’, potentially photographing and mapping everywhere from the base of the Grand Canyon to the top of Everest.
Campaigners have warned that privacy risks being sacrificed in a commercial race between Google and its rival Apple, which unveiled its latest mapping technology yesterday.