Fridaygram: Street View in the sky, robot carp, restored shuttlecraft
By +Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog
Editor
This week we launched
Street
View images showing what it’s like inside (and outside) the
Burj Khalifa in Dubai. We love
taking Street View places it’s never been, and now we’ve added two firsts: the first
collection in the Arab World, and the first one to
feature a
skyscraper.
As if it’s not enough to visit the 163rd floor of the world’s tallest building, or ride an
elevator traveling at 22 mph, we thought it would be fun to send our Street View camera
outside
the 73rd floor in a maintenance unit for a breathtaking view of the surrounding
cityscape. So don’t miss that view, as long as you’re OK with heights.
We go from high above the Earth to under the sea for news of the world’s first robot carp. A
team of scientists in Singapore studied these freshwater fish and designed an
autonomous underwater
exploration vehicle. They plan to use this robofish to study tight spaces in
underwater places, such as pipelines or the lost city of Atlantis. The researchers used
cameras to record carp doing their thing, then created a mathematical model of carp movements
to trigger actuators in their robot.
Finally, let’s journey beyond even the Burj Khalifa, out into (pretend) space, where the
Galileo Shuttlecraft
served Captain Kirk and the crew of the U. S. S. Enterprise in the original Star Trek
universe. This prop was originally considered too expensive for the production company to
build, so Federation personnel had to make their way to and from planets by transporter
instead. But the craft was eventually built and appeared midway through the first season, in
1967 (or
stardate
2821.5, if you prefer). In the years since then, the ship has deteriorated. But now
Star Trek fans and a shipwright are
restoring the Galileo to its original glory, to be enjoyed by fans everywhere.
Magnifico!
Whether on the surface of the Earth, way down
below the ocean, or in space, Fridaygram is
always your ticket to fun nerdy stuff. Speaking of space (and Star Trek), it looks like Voyager 1 has still
not left the solar system, although it has entered a previously unknown area, far
out there. This weekend, go and explore something new on your own!
