HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

⬐ 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.

⬐ optimusclimb

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

⬐ jonahx

Where can I find more info on Go's "outside" library? I'd like to use it on my next project. Do you know if any YC companies are currently using it in production?

⬐ cclogg

But let's say I want to 'go outside' in Tokyo or Dubai, without having the money to actually travel there...!

⬐ jamesbritt

Can you ride a bike?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrUp6oKOABc

⬐ dudus

This seem to suffer from the same problem. It's not smooth.

⬐ 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

⬐ zodiac

I've built a prototype that uses the phone's accelerometer to control google maps so you get a kind of 3D street view, but it only looks nice if you set your own height to be a few stories high. You can angle the camera at eye level, but the buildings all obscure each other.

⬐ mankyd

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

⬐ thearn4

Very impressive! I'd be very curious to see what this would look like with streetview images.

⬐ Blahah

It seems like all you can do is play the sequence forward or backward - surely a simple video is much better than this?

⬐ 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!

⬐ phaer

Oh yes, nice memories! Microsoft Encarta had a few of those "walks" and I used it extensively until it was slowly replaced by Wikipedia.

⬐ 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. ;).

⬐ bemmu

There he goes again: http://i.imgur.com/VyWbMrR.png

⬐ 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.

⬐ dalek2point3

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

⬐ 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.

⬐ 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

⬐ mikkom

Sorry but I don't want to play the guessing game with random commenter any more than I want to with Google.

(The browser is latest firefox/iceweasel on Debian testing)

⬐ None

None

⬐ leoc

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

⬐ 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

Wow seriously? There is some awesomely good French hip hop. Even without looking further than the IAM band, did you listen to "Demain c'est loin" [1]? Or more generally to their whole "L'école du micro d'argent" LP [2].

I'd be happy to share more French hip hop with anyone who wants.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCUiG9aZSh8

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjUEYZbJWsk

⬐ rjtavares

French hip-hop is the only one I can hear without understanding the lyrics. The beats and flow are so amazing, it's mesmerizing...

⬐ petercooper

Always appreciate the hip-hop links to listen to but I meant specifically it's the best video, not necessarily song :-) Know of any French hip-hop videos that come close to the cleverness of JDLM's?

⬐ p4bl0

Oh okay, my bad. I don't know of many hip hop videos, most of the time when I "listen to a video" rather than an audio file it's because it's a freestyle rap which was not recorded in studio but only in front of a camera. So no, I don't know of any real good hip hop video (French or not).

⬐ 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 ?).

⬐ VeejayRampay

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

⬐ p4bl0

It's true that Belsunce is at 5 minutes of walk from the Cours Julien and La Plaine where the night walk takes place.

This track is amazing. Not lyrics wise: neither the text nor rhymes nor the flow are especially good. Considering that it is a rap song these could be severe drawbacks. But the instrumental is so effective the track is globally awesome.

D'où j'sors ? D'une ronde. Belsunce breakdown.

⬐ 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..

⬐ inportb

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

⬐ Zigurd

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

⬐ 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).

⬐ 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..

⬐ 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.

⬐ 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.

⬐ ISL

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

⬐ faddotio

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

⬐ 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.

⬐ reirob

It works not on all Firefox. Just tried it out with Firefox on a Android tablet and it said I should download Chrome. Then I started it with Chrome on the same tablet and it crashed it?!

⬐ Nux

Not on mine. 24.4.0 @ Linux x86_64

⬐ leoc

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

⬐ MichaelTieso

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

⬐ leoc

Wait a while and then the wear-headphones notification may eventually drop down off the screen. If so, then press the arrow keys and the thing may start playing.

⬐ spike021

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

⬐ icebraining

I think it's loading. My wifi LED was flashing furiously while that message appeared.

⬐ 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.

⬐ None

None

⬐ acqq

Anybody can point to anything else "interesting" in the presentation than the "graffiti" and the technical side of making a lot of 360 deg night-shot panoramas with sound?

And is there a possibility to make the link to some particular spot?

(I can't imagine graffiti interesting to those who aren't themselves doing them. It's subjective, I know, and I respect that others have other views, I've heard about Banksy etc).

⬐ stblack

Nice implementation.

Marseille has a severe graffiti problem, doesn't it? Mais c'est dégueulasse!

⬐ p4bl0

Why would this be a problem? This district of Marseille is really nice, and graffitis contribute to the overall atmosphere.

⬐ hauget

can anyone give me ideas\links on what HW & SW I would need to make something like this? Would love to make an adventure game with this concept! Cheers!

⬐ itsbonczek

This is the type of thing that Google Glass was made for.

⬐ None

None

⬐ robertfw

Would love to try this out in VR!

⬐ malabar

loved this, hope for more

⬐ faddotio

Very engrossing.

⬐ 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.