Swedish developer Einar Öberg has created a site called Urban Jungle Street View, which uses Google Maps‘ Street View to make the world appear overgrown with vegetation, as if it had been abandoned by humans.
The site overlays trees, vines and other vegetation onto Google Street View, creating peaceful, but unnerving views of our world. To try it, simply visit the site, and search for any location with Street View, and you’ll be transported to a lush, forested version of the places you know. The site, an experiment by the developer, uses ‘depth data’ included in the Google Maps API to overlay sprites in ‘almost’ the correct position’ on the original image.
On his Twitter account, Öberg admits that he’s using the Google Maps API in a way that is not allowed by the terms of service, so it might not last very long if Google decides to take it down. That would be a shame, as Urban Jungle Street View is a neat experiment, and a fun use of Google Maps.
Visit Urban Jungle Street View.
Source: Twitter
