Insta360 Pro Camera – Now Certified for Google Maps “Street View”

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by Jakub HanFebruary 21^st, 2018

Insta360 Pro Camera becomes the first 360 VR camera to be certified by Google as “street view ready”. With the additional GPS module users can contribute their 360 footage to Google maps street view.

Insta360 Pro with GPS module – ready for Google maps street view

Insta360 Pro is a very capable 360 VR camera. It was introduced more than a year ago and it offers truly amazing specs like 8K or 100fps in 4K resolution. To read more about the camera itself, check out one of our older articles by clicking here.

Insta360 has released an update that allows users to mount the Insta360 Pro on a vehicle and take advantage of a dedicated workflow for smooth and simple contributions to Google Maps Street View. In order for this to work users need to purchase a separate GPS module from Insta360 and connect it with the camera to automatically geo-tag the content being filmed. The camera itself then needs to be fixed on the vehicle’s roof, of course.

When updated, users can choose an 8K 5fps video mode in the Insta360 Pro to start capturing a series of closely-spaced 360 snapshots from the top of their car. For now, this only works on smooth paved roads as this setup is not intended for rough roads or trail driving. Submitting the footage directly to Google Maps Street view has been made easy by implementing an automatic publishing feature in the Insta360 Stitcher software.

The following short video briefly explains the process of capturing Google Maps Street View content:

Once uploaded, Google’s system will automatically recognize the 5fps video, convert it into a series of evenly spaced 360 photos, and then embed these photos into the Street View map at the appropriate locations, based on the associated GPS data. Published images can be explored via Google Maps’ Street View app or through the Google Maps mobile and desktop apps.

What do you think about the Insta360 Pro camera? Do you find this new feature useful? Let us know in the comments below.</strong