And he almost caught it
March 7, 2019 2:02 PM   Subscribe

A little dog in Japan chased the Google Streetview car and ended up thoroughly documented on the map. Street View dogs previously on metafilter
posted by moonmilk (17 comments total) 42 users marked this as a favorite
 
Much mapping. Very chase. So territorial. Oh wow.
posted by azpenguin at 2:16 PM on March 7, 2019 [18 favorites]


That is a very good boy.
posted by allkindsoftime at 2:30 PM on March 7, 2019 [3 favorites]




"This Little Dog 'Ruined' Every Frame Of A Google Street View By Chasing The Camera"

Pretty sure that's not how you spell "enhanced"
posted by onetime dormouse at 2:42 PM on March 7, 2019 [17 favorites]


This Little Dog IMPROVED 'Ruined' Every Frame Of A Google Street View By Chasing The Camera

Fixed. 🐶
posted by Fizz at 2:43 PM on March 7, 2019 [5 favorites]


Yes, that's right, chase the evil google away! Good boy, good boy!
posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:53 PM on March 7, 2019 [9 favorites]


Wow, eirias - the dog is simultaneously right side up behind the car and upside down in front of the car. He's a dimension-hopper!
posted by moonmilk at 3:01 PM on March 7, 2019 [3 favorites]


Doggo has special power to fly upside down.
posted by waving at 3:04 PM on March 7, 2019 [3 favorites]


This reminds me of a Maps Japan quirk I spotted once.

Several years ago, like in 2010, my partner and I made plans to visit an expat friend and his family in Kamakura, Japan, and during the buildup to departure day, I was flitting around google maps, dropping in and out of street view, getting the lay of the land before arriving on it, as one does, and discovered something odd. The standard map view included building footprints -- rare in those days, but Maps Japan had them, somehow -- and in the little rectangle that represented my friend's house his surname appeared. None of the other squares and rectangles had anything written on them -- in kanji or anything else. Just his. In English. He had studied cartography in college and I guessed a school colleague who'd landed a job at Maps had planted it there as a joke.

When we arrived I showed him what I had found and told him my theory. "Nope, no one I know." And a moment later, "Those fuckers, probably just keeping an eye on the local gaijin."

Later, after Fukushima, I learned that in Japan regional officials keep detailed maps on hand of the local buildings -- and who lives in them -- to aid search and rescue operations following disaster. My theory now is that Maps Japan had somehow gotten hold of those local area maps and used them to provide the building footprints. Naturally, they would have stripped the surnames from the buildings before making them public, but whatever tool they used to automate that process skipped over my friend's surname, since, ahh, it didn't match up with the local characters.

(I just checked, and the name has been removed.)

So anyway good for you, Doggo, for keeping a close eye on Maps Japan.
posted by notyou at 3:13 PM on March 7, 2019 [15 favorites]


Isn't google required to blur his face?
posted by JackFlash at 4:47 PM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]


It’s already fuzzy enough.
posted by moonmilk at 5:10 PM on March 7, 2019 [17 favorites]


Isn't google required to blur his face?

They actually DO blur the dog's face in the link eirias posted, if you turn the camera around to face the dog directly. Hilariously, the weird reflection on the opposite side (presumably part of the algorithm to hide the footprint of the Street View car) does NOT have the face blurred. Also, other frames don't do the blurring, so I guess the algorithm isn't totally clear on whether doggo's identity needs to be protected or not.
posted by chrominance at 5:26 PM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]


I was flitting around google maps, dropping in and out of street view, getting the lay of the land before arriving on it, as one does...

(Wow that leapt right out at me. I guess we do live in the future. Or at least some of us and/or some of the time.)
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 7:43 PM on March 7, 2019 [8 favorites]


That is a very good dog.
posted by Mchelly at 6:51 AM on March 8, 2019


he almost caught it

Now we'll never know what Google tastes like.
posted by billiebee at 7:13 AM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]


We wouldn't have known anyway - dogs rarely share their food and never talk about it afterwards
posted by moonmilk at 8:25 AM on March 8, 2019


(presumably part of the algorithm to hide the footprint of the Street View car)

It's less to hide the car and more that we don't have a camera pointed straight down. We grab pixels from the next/previous capture because a low-res streaky blob mostly looks better than a featureless void.
posted by reventlov at 2:32 PM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]


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