New Atlas

Wearables Audio available

Google’s new Street View backpack drops some weight and ups the resolution

Rich Haridy December 18, 2018

It has been years since Google’s influential Street View left the roads and began to map everything from shopping centers to hiking trails. The device that made this happen was called the Street View Trekker, and Google just revealed an updated model.

Drones

Hovermap drones dive underground to autonomously map mines and tunnels

Nick Lavars November 4, 2018

The potential of drones flying through the sky is well documented, but they also hold great potential for environments deep beneath the Earth's surface. Australian-based startup Emesant is developing drone software focused on the autonomous mapping of mines and tunnels.

Drones

Amphibious drone performs belly landings on the water

Ben Coxworth October 18, 2018

Ordinarily, fixed-wing mapping drones either just perform a traditional landing on the ground, or they parachute down to it. However, what if they're being used over the water? Well, that's where Aeromao's new Aeromapper Talon Amphibious drone comes in.

The Aeromapper Talon Amphibious drone can make belly landings on the water, or parachute down to ...

Automotive

MapLite may take self-driving cars off the beaten path

Ben Coxworth May 7, 2018

You might think that with all their cameras and other sensors, self-driving cars can handle any road in any location. That actually isn't the case, although it soon may be, thanks to MIT's new MapLite system.

Science

Better-performing mapping system searches the streets

Ben Coxworth April 17, 2018

When it comes to making city maps based on aerial photos, manually tracing all the roads can be quite the hassle. As a result, we're now seeing computer programs that do so automatically. Scientists at MIT have developed a program of their own, that is promised to be even better at the job.

Traditionally-traced roads, as they appear on Google Maps

Science

MIT imaging technique sheds light on the brain's electrical activity

Dario Borghino February 28, 2018

Researchers at MIT have developed an imaging technique that will help study exactly how electrical signals propagate through the brain, in an advance that could help us better understand Alzheimer's, epilepsy, and other brain disorders, as well as how thoughts and feelings are formed.

A new light-sensitive protein can be embedded into neuron membranes, where it emits a fluorescent light ...

Robotics

Hidden places to be explored by minimal impact blimp

Paul Ridden December 13, 2017

French researchers and the ScanPyramids project have joined forces to develop a new robot exploration platform. The current focus is on developing a two robot platform capable of looking into and mapping inaccessible areas of ancient buildings without blowing through doors and walls to do so.

Render of the sensor-backed blimp being deployed to explore inaccessible areas of an ancient building or ...

Space

Google Street View docks at the International Space Station

Nick Lavars July 20, 2017

Google Street View can take you to the some of the most remote regions of our planet, but the developers of the first-person mapping service see no reason to stop there. Starting today, you can use the tool to explore the ISS, the first time Street View has ventured beyond the Earth's surface.

The Cupola Observation Module aboard the ISS, as seen through Google's Outer Space View

Aircraft

Elektra One Solar demonstrates 3D town mapping capabilities

Mike Hanlon June 19, 2017

Elektra Solar demonstrated the capabilities of the company's Elektra One Solar aircraft earlier this month by mapping an historic German town in 3D. The low cost, low noise electric-solar aircraft was able to circulate silently just 300 meters over the town while it scanning the landscape below.

The Elektra One Solar flew autonomously on a predetermined path over Landshut while carrying a complex ...

Environment

Google's Street View cars offer block-by-block pollution readings

Nick Lavars June 6, 2017

Tracking air pollution in a city can be an inexact science but researchers have now explored a way to offer block-by-block, highly localized data, and it involves fitting out Google Street View vehicles with air pollution monitors as they roam around town.

The Google Street View vehicles gathered more than three million unique pollution measurements