
Indoor Google Street View of the British Museum - DiabloD3
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/u/0/asset-viewer/british-museum/AwEp68JO4NECkQ
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IanCal
The idea is great, but I've got really awful tearing when I move the camera
around. I also have repeatedly tried to zoom in on something by double
clicking and have been transported to another room. If I'm close to a wall
(which I'm likely to be if I'm looking at an exhibit there) then I need to
move the cursor out of the window as otherwise I've got a partially
transparent rectangle covering the exhibit.

It's interesting, but it feels like there are a variety of problems that
aren't issues when using streetview because of the context which suddenly
become major problems.

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gabriele
The HDR effect on those images is gross. Also, the white balance looks way off
(blueish) to my eyes. I'd say that the overall image quality is not very good
with reflections and poor resolution that severely limit the view of details.
Such a pity given the value of the assets on display and the incredible
opportunity of accessing them with this tool.

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joosters
The British Museum's "A History of the World in 100 Objects" is a fantastic
way of exploring some of the items in the museum. The short radio programs
give a great background and context to each item:

[http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world....](http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world.aspx)

and

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/about/british-
museum...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/about/british-museum-
objects/)

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justifier
one of my favourite things about living in london was access to museums

i would go into a museum just because i was walking by

on my walk from work i would stop in three different museums along the way
just to look at a single piece in each

it is very freeing, critically and creatively, to be able to examine a single
piece and then leave

there is often a pressure to 'get your monies worth' at stateside museums
causing a numbing fatigue that informs the popular opinion wherein museums are
boring or intended for 'someone else'

one of my favourite pieces in the british museum was a bust of apollo(o) where
the sculpture had apollo tie the hairs from the side of his head into a square
knot across his forehead

when i got into the street view i quickly walked the route i so often did in
building

but lo, they must have moved, or removed?(i), the bust.. heartbreaking

if you are in london right now and have yet to have seen either the hunterian
museum or the sloane museum(ii), they are across the street from each other,
do so now

the hunterian is a surgeons museum, basically accumulated by a single
individual, that boasts some 300 bottled specimens and a huge collection of
medical instruments through the ages.. a textbook on mid 19th century
lithotomy was eye opening

(o) [https://www.ancientsculpturegallery.com/bust-head-of-
apollo-...](https://www.ancientsculpturegallery.com/bust-head-of-apollo-
british-museum-bronze-replica.html)

(i) [https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/u/0/asset-
viewer/Aw...](https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/u/0/asset-
viewer/AwEp68JO4NECkQ?location=51.5192987%2C-0.1282316%2C1.01%2CT3PWA9LLIGdTgxl54gNwuw)

(ii)
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/hunterian+museum+london/@5...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/hunterian+museum+london/@51.5152839,-0.1158997,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xeea4b606cd807220?sa=X&ved=0CI0BEPwSMA5qFQoTCIWeyuaBjskCFQuYiAodCz0NZg)

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r0fl
VR headsets such as the Oculus Rift, combined with this will allow so many
individuals to experience such museums who would otherwise never be able to
attend in person.

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iMark
I would have loved this as a kid (not to say I don't love it now).

I marvel at the fact that children growing up now will be able to take
resources like this for granted. Amazing.

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marcosscriven
One of my favourites: [https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/u/0/asset-
viewer/Aw...](https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/u/0/asset-
viewer/AwEp68JO4NECkQ?location=51.5191724%2C-0.127484%2C1.26%2C03uM-
NCdPTwEA1fuyubWWA)

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mcphage
Fantastic idea, terrible implementation. Too many slow steps walking through
bare areas, clicking does unpredictable things... apparently now I have a
super zoomed in view of a cabinet door?

A much better approach would be, instead of designed around _me_ turning
around, have it designed around _the objects_ turning around?

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murbard2
The exposures are definitely off, and they keep switching from one image to
the other. There is a cheap fix which would nonetheless make browsing much
more pleasant: transition each image from the previous image's exposure to the
current one over a second or so.

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tommoor
The British Museum was the first museum I visited where It was all... "holy
shit - museums can actually be super interesting!" ...that said, Imagine how
boring this place would be if Britain hadn't colonized half the world at one
point in time :)

~~~
arethuza
The list of countries that the UK _hasn 't_ invaded at some point is actually
pretty small:

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9653497/British-have-
inva...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9653497/British-have-invaded-nine-
out-of-ten-countries-so-look-out-Luxembourg.html)

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melling
In the next version, it would be cool if they could include "hotspots" where
you can click and hear the audio that you'd get if you were there.

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test_pls_ignore
There's a bunch of "interior" Google Streetviews. One of my favorites is the
Gershwin Theatre (Wicked) in NYC:
[https://goo.gl/maps/Up1vUm9xVJB2](https://goo.gl/maps/Up1vUm9xVJB2)

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leoedin
I wonder how easy it would be to combine this with Oculus-like VR to make a
fully explorable space? I guess you'd probably have to generate a 3D image of
the space and texture it with street view photos. Is that doable?

~~~
murbard2
If you just want to look around and jump from place to place, then it's
trivial and likely already works with Google cardboard. If you're talking
about being able to move freely, it's a much more complex problem and you do
need a 3D model.

[http://matterport.com/](http://matterport.com/) attempts to do that with a 3D
camera, but their prettiest results still rely on discrete spherical
panoramas.

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oneJob
Maybe time to change name to "foot view", or "pedestrian view", or something.
Street view is becoming a bit anachronistic.

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rogov
This is much trickier to navigate than a street. I overshoot what I want to
look at with almost every click

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joosters
Cursor key navigation seems broken on Firefox, unfortunately.

