Throughout the day Wednesday, Visit Bucks County staff trekked along 10 miles of trails throughout Tyler State Park, all in an effort to capture panoramic images for Google.
The images, which were captured with a backpack style Google Street View Trekker, will be overlapped and pieced together by Google staff using GPS. The thousands of images gathered, which could take several months to formulate, will be used to create a virtual tour of the area’s parks and countryside, an aspect Vice President Paul Bencivengo said Google was excited about.
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“[Google] loves that,” Bencivengo said. “[Bucks County] was the perfect fit.”
The program, which was announced in early May at a special event marking National Travel and Tourism Week at Peddler’s Village in Lahaska, was secured for the county through a simple application process about six months ago, and at no cost to the tourism agency. View the live application here.
Bencivengo noted the pieced-together, walking-tour of the counties parks will provide an educational tool not only for students and those who “love cool technology,” but an interactive tool for the tourism agency to promote area attractions.
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“We tend to target those in the New York and Philly area, who may want to check out the parks before they visit,” he told LevittownNow.com.
The device, which has been nicknamed “Trevor the Trekker,” by the staff at Visit Bucks County, features a dual battery pack attached to backpack straps and a roundhouse equipped with more than a dozen cameras, prepared to take thousands of shots, at every angle. Bencivengo noted the device weighs nearly 50 pounds, and he must walk at a pace of 25 minutes a mile to insure clear shots. The device is completely controlled by way of a smartphone app.
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Since Visit Bucks County secured the device two weeks ago, they have already captured nearly 50 miles in area trails at Bowman’s Hill Tower and Wildflower Preserve, Washington Crossing Historic Park, Shady Brook Farm, and of course, Tyler State Park.
The tourism agency, which plans to hike and snap pictures at eight more locations before June 12, even has ideas to take the trekker on a canoe at Core Creek Park; giving those who interact with the finished product, the ability to walk onto the dock, climb in a canoe, and travel along the water, all from the comforts of their computer screen.
