Latest news with #StreetView
Time Out
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
This stunning new project maps every word found on NYC streets
If New York City had source code, it might look something like this. A mind-bending new project from media artist Yufeng Zhao and data storyteller Matt Daniels has sifted through 18 years of Google Street View imagery to build a searchable map of every word visible on NYC's streets. The result, hosted on The Pudding, is part sociolinguistic study, part urban scavenger hunt and fully addictive. Using optical character recognition (OCR) software, Zhao fed eight million Street View panoramas into a tool that transcribed everything from storefront signage to bumper stickers to graffiti tags. In total: 138 million snippets of text, neatly geotagged and searchable. Want to know where the word 'jerk' appears? (Hint: It's more about Jamaican cuisine than personality types.) How about 'gold,' 'halal' or 'beware'? There are maps for each. Some findings are charmingly predictable, like the 111,290 sightings of 'pizza' scattered across the five boroughs or the hot dog hegemony of Sabrett-branded carts. Others are almost poetic in their specificity. 'Luxury' gets thrown around citywide but is especially concentrated in Hudson Yards. 'Iglesia' maps neatly onto New York City's Spanish-speaking enclaves. And 'Siamese'? Not a feline reference, but an old-school term for a dual fire hose hookup. The most common phrases across the dataset form a sort of municipal mood board: 'stop,' 'no,' 'do not,' 'only' and 'limit' dominate—a stern vocabulary of restriction that reflects the city's built environment. (If you're wondering, 'Fuhgeddaboudit' does appear, too—and it's actually posted on signs.) The project's companion search tool, lets users explore these words visually, like decoding the city one frame at a time. But it's not just fun and games. The project raises fascinating questions about how the city presents itself, what it values and what slips into the visual background. It also suggests that while Google may have pioneered Street View, it's indie tinkerers like Zhao who are now pushing its potential. 'It feels like sifting through the city's source code,' the authors write. Or maybe it's more like an urban poem—written not in verse, but in vinyl decals and awning fonts.
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
Man gets $12,500 in compensation after Google Street View clicks him naked
A man in Argentina has been awarded $12,500 (nearly Rs 11 lakh) in compensation after he was photographed completely naked in his backyard by a Street View car. The man successfully argued in court that his dignity was harmed despite being behind a six-and-a-half-foot wall in a small Argentine town in 2017. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now According to a report by CBS News, the man, who is a police officer, claimed the privacy invasion led to ridicule at his workplace and among his neighbours. The image reportedly showed his bare behind and failed to blur his house number and street name, which were visible online. He initially sued Google in 2019, but a lower court dismissed the case, citing the man's "inappropriate condition" outdoors. However, an appeals panel reversed that decision this month. Google had defended itself by claiming the perimeter wall was not tall enough. What the court said while ordering Google to pay the compensation "This involves an image of a person not captured in a public space, but within the confines of their home, behind a fence taller than the average-sized person. The invasion of blatant,' the court said, favouring the man. Ordering Google to pay out the compensation amount, the court said: 'No one wants to appear exposed to the world as the day they were born." The court also pointed to Google's practice of automatically blurring faces and license plates as an indication that the company recognised its responsibility to prevent harm to third parties. However, in this case, the judges noted that the man's 'entire naked body' was visible and said the image should have been flagged. Replying to this, the company said that 'if you would like us to blur your entire house, car, or body, submit a request using the 'Report a problem' tool.' iQOO Z10R 5G goes on Sale: BEST Budget Phone for Content Creators?
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Indian Express
Google ordered to pay Rs 10.8 lakh to Argentine man after Street View car captures him ‘naked'
A man in Argentina has won a legal battle against Google, which must now pay him roughly Rs 10.8 lakh ($12,500) in damages after a Google Street View car captured and published an image of him completely nude in his backyard. The incident occurred in 2017 in a small Argentine town, where the man—a police officer—was sunbathing behind what he described as a 6-foot-6 wall when the Street View camera snapped the revealing photo. Not only was his bare backside visible online, but the image also showed his house number and street name without any blurring, making him instantly identifiable to neighbours and colleagues. Feeling humiliated and mocked at work, the man took Google to court in 2019. At first, a lower court sided with the tech giant, ruling that he should not have been outside in an 'inappropriate condition'. But this month, an appeals court overturned that verdict, saying the image clearly violated his privacy. 'This involves an image of a person not captured in a public space, but within the confines of their home, behind a fence taller than the average-sized person,' the panel stated. The judges noted that Google's failure to obscure the man's identity stood in stark contrast to its own guidelines, which promise automatic blurring of faces and licence plates to protect individuals' privacy. The court called the breach 'blatant,' emphasising that 'no one wants to appear exposed to the world as the day they were born'. Google argued that the wall surrounding the property was not high enough, but the court was not convinced. It highlighted that the man's 'entire naked body' was visible in the image and should have been flagged under Google's review systems. On its official site, Google notes, 'We have developed cutting-edge face and license plate blurring technology,' and also offers users the option to request blurring of homes, cars, or people via its 'Report a problem' tool. This is not the first time Google has faced legal heat over its Street View programme. Back in 2019, the company agreed to a $13 million settlement over privacy concerns tied to its data collection. And in 2010, it was ordered to pay just $1 in damages to a Pennsylvania couple after trespassing on their property.
Gizmodo
2 days ago
- Gizmodo
Man Awarded $12,500 After Google Street View Photographed His Ass
What does involuntary public embarrassment get you? Somewhere in the vicinity of $12,500. An Argentinian man who had his whole bare ass captured by a Google Street View camera and published to Google Maps was awarded that modest sum by an Argentine court for having his privacy violated and his dignity damaged. The man, a police officer, was naked in his yard in 2017 when a Google Street View car came driving by. Even though he was behind a six-and-a-half-foot-tall fence, the camera caught him, quite literally, with his pants down. Google typically blurs faces when they appear on camera, but butts apparently can make it through the censors, and the man had his ass plastered on the internet, and it was easily identifiable along with his street name and home address. According to CBS News, the man claimed that he was humiliated by the situation, subjected to ridicule from his coworkers and neighbors, all because Google's cameras could peep over his wall that kept his nudity private from prying eyes at normal human heights. Google, per the report, argued that his wall was not high enough, which is technically true in the sense that it literally did not prevent him from being photographed—though one could reasonably assume the wall was not installed with car-mounted, 360-degree cameras in mind. The man's first attempt to get compensation was rejected by a court, which said he had no claim to damages and no one to blame but himself for 'walking around in inappropriate conditions in the garden of his home.' Which, you know, that's not an entirely wrong conclusion. But an appeals court saw it his way, recognizing that his privacy was violated by the photo. 'This involves an image of a person that was not captured in a public space but within the confines of their home, behind a fence taller than the average-sized person,' the court said, calling the invasion of privacy 'blatant' and the whole situation an 'arbitrary intrusion into another's life.' The court pointed out that Google has a practice of blurring faces and license plates on phones taken by its Street View cameras, so it clearly understands the potential harm that could occur if it published a photo of someone without permission. So it does seem a little weird to not blur the fully naked guy. 'No one wants to appear exposed to the world as the day they were born,' the judges wrote. For his troubles, the man was awarded the $12.5k in damages from Google—which is significantly more than the $1 it paid to a Pittsburgh-area couple who accused the company of trespassing by taking photos of their private road, but less than the $13 million settlement it paid in a class-action case accusing it of collecting personal information as part of its Street View project.
NDTV
3 days ago
- NDTV
Man Awarded Rs 11 lakh After Google Street View Car Clicked Him Naked
Google has been forced to pay approximately Rs 10.8 lakh ($12,500) to an Argentine man after he was photographed completely naked in his backyard by a Google Street View car. The man argued in court that his dignity was harmed by the internet giant despite him being behind a 6-foot-6 wall, in a small Argentine town in 2017. The man, a police officer by profession, claimed the invasion exposed him to ridicule at work and among his neighbours, according to a report in CBS News. While his bare behind was splashed on the internet for everyone to see, Google did not even blur his house number and street name, which were clearly visible in the image. He sued Google in 2019, but a lower court initially dismissed the case, faulting the man for being outside in an "inappropriate condition". However, an appeals panel reversed that decision this month. Google, in its defence, claimed that the perimeter wall was not high enough. "This involves an image of a person not captured in a public space, but within the confines of their home, behind a fence taller than the average-sized person," the court observed, adding: "The invasion of blatant." Awarding the sum in compensation, the court said: "No one wants to appear exposed to the world as the day they were born." Google's blurring policy The court also cited Google's policy of automatically blurring faces and license plates as evidence that it was aware of a duty to avoid harm to third parties. However, in this case, the man's "entire naked body" was visible, the judges said, and the image should have been flagged. "We have developed cutting-edge face and license plate blurring technology that is designed to blur identifiable faces and license plates within Google-contributed imagery in Street View," Google's website about its Street View policy states. The company adds that "if you would like us to blur your entire house, car, or body, submit a request using the 'Report a problem' tool."
