2_Q9_ScanMag_78_July_2015_Text_JOE _Scan Magazine 1 07/07/2015 15:47 Page 85
Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Made in Sweden
Explore the world with Mapillary People who are used to travelling to new places, know the feeling of excitement and anxiety combined when diving into the unknown. What will it look like, where am I to stay, how is the surrounding area? Questions like these are not easily answered unless someone you know has a first-hand experience. Enter Mapillary – the new and democratised way to map out your surroundings and the world. By Astrid Eriksson | Photos: Mapillary
“It all started when I moved back to Sweden from a longer stay in the US,” explains Jan Erik Solem, CEO of Mapillary. “I realised that photos of my town were nowhere to be found on any of the larger mapping services, which I found quite frustrating.” Solem headed out on his bike and started to take pictures of his surroundings with his iPhone. Many shots and angles later, Mapillary had begun to take form. Based on technology developed from the University of Lund in the southern parts of Sweden, Mapillary is a street view mapping service, allowing users to upload images of their locations and together with others create an accurate 3D depiction of the world. “Other platforms where users
share pictures does not puzzle them together the way Mapillary does,” Solem says when explaining the uniqueness of his company. “Based on coordinates the uploaded photo is analysed and matched with other uploaded images nearby which creates something much more alive and immersive than before.” One other exciting feature Mapillary offers is the time-mapping of a location or region. “Say that photos are uploaded of the same location but ten years apart,” Solem says excitedly. “Rather than updating the old one or rejecting the new, as some services would, Mapillary stores the images and the data, allowing users to follow a locations’ or neighbourhoods’ development over time. You can time-hop, scroll
back and forth and see the changes a place goes through over time. It is really quite thrilling.” Calling themselves a “democratised photo mapping service”, Mapillary is on a quest to map out the world, giving it a personalised and crowdsourced representation, humanly powered, curated and run. “You can share locations, recommend them and comment on whatever street views you fancy, in order to ask questions or let people in on hidden gems,” Solem says. “When it comes to travelling and discovering, Mapillary is a stellar app to have in your smartphone. And while you’re at it, you can add your own contribution with a click of a button!” The Mapillary app, simply called 'Mapillary', is available from the App Store, Google Play and the Windows Store. For more information, please visit: www.mapillary.com
Issue 78 | July 2015 | 85