Google Maps Street View team stopped by our lovely campus this week to document everything Penn State for their Google Maps App. The team came equipped with a specially outfitted tricycle instead of their retrofitted VW Beetle. The trike is a wonderment of green ingenuity, technical prowess, and a test of physical aptitude. The trike, evidently designed at a San Diego bike shop [link], has 8 cameras affixed to the center mast and wired to a location aware computer in a googlfied compartment in the back. What makes this piece of equipment really impressive is the fact that its pedal powered. That’s right Paul Watson fans, all of the electronic gadgetry is powered by pure brute strength of the cyclist in front.

The trike project was first deployed to Italy and Britain to capture images from the tight winding alleys and corridors that are home to some of the world’s most beautiful sculptures and architecture. The bike was then recently deployed to our ivy league friends at U. Penn using it’s small vehicular footprint to travel the quads and paths of the campus.  Before visiting Penn, the only live trike documented area of the U.S. was a trail in Monterey, California. Now with its trip to the happiest of valleys, street view visitors will soon be able to take a lap around Beaver Stadium (Currently 3rd largest sporting stadium in the world), take a look at the line outside the creamery, and then travel down College Ave. and viewing Old Main. Recruiting tool anyone?

[Source][Photo Source]