谷歌地圖推出"時光機"功能 幫你拾起回憶
A new feature on Google Maps Street View, which rolled out world-wide Wednesday, lets users zip through imagery dating back to Street View's beginning in 2007. The update also lets you view Street View in different seasons and during the night.
谷歌(Google Inc., GOOG)街景地圖週三在全球範圍內新增了一大特色，用戶可以瀏覽追溯至街景功能2007年推出時的影像。此次更新版還可以讓用戶瀏覽到不同季節以及夜間的街景。'For the longest time we've had Street View users asking that we either preserve the imagery we had or that we give them the ability to go back in time and look at imagery the way it was before,' said Luc Vincent, the Google Maps Street View director of engineering. Users want to see how their old neighborhood looked years ago, the building of iconic landmarks, or cities before and after natural disasters, he said.
谷歌街景地圖工程部門負責人文森特(Luc Vincent)表示，長久以來，街景用戶一直在問它們，到底是保存這些影像，還是給用戶回到從前、瀏覽過去圖像的能力。他說，用戶希望看到他們的老街區幾年前是什麼樣子，看看標誌性建築或者是城市在自然災害之前和之後的樣子。
'We like to think we were building a 3-D image of the world, and now the mirror is actually 4-D,' Mr. Vincent said.
文森特說，公司希望它們一直在建造全世界的3D圖像，而現在實際上是4D了。
If you see an hourglass in the upper left corner of a Street View panorama, that means there is past imagery you can peruse. Just click the hourglass and a thumbnail of past images will appear. A timeline in the thumbnail allows you to move through history.
如果你看到谷歌街景網頁左上角有一個沙漏，就意味着你可以查看過去相應的街景圖片。只要點一下這個沙漏，就會出現過去圖像的縮略圖。根據縮略圖的時間軸，你就可以回顧歷史了。When you see the period you want to explore, click it and the whole Street View will change. At that point, you can wander around in the past as you would in the current version.
當你看到你想要回顧的時期，只要點一下，整個街景頁面就會改變。那時候，你就可以像在當前版本一樣在過去徜徉。Before the update, about 6 million miles worth of Street View imagery was available. With the time-machine feature, you can find about 12 million miles worth of sidewalk-level, interactive photos to explore.
在此次更新版發佈前，谷歌街景採集的累計里程達到了600萬英里（約966萬公里）。在推出“時光機”功能後，用戶可以查看大約1,200萬英里（約1,932萬公里）的便道交互式圖像。The time machine will be available in almost every location where Street View is in operation.
這項“時光機”功能在谷歌街景記錄的幾乎所有地點都可以實現。For major metro areas, there will be 20 or more so-called time slices to check out, while for most locations, there will be two or three, Mr. Vincent said.
文森特表示，對於主要的都市區，谷歌街景提供了20個甚至更多的時間片段可供瀏覽，而對於大多數地點，則提供了兩到三個時間片段。'What we've done before now was give users the freshest imagery, because that's typically what's most useful to them,' he said. 'From now on, every time we add imagery, it will be with a time-machine layer.'
文森特說，在此之前，公司給用戶提供的都是最新的圖像，因爲通常來說這對他們是最有用的。他說，從現在開始，每次我們添加圖像，都會附上一個時光機器按鈕。For now, Street View's time-machine feature is only available on desktops, but Mr. Vincent said he would like to see it eventually offered on mobile as well. The hope is that users will find the older Street View maps just as useful as the new photos.
Google Inc.目前，谷歌街景的“時光機”功能只適用於臺式機，但文森特說，他希望最終這項功能也能在手機上使用。該公司希望用戶最終感覺這些街景歷史圖像和新圖像一樣有用。'This is something educators and scientists could use,' Mr. Vincent said. 'We want this to be a resource for the world. That's why we were intent on launching it world-wide all at once.'
文森特補充道，教育工作者和科學家可以利用這項功能。他說，公司希望這成爲全球的一項資源；這就是爲什麼公司有意將更新版在全球同步上線。
