Google Street View brought to life with sound

Amplifon – traditionally a hearing aid manufacturer and based in Manchester – has set out to add sound to Google Street View in this incredibly ambitious project.

Sounds of Street View blends the Web Audio API and Street View together, meaning as you explore the three locations they’ve currently audibly augmented, location-appropriate sounds can be heard.

The experiences sounds best with a pair of headphones, so you can hear sound quietening or shifting sides dependent on where you are in the location.

This video explains:

Although limited to just the three locations right now, Amplifon has provided a framework with which developers ‘with minimal coding experience’ can create their own ‘soundscapes’, offering a trip of your choice in a crowd sourcing competition.

There are obvious marketing implications and to consider them, take a look at Google’s own beautifully executed Night Walk in Marseille (seriously, it’s incredible).  Open top bus city tour companies could give a teaser of their tours online, the National Trust could bring locations to life with natural and historical sounds, travel companies could overlay resorts with helpful facts and reviews, J.K. Rowling could narrate a walk through Diagon Alley… basically, if you have a client with anything visible on Google Street View, have a think, I’d love to see some creative thinking applied.

 

Further reading: Gizmodo

Involved agency: Epiphany Search

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