Google Maps new Street View feature is giving out as big a WOW! as Google Earth back in the day. If you didn’t catch it yet, see the rundown on our sister blog Compiler here. The voyeur-tastic service lets you wander the street of several US cities at street level, with full 360º view.

So how is it done? A company named Immersive Media provides the service to Google. They drive the streets in a pimped out VW Beetle carrying an 11 lens camera called the Dodeca 360. The camera can also be hand-held, but that would probably get you arrested on some terrorism charge. The Dodeca combines the images into one image, capturing data at a huge 100 million pixels per second and records the GPS coordinates as it goes.

After that it’s all software wizardry to tie the frames together. We thought you might like a look at the cam and the car. One, because it’s a great gadget, and two, so you can be on the look out for the car and wave at it in a “hi mom” moment.

Product page [Immersive Media via Engadget]

• automobiles
• GPS