Faroe Islanders fed up with waiting for Google Street View to arrive attach cameras to sheep to create their own version
Images and GPS coordinates are beamed back to project leader Durita Dahl Andreassen of Visit Faroe Islands
RESIDENTS of the remote Faroe Islands have come up with their own unique version of Google Street View.
Some of the islanders were bored of waiting for the street-level road-mapping technology to arrive so they could show off their homeland to people around the world.
The camera cars which have mapped out streets across the globe for Google would have trouble covering much of the islands’ tricky terrain.
So a group of creative locals took matters into their own hands – by attaching 360-degree cameras to the backs of sheep.
The 18 windswept islands in the North Atlantic that make up the self-governing archipelago are home to more sheep than people – with roughly 80,000 of the woolly creatures to just 49,188 humans.
And the animals wander freely across the islands, climbing the steep hills and descending the rocky valleys with ease.
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Durita Dahl Andreassen of Visit Faroe Islands headed up the Sheep View 360 project, attaching cameras to five different sheep.
Small solar panels allow the equipment to stay powered up, while a mobile phone transmits information to the project leaders.
The pics are beamed back, along with GPS co-ordinates in order to map out exactly where the images were taken.
Durita said: “I think the Faroe Islands is the most beautiful place on earth and I think it’s sad that I can’t share it with my friends abroad.
“Google Street View has been all over Europe – even to the top of Mont Blanc – but never to the Faroe Islands, so I decided to do it myself.”
Explaining the decision to use sheep, Durita said: “In the Faroe Islands, there are twice as many sheep as people – and the Faroe Islands originally even means ‘The Sheep Islands’.
“It is one of the only places on earth where they walk free in nature and they can get all around the islands.”
As well as promoting tourism, the project also hopes to encourage Google to add the islands to its global Street View mapping project.
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