Accuracy assessment of 3D models generated from google street view imagery

Google Street View is a technology implemented in several Google services/applications (e.g. Google Maps, Google Earth) which provides the user, interested in viewing a particular location on the map, with panoramic images (represented in equi-rectangular projection) at street level. Generally, consecutive panoramas are acquired with an average distance of 5-10 m and can be compared to a traditional photogrammetric strip and, thus, processed to reconstruct portion of city at nearly zero cost. Most of the photogrammetric software packages available today implement spherical camera models and can directly process images in equi-rectangular projection. Although many authors provided in the past relevant works that involved the use of Google Street View imagery, mainly for 3D city model reconstruction, very few references can be found about the actual accuracy that can be obtained with such data. The goal of the present work is to present preliminary tests (at time of writing just three case studies has been analysed) about the accuracy and reliability of the 3D models obtained from Google Street View panoramas.