Google Maps taking armchair explorers to the Amazon

TUMBIRA: Two women washed clothes in the dark water of the Rio Negro as a boat glided past with a camera-laden Google tricycle strapped to the roof, destined to give the world a window into the Amazon rain forest.

A "trike" typically used to capture street scenes for Google's free online mapping service launched Thursday from the village of Tumbira in a first-ever project to let Internet users virtually explore the world's largest river, its wildlife and its communities.

The project was the brainchild of Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS) which two years ago went to Google Earth with an ambitious vision of turning "Street View" into a river view in the lush and precious Amazon Basin.

"It is incredible; all those months of planning and then having this technology here," FAS project leader Gabriel Ribenboim told AFP as trikes went into action, one atop a boat and another pedaled on land.

"It is very important to show the world not only the environment and the way of life of the traditional population, but to sensitize the world to the challenges of climate change, deforestation and combating poverty."

Trikes have cameras that continuously snap images in every direction. The pictures are woven into Google Maps and Earth services so people can virtually peer about as if they were there.

Satellite positioning equipment on trikes pinpoints where images are gathered.

"When I saw this I thought of the first probe they sent to Mars," Jose Castro Caldas said as he took refuge in the shade next to a Street View trike in Tumbira.

"There must be masterminds at Google working on this," he continued. "But it is funny to see how rustic it is, too -- it is a bike with spoke tires."

The 30-year-old architect from Buenos Aires was in Tumbira helping construct an arts-and-crafts building to hawk local wares to tourists intrigued enough by what they see on Google Maps to visit in person.

"When I try to explain to people where I am, my friends think I must be in the middle of the jungle hunting to survive," Caldas said.

"Even I didn't know where I was coming to before I got here," he continued. "Now, people are going to see this."

One trike travels by river, documenting the journey, while a second is ridden, or pushed if necessary, through riverside communities.

Members of a Google team on Wednesday began teaching FAS members and local residents how to use the trikes and a special tripod-mounted camera tailored for capturing insides of schools, community centers, and other public spaces.

The camera, with a fish-eye lens to take panoramic sky-to-ground images, will also be used to recreate walks along rain-forest trails.

"We want the world to see that the Amazon is not a place only with plants and animals," said FAS chief executive Virgilio Viana.

"It is also a place with people, and people who are not completely at odds with the current thinking of global sustainability."

FAS hopes that the Google project will not only entice people to experience the wonder of the Amazon in real life, but show that people can thrive in harmony with the rain forest.

"People have learned how to live here for centuries," Viana said. "In a way, this partnership with Google is a window that opens for us to show that there is a solution," Viana added as he gazed out at the Rio Negro.

"Deforestation is not the result of stupidity," he went on. "It is an economic decision; so we have to make people earn money with the forest standing."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011