Friday Funny: Sheep View Goes Where Google Street View Can't

Some local residents of the Faroe Islands created Sheep View 360 to document the 18 rocky islands that make up their home—and now Google is lending a hand.

1 minute read

September 2, 2016, 5:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Faroe Islands

The village of Gasadalur village and its waterfall, Vagar. | Nick Fox / Shutterstock

"Those zany madcaps over at Google have been having WAY too much fun lately," according to an article by Patrick May. "The kind you have when you get to strap Google’s high-tech street-view cameras to some of the 70,000 sheep wandering around the Faroe Islands, a self-governing archipelago that’s part of the Kingdom of Denmark."

This whole story began with Sheep View 360. According to an article from July, a local shepherd built custom harnesses to fit five sheep living on the Faroe Islands with a 36-degree camera. The effort was a preemptive effort to map the islands. Google Street View hadn't made brought its mapping project to the Faroe Islands yet, given their remote location and difficult conditions.

But after hearing about Sheep View 360, Google decided to loan the team cameras through the Street View camera loan program, which also happens to be available in places other than the Faroe Islands.

Meanwhile, there's also this video to illustrate more about how the project and partnership all came together.

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