On February 8th, 2023, Google Inc. announced several exciting developments including a refresh and expansion of their Google Maps service. Most excitingly was the demonstration of cities featuring Neural Radiance Fields to give users a more immersive experience. Senior Product Manager at Google and NeRF enthusiast/VFX expert/Camera path master, Bilawal "Billy" Sidhu posted on Linkedin that London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo are supported with Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence, Madrid, Barcelona, and Venice coming soon.
"To create these true-to-life scenes, we use neural radiance fields (NeRF), an advanced AI technique, transforms ordinary pictures into 3D representations. With NeRF, we can accurately recreate the full context of a place including its lighting, the texture of materials and what’s in the background. All of this allows you to see if a bar’s moody lighting is the right vibe for a date night or if the views at a cafe make it the ideal spot for lunch with friends."
