Faroe Islands fit cameras to sheep to create their own Google Street View

Tired of waiting for Google, the Faroe Islanders have created Sheep View 360

Google’s Street View has managed to visit and capture many remote parts of the world, but the 18 tiny islands in the North Atlantic that make up the Faroe Islands isn’t one of them and the Faroe islanders are tired of waiting.

One islander in particular, Durita Dahl Andreassen, has decided to take matters into her own hands and create her own version of Street View – Sheep View 360.

Enlisting a team of helpers that includes a local shepherd and an engineer to create a harness, Durita says that she “gently placed a 360˚ camera, powered by a solar panel” on five of the island’s sheep.

As the sheep walk around the islands grazing, the images captured by the camera are sent back to Andreassen’s phone with GPS co-ordinates which she then uploads herself to Google Street View.

So far the sheep have taken panoramic images of five different locations, as well as 360-degree videos.

The project is a good way to attract tourist attention to the Faroe Islands, but it’s also part of a legitimate effort to get Google to visit the archipelago and finish mapping it with their official Trekkers and cars.

Considering the islands have a population of 80,000 sheep and 49,188 humans, the project isn’t short of helpers but using sheep does have its limitations.

In a call for more help Andreassen says, “My sheep are great for capturing the tracks and trails of the Faroe Islands, but in order to cover the big sweeping Faroese roads and the whole of the breath-taking landscapes, we need Google to come and map them.”

A petition has been launched on the Visit Faroe Islands website and uses the hashtag #wewantgooglestreetview.