Elba Smart Exploring (IT)

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In 2018 we had the pleasure to test one of the first commercial models of the Insta 360 Pro, the first camera on the market table to create the Street View.

Until that moment only Google was able to do and reshot the Street View, and as Google Trusted Photographers we got several request of renewal from our customers, without the possibility to please them.

In almost the same times, we got in touch with Elba island tourism Board (GAT in Italian) receiving the request to produce a project capable of promoting the island and its municipalities, before and after the summer high season, therefore from March to May and from September to November.

In those periods, the island of Elba is a paradise for hikers and bike enthusiasts, who appreciate the island away from the chaotic moments of the summer, and above all enjoy its 400 km of trails.

How did we face the challenge?

Instead of creating yet another app, with all the related problems of development, maintenance, but above all of promotion and diffusion, we opted to create a customized content for the number one app in the sector, Google Maps, also adding the visual component of the Street View.

Google Maps is an easy-to-use tool, known by everyone, even the less “computer-savvy” and above all installed on 100% of Android phones and on almost 90% of Apple phones.
This makes it practically the “de facto” navigation standard in the world.

In doing so, we traveled together with the local guides, every single kilometre of the Elban paths, with the Insta 360 Pro and a special backpack built for the occasion, and we reported the missing traces of the paths on Google Maps, corrected the incorrect ones, and created the Street View of the entire network.

Everything was then enclosed in a website, elbasmartexploring.com where local guides created a series of itinerary suggestions.

It was the first systematic mapping project in the world of an entire territory, it is still active and widely used today, as evidenced by the more than 40 million views collected by the paths to date.

The project was so innovative that we had the honour of being invited to present it directly at the Google Street View Summit 2018 in Mountain View, California, at the historic Google headquarters.

To complete the project, we also checked and in some cases, corrected or added all 187 files relating to the beaches of the island, creating an aerial drone panorama for each of them.