[OzzyOsbourne]

This is totally awesome.

BTW, I've been meaning to ask for a while though: what sort of algorithm is running that detects edges and orientation so when the mouse is moved, the small white circle or quadrilateral seems to touch the objects in the image?

[Stratoscope]

The Street View cars have LIDAR which which gives them distance data. They must be constructing a 3D model from this data.

[OzzyOsbourne]

Are you sure? How do you know it is not an image processing/edge detection algorithm running? If they were indeed constructing a 3d-model, I'd be interested in seeing it, even if it is a low-poly approximation...

[Stratoscope]

I didn't have the reference handy when I posted, but here is some info about how they use the lasers to make the 3D model:

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/learn/turning-ph...