[Recap] Polonnaruwa Blue Line Meetup - Almost 7km of Street View imagery

Meet-ups
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This meetup was the second Blue Line meetup hosted in Sri Lanka. In the previous meetup, we covered almost 20km of street view imagery at Sigiriya. Please read this recap for more information. These series of meetups were organized to update the Street View imagery of World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka.

This was scheduled to start at 6.30 in the morning. I went to Polonnaruwa on the previous day and stayed in a Clay Hut Village, which is very close to the Polonnaruwa World Heritage Site. I called @lahirusu around six in the morning and he said he would be late. Then I got an SMS from @Udithakw and he also informed he would be late.

I decided I should go to the starting point on time and my daughter joined me. She was excited about meetup after she went to the Pinnawala Open Zoo with me. Do you want to know more about our trip, please read this post on the Connect.

We went to the Deepa Uyana on time and no one turned up. At around 7.15 Uditha and Lahiru joined.

We went to the Deepa Uyana and both Uditha and Lahiru wanted to know about the Blue Line meetups. I explained to them what is meant by Blue Line meetup. We had a general discussion on 360 photo and video contributions to Google Maps and Street View. Uditha did not know how to take 360 photos using Street View app. Lahiru and I demonstrated how to take 360 photos using Street View app. Then Uditha wanted to become a trusted Street View photographer.

Then we decided to go to the Polonnaruwa World Heritage Site to do 360 videos to add Street View imagery to Google Maps.

Three participants with the vehicle use for the Street View video capturing
Three participants with the vehicle use for the Street View video capturing1200×900 392 KB

We covered the main road inside the World Heritage site and then we took a break. I wanted to visit a friend, and Lahiru and Uditha went to collect the driving license of Lahiru, which was seized by the police.

After about an hour we met again and we covered the other parts of the site. Lahiru did the Street View leading to the Siva Devalaya No 2. While we were recording the video one Ricoh Theta V got stuck. Likely we had two cameras. We continue our work with the second camera.

Then Uditha wanted to take us for refreshment. We went to Pharo Lake hotel. On our way, we did the Street View of the road leading to the hotel. After reaching the hotel Uditha did a full 360 photo coverage of the hotel. We had refreshments.

Having refreshments

Uditha was taking 360 photos and at the end of the meetup, he has uploaded over fifty 360 photos. He will become a Street View trusted photographer in a few days. :wink:

Here is the output of our effort. The rendering of imagery is still not completed. I can notice there is an issue in rendering, the blue lines are broken. It is something beyond our control. @SonyaN @brittym @Atsukot Can you explain this? We covered nearly 6 km of Street view imagery inside the world heritage site and another 1 km leading to the hotel.

Here is a photo collage of the meetup.

Here is the shared Google Photo Album of the meetup.

Here is the recap video of the meetup.

@Seedra @vijaih @Rumal95 @sithara_mahalekam you all missed this.

Photo and Video credit Anuradha, Uditha, and Lahiru

38 Likes
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@AnuradhaP , This is great stuff. Would like to take part in this kind of event in the future if you going to host more. @kasunaaa , @SupunW have a look at this

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@AnuradhaP I missed this.

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@ravindus thanks. Read the Sigiriya Blue Line Meetup post. You and your friends are welcome to the future meetups.

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Your work is really laudable @AnuradhaP

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@mdimran0809 thanks.

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@AnuradhaP it is awesome work again after the seegiriya one. As @ravindus said we would like to take part in your future events. Please inform me via @Rumal95 as I live closeby rumal’s place

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@kasunaaa Thanks, Sure, I will inform you.

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What a nice recap @AnuradhaP, nicely written. I love the you-tube video you have created, it tells the whole story.

And thank you very much for letting me contribute to the blue lines at your Polonnaruwa Blue Line Meetup. I think by now my contribution of 0.27 miles that day is completed and now showing as a continuous blue line instead of blue dots.

Keep up the good work as always !!

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@lahirusu Thank you, I am glad that you join me. Let us host a meetup at your home town.

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Yeah sure, will do.

We have lot to cover there.

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Hi @AnuradhaP ,

Amazing recap, thanks for sharing!

I really enjoyed reading through your recap. I don’t see a lot of meet-up revolving around updating street view photography, so I think it’s great that you are doing this.

It’s clear to see that you got a lot done on this stretch.

I hope to see a third meet-up in the same spirit soon!

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@MortenSI Thank you. In this meetup, we covered only 7km. Have a look at this meetup, we covered over 20km. I have covered over 100km of street imagery now. If you want to find out more, please read this post.

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Thanks for bringing your earlier recap to my attention @AnuradhaP ! You covered an impressive distance.

Do you also add new information to the map, or are you focusing 100% on street view photography?

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@MortenSI I am focused on adding archaeological sites to Google Maps and promoting it to other local guides and heritage managers in Sri Lanka. I am also adding new contributions to Google Maps. If you want to know more about my contribution read this Connect Live 2019 application post. There you will get links to my previous application posts(2017 and 2018).

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That sounds great @AnuradhaP , good luck with your application!

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