New Delhi: The Google home page looks a little different today. Below the search box is a set of images, clicking on which takes you inside 17 museums across Europe and the US.
The new website, googleartproject.com, launched in February this year, aims to bring the world's great art galleries into the home with a new website that offers virtual tours using Street View technology, the ability to build private collections and ultra-high resolution images.
While most big galleries have been busy making their works accessible online for years, Google's site is looking to take the online art experience to a new level.
Google used its its Street View technology to develop virtual tours of the museums.
Cameras mounted on a special trolley travelled through empty galleries after the public had left, taking 360 degree images of selected rooms which were then stitched together. So far 385 rooms are navigable, and more will be added.
Each of the 17 museums involved also chose one artwork to be photographed using "gigapixel" photo capturing technology, resulting in an image on the computer containing seven billion pixels and providing detail not visible to the naked eye.
And so by zooming in on a broken string on the instrument in Hans Holbein the Younger's "The Ambassadors", from London's National Gallery, the viewer not only sees the string clearly but also where each new brushstroke has been applied.
Users can create their own collections, add comments and share their experiences, opening up educational opportunities.
Among the galleries featured on the site are the Uffizi in Florence, the Palace of Versailles in France, Museum Kampa in Prague, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
(With inputs from agencies)
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