Florida beaches to be available on Google Maps

Florida’s 1,328 kilometres miles of beaches are coming to a computer near you.

Visit Florida, the state’s tourism and marketing arm, begins a four-month journey Wednesday to capture 360-degree images of the state’s beaches.

These photos will be integrated into Google Maps and will be available to anyone around the world with internet access.

Two-person teams were trained by Google Map experts to capture the images. The teams will walk about 80 kilometres of beach each week with a backpack that has a camera system on top. The camera has 15 lenses, angled in different directions, so it can capture a complete picture of a location. The images are then stitched together into a 360-degree panoramic photo.