Google Street View and the case of Annie Bidwell’s missing face
By Ryan Olson - Enterprise-Record
Browsing through the latest update of Street View images on Google Maps has been a fun experience. My write-up is available here. It is interesting how the Street View cameras missed driving on several Bidwell Park roads. That could have made a virtual trip to Chico more interesting.
One thing caught my eye while browsing the photos of West Second Street — Annie Bidwell's face is missing. Well, not the real face of the city's late matriarch. It is the mural of John and Annie Bidwell on the side of the building that currently houses three restaurants.
Here's a look of the Street View of the mural:
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My theory is that Google's technology to blur out recognizable faces went to work on the mural even though it is an inanimate, larger-than-life piece of art. The technology appears to have skipped John Bidwell's face, but his image was already obscured by trees.
I tried to find other examples of murals or billboards blurred by Google, but wasn't too successful. Some images on billboards and murals were pretty blurry to begin with (such as "The Beatles" on Main Street).
The faces on the mural on Camella Way utility station across from the Chico News & Review office were intact (although one may been blurred when viewed slightly further away):
Looking around the Skyway, there were a couple of billboards that may have been blurred out, but they seemed blurry to begin with.
Click on the jump to see some of the billboards and one possible "winner."
Here is the most likely candidate:
Finally, on Potter Road off the Skyway, I found a billboard with a decent photo of a human face. Interestingly enough, the face of real-estate agent Diana Pavellas wasn't blurred:
At least when the camera was head on Pavellas' image. Take a look when it was at an angle:
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