Reuben Pillay from Mauritius has created an interactive 360-degree drone map using a DJI Phantom 4 Pro in an effort to allow tourists to see the island while travel restrictions are in place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reuben Pillay has created an interactive map using a DJI drone to take photos, then stitches them together to create 360-degree images of great spots around the island. The map consists of 220 high-quality images from around the island with the majority covering the coastline.
Pillay shared that all he wants is for people to discover Mauritius and hopefully prompt them to come over once travel bans have lifted.
In creating the map, Pillay spent around $1,000 on fuel to travel to all the locations, along with 20-hour days to code the website and get it ready. Pillay lives near the center of the island; it takes roughly an hour to reach the coastline.
Each 360-degree photo took around 10 hours to edit and stitch. In total it took 18 months to produce all 220 images.
In an interview with PetaPixel, Pillay shared the following on why he created the interactive map.
“I have used Google Street View before, but it’s not available for my little island — the Google street car never made it here. All we have on Google Earth is images from a lot of different people and the general quality isn’t necessarily good. I wanted to create something with much better uniform quality. A place where you’d get decent images every time you’d click and a way for people to leave memories they’ve had at these places.”
Pillay later said this website is due in part to the COVID-19 lockdown, allowing him to focus on creating such a map for the world.
Head over to the map and check out the island to see some amazing landscapes and views. Let us know what you think of the map in the comments below.
Photo: Reuben Pillay
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