Now, you can explore the depths of the ocean without ever leaving your apartment.

Google's new project, Street View Oceans, collects imagery and data to create visuals on the world's coral reefs. Divers with sea scooters loaded with cameras drive around the reefs, snapping photos, which are later stitched together into panoramas.

Google hopes the project will boost public awareness about the deteriorating health of coral reefs as a result of pollution, climate change and overfishing. The project, in collaboration with the Catlin Seaview Survey, uses technology similar to facial recognition software to catalog and categorize the creatures and coral formations captured in the images.

Street View already lets you climb Mount Fuji, take part in the Tour de France and explore Diagon Alley. The oceans are Google's next frontier.

(Source : mashable.com)