#22: Apple is working on "Street View" mapping technology patent
Published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple's "3D Position Tracking for Panoramic Imagery Navigation" describes a graphical user interface that leverages an iPhone or iPad's onboard sensors to navigate panoramic imagery.
According to the filing, Apple's invention
improves upon current technology, like Google's Street View, which boxes users
into a "bubble" that can only be navigated through an input device
like a mouse or multi-touch screen. For example, in a conventional GUI, the
user must "jump" to a panoramic "bubble" at a given
intersection and pan within said bubble to move in a desired direction; a
tedious experience for mobile device users on the go.
Instead of the traditional approach, Apple
proposes tracking subsystems and onboard sensors deployed within a mobile
device be used to translate a user's physical motion into a panoramic
navigation UI. In the examples that follow, data from accelerometers, cameras,
gyroscopes and other sensors are used to "move" a user through
virtual street-level panoramic space.
Apple's iOS Maps currently lacks a street-level
viewing option, as it simply doesn't have the imaging data. This feature, which
is available on Google's mapping service thanks to its Street View initiative,
was sorely missed by some iOS device users with the introduction of the Maps
app in iOS 6.
It is unclear if and when Apple will implement the invention in a future iteration of Maps, but the filing shows the company is at least actively investigating a competitor to Google's solution.
It is unclear if and when Apple will implement the invention in a future iteration of Maps, but the filing shows the company is at least actively investigating a competitor to Google's solution.
I'm interested in seeing how this patent battle will play out since Apple's iOS Maps will undoubtedly have some similar features compared to Google Maps-Street View.
ReplyDeleteHowever,if Apple pulls this off then we're looking at 500 million mobile Apple devices with cameras becoming an army of data collectors (and creators) that would make Google’s mapping vehicles look like child’s play...
i agree with nana's comment about litigation wars. I agree that google will definitely try to get apple in court to concede and stop the use of this application. I am interested to see how this will work on the iPhones!
ReplyDeleteI think Apple finds itself at risk of losing their iOS Maps to another competitor within their own App Market. When the iPhone 5 released along with the newest update on iOS, one of the biggest concerns was the lack of accuracy of the iOS Maps. I think this is of grave concern for Apple and am looking forward to see how their final product will perform.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to see how much the sensor data (especially accelerometer) will help since different vehicles / users /traffic conditions will generate different data.
ReplyDelete