What is visible on a GPS screen can and will be better than it is today. On January 6, 2010, NAVTEQ announced the availability of its Enhanced 3D City Models product, a service that enables navigation systems to display high-quality, situation-specific 3D textured urban environments to simplify guidance and orientation. Built from key attributes of the highly-accurate NAVTEQ map, Enhanced 3D City Models enables navigable 3D animation to be generated in real-time. Additionally, NAVTEQ's unique build approach makes it possible to seamlessly incorporate other NAVTEQ map and visual content with Enhanced 3D City Models to further enhance the user experience.
Insights from consumer research indicate that people understand visual cues very differently when they are driving and walking, and these insights led to much of the innovative design in Enhanced 3D City Models.
The new product allows applications to intelligently include the right level of detail to support specific guidance and orientation needs, such as road attributes like bridges, tunnels, and lane markings, or sidewalks and crosswalks. Providing only the most relevant visual details and the right amount of texture at the right time ensures users do not become distracted with potential information overload.
Now available in the United States with expansion to Europe, Asia and South America scheduled later this year, Enhanced 3D City Models offers customers greater flexibility for implementation in current and future navigation applications.
As amazing as it already is, the field of navigation display has much room for improvement, and this 3D rendering capability will move it in the direction of greater usefulness.