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Inception-style curved map for turn-by-turn directions

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Re: Inception-style curved map for turn-by-turn directions

#121

Post by tonyarkles »

pishpash wrote: post #119
shrx wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also a problem with Google Maps navigation. It is always showing the perspective looking straight ahead of your current direction, even when you're approaching a sharp turn. Instead, the perspective should be along a vector connecting your current location with the point where the navigation's path crosses the edge of the display, pointing straight up.

So why not use 2D maps, have people lost the ability to read North up maps? I swear ever since paper maps have not been used in cars, people have gotten spatially dumber.

I love north-up maps because I find they give me way better spatial context. My truck’s nav system gives north-up as an option but my phone and my truck map both suffer from the same problem on different axes. My phone sits in its holder vertically, so I have way more north-south context than east-west. The truck screen is landscape, same problem north-south! A square map north-up would be amazing!

Re: Inception-style curved map for turn-by-turn directions

#123

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

tikotus wrote: post #117
tshaddox wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that Apple Maps is typically pretty smart with its automatic zoom. For a typical intersection with just one turn to navigate, it will zoom in to give you a good sense of the lanes, stop signs/lights, etc. But when there are consecutive turns to navigate, or a heavily curved section of road (like highway on-ramps) it will zoom out and even rotate the map to show that upcoming context.

Apple Maps got really good at some point! I once pick it by accident for navigation, and never went back to Google Maps.

I think it may depend on where you are.

Around here (Long Island, NY), it's far better than Google Maps, and I use it all the time.

I've heard that it falls down, in rural areas, though.

Re: Inception-style curved map for turn-by-turn directions

#124

Post by tshaddox »

tikotus wrote: post #117
tshaddox wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that Apple Maps is typically pretty smart with its automatic zoom. For a typical intersection with just one turn to navigate, it will zoom in to give you a good sense of the lanes, stop signs/lights, etc. But when there are consecutive turns to navigate, or a heavily curved section of road (like highway on-ramps) it will zoom out and even rotate the map to show that upcoming context.

Apple Maps got really good at some point! I once pick it by accident for navigation, and never went back to Google Maps.

I've used it almost exclusively since around 2019, but that has been in the Bay Area and LA area where the data has presumably been very good relative to other areas.

Re: Inception-style curved map for turn-by-turn directions

#125

Post by mthoms »

philistine wrote: post #85
Carrok wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment confuses me a bit because Google Maps (at least in the US, in my experience) is really great about telling you what lane to be in.

Not every road owner in the world has provided how many lanes a road has. To tell you which lane to stay in, it need to know how many there are!

This information is all derived from overhead (satellite and aerial) imagery combined with street level imagery (like from Google street view). No road owners required.

Re: Inception-style curved map for turn-by-turn directions

#126

Post by mxfh »

hex4def6 wrote: post #43
tomgp wrote: post #23

First time I saw this idea was Berg's "Here and There" poster from 2009 (a year before Inception) though they acknowledge a bunch of earlier inspirations... https://berglondon.com/blog/2009/05/04/here-there-influences...

That seems like enough prior art to invalidate much of what could conceivably be considered novel in the pending patent...

I once saw a patent on that already earlier somewhere, which i assumed was the reason none of the automotive navigation UI's where doing this.

Just checked again, and it's verbatim this use case and even active until 2030 still:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20100305853A1/en

3-D map display

Abstract

A computer generated 3-dimensional map display includes a reference icon identifying an observation point in the geographic area defined by the map, the map being presented on a curved surface which extends from a first plane to a second plane which is substantially orthogonal to the first plane. The observation point is located in the first plane. The display is configured such that the height of landmarks and buildings in a defined foreground of the reference icon are presented normal to the first plane, the height of land marks and buildings at a defined far distance are presented normal to the second plane and the height of land marks and buildings in a defined middle ground are presented normal to the non-linear portion of the curved surface. The geographic area represented can be translated along the curved surface to provide a perception that the reference icon is roaming through the displayed geographic area.

By no other than "Here and There" Schulze and Webb Ltd later rebranded to BERG.

The generic use case of a multiperspective camera method for that was arguable covered in a 1997 Disney paper latest.

Multiperspective Panoramas for Cel Animation https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/fall00/cs597b/p...

Re: Inception-style curved map for turn-by-turn directions

#127

Post by tehnoslow »

Cool idea, but it feels more suited for pedestrians or cyclists moving at a slower pace. Not sure this format would work well in a car, since you can't really see the whole road ahead. At 100 km/h, you need to grasp the route and upcoming turns quickly and this view might not give you enough time to get in the right lane. Still, props to them for trying something new.
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