Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone supplier, is developing a new kind of navigation instruction system for mobile phones. With landmark-based navigation you won't even need to know your address or cross streets to get directions. You just take a picture of a nearby landmark, like the Golden Gate Bridge, with the camera in your mobile phone. Then, Nokia will match your photo with other landmark photos in its mapping database, and tell you where you are. Instructions to your destination are given by red arrows added to pictures, text or voice.
Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto, Calif., says.
Dr. Pulli says that there is nothing like it in the navigation market at the moment. "The instructions are based totally on real world pictures, not on synthetic maps," he says. "We started developing the landmark mode when we realized that people read maps in different ways depending on things such as cultural background and gender."
A Nokia research group in India figured out that people there navigate a lot by using landmarks. "In India it's common to give instructions like 'Turn left when you see a gas station, and follow the road until you see a big tree on your right,'" Pulli says.
S60-platform. The system wouldn't necessarily cost to the customers as it could be sponsored by ads on the service, Pulli says.
Navteq's databases.
Navteq collects general map data with cars, and Pulli thinks it would be possible to photograph the landmarks while the other data for the maps are collected. Nokia also bought Gate5, the leading supplier of mapping, routing and navigation software and service couple of years ago. Gate5 has its headquarters in Germany, but the company develops its middleware in Silicon Valley.
have covered earlier, there's a growing market in the location-based mobile services, as smart phones becoming more common. Nokia obviously wants a share with its mapping company purchases and navigation project that is one part of its augmented reality research project.
Navigating with the help of landmarks is an idea worth trying in areas such as college campuses, hospitals and airports where you usually walk or drive in a low speed. When navigating in high speeds the mobile phone screen is not a very useful guide, even if the pictures of the landmarks the database provides are big and clear. And even the best mobile phone screen can't beat the big screen of the latest car navigating systems such as Dash, which we have covered. When driving, the image recognition system is almost impossible to use - just try snapping a photo when driving down the highway.