Landmarks add depth to maps

For the directionally challenged, finding a destination with street names and cardinal directions can be a frustrating experience. But with the latest 3-D landmark technology from Tele Atlas, all a user needs to know is a few major landmarks.

The Amsterdam-based digital map and dynamic content provider recently added more than 450 notable U.S. and Canadian landmarks for use in navigation devices and location-based applications in the North American market.

The company uses more than 50,000 sources, including 50 “mobile mapping vans” that travel across the globe, collecting data from cameras and GPS sensors to compile into a best-of-breed 3-D map interface. Designed to help drivers and pedestrians better orient themselves in their surroundings, users can view a building's exterior down to minute details. The company is continuously expanding its database of buildings and expects to have more than 1400 landmarks by the end of next year.

This technology can be used with in-car and portable navigation systems, computers, and mobile phones, depending on which vendors partner with Tele Atlas. Currently, Hewlett-Packard's iPAQ 300 Series will be the first to feature the content.

Jay Benson, vice president of global strategic planning for Tele Atlas, said that the evolution of consumer mapping has been rapid over the last few years, beginning with MapQuest's route maps. Google Maps added imagery to this concept, offering users a bird's-eye view. Tele Atlas takes this model one step further, Benson said.

“The map data companies and applications providers are trying to help build a better model of reality and move from those cartoon maps,” Benson said. “What our 3-D landmarks do is start giving you that 3-D context. You shift from flying and looking down on a city to moving down and looking at it from across the horizon, seeing the curvatures of the earth, seeing 3-D landmarks as they come into place.”

In addition to 3-D landmarks, the Tele Atlas Elevation Model — already available in Europe — is being introduced in the U.S. this month. It shows users highly realistic landscapes with contours at scales up to 1:50,000.

According to Benson, the company's ultimate goal with both technologies is to allow its partners to create differentiated solutions through an enhanced display capability. And for the end users, Tele Atlas wants to offer a more realistic model of reality.

“Our goal is to continue to extend the attribution in our database to create a more realistic map,” Benson said. “It is also to challenge people on what the traditional definition of a map is. We are moving away from the paradigm of a 2-D, flat map.”