Google integrates StreetView in their driving directions to give the user an impression about the calculated route. Microsoft tries now tries to integrate videos in their driving directions and synchronize them with the map. According to the official research paper Microsoft Research Redmond and the University of Constance are working on this research project, but as you can see in the video and the test routes Microsoft Graz is also involved in this study (Even the camera car has an license plate from Klagenfurt). I think parts of this geospatial innovation are originating in Austria. Great!
The following videos shows how this method works.
Summary:
Driving directions to help us get from here to there are an important part of our lives, whether it’s to get to work, vacation, or to a friend’s house. The most common way to obtain driving directions is to go to Google or Bing maps and print them out. In the near future, one could say that driving directions will soon be solved via in-car navigation systems such as Garmin and TomTom. However, sometimes even these navigation systems fail: under tunnels, when map data is not up to date, etc. When in-car navigation fails, we often find ourselves under stress and this can make driving more dangerous. So how can we help drivers prepare for their drive and reduce stress when in-car navigation fails?
The key idea is to take advantage of our amazing capacity to recognize images/videos we’ve seen before. Studies have shown that humans can reliably recognize images they’ve seen before well beyond a year after viewing them! This ability also explains why it’s easier for us to navigate to a location the second time. So what our system provides is a video preview of your driving route, so that you can familiarize yourself with the route, before actually driving in the car. Creating such a video is possible by merging frames from Google Street View images, for example. When you’re in the car, you’ll be able to recognize landmarks you saw in the video, to aid you in your navigation.
Of course, if you’ve driving a 30 minute route, you don’t want to watch a 30-minute video. So we shorten the video to only the important parts (such as turns and landmarks) and speed up through uninteresting ones. We also filter the video to make it a smooth and continuous experience.
This work will be presented at User Interface, Science and Technology (UIST) 2009.
Further Links:
[via thekeyidea.blogspot.com]
