Video: Nokia and NAVTEQ taking on Google Street View demoed on Nokia N900 and TV-out: Nokia City Scene

An unmissable feature on Nokia World Experience Lounge show floor was the big-ass camera mounted car which resembled google’s own street view car. Now, I was told by Nokia-NAVTEQ folk Nick and Robert that this particular car wasn’t actually for street view but to improve map accuracy (or words to that effect). However there was another car that could do that (though they were very strict in comparing it at all to a google product).

Just like the previous pixelpipe video, this was unfortunately only a short demo as the closing speech was quickly dawning. Also, due to the cripped WiFi, they weren’t able to pull down the data to move along the streets. Nick and Robert mentioned that they would have improved implementation of street navigation with much respect for user privacy with face blurring and getting permission to capture and store street images.

It’s noted that 3D mapping is something that will evolve into ovi maps. Here you can see clicking on buildings gives you info and you can navigate within the 3D map.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY0Ltpacsi0]

I think streetview would be great for pedestrian navigation (you can see exactly what’s supposed to be around you) and for property checking (looking to rent/buy, what’s the city area look like?). Car navigation probably not so much as you’d whiz by too fast for any of this to be useful.

Tags: Google, Maemo, N900, Nokia City Scene, Nokia N900, Street View

Category: Maemo, Nokia, Nseries, Video