Augmented Planet » mapping

Augmented Reality Gaming: Nokia Ovi Maps Racing

Nitin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:19:36 +0000

Here at Augmented Planet, we have reviewed a few mobile augmented reality games in the past. Many of these are of the more traditional type: overlay some virtual enemies in the camera view, and wave your phone around and try to shoot them, see here. Occasionally a game like Parallel Kingdom comes along which is a little different to the norm – so to speak. Again the debate arises as to what the definition of augmented reality is in the context. Is the only ‘reality’ the live camera view, or is your location also a type of ‘reality’, which too may be augmented. I won’t delve too deep into this discussion here, however this article will probably help to muddy the waters a little further.

Recently Nokia launched Ovi Maps Racing For Nokia Symbian^1 handsets. This article does not serve to review the game itself, as there are many sites which do this already, however what I want to do here, is to discuss the augmented reality-ness (<-I want to coin this phrase if no one has already claimed ownership), of the game.

The idea behind the game is that you use your current location to create a track using Ovi Maps (Navteq), and then you can race around, trying to set the fastest lap times.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6V-iCSFcnw

From the Ovi Store:

Access your location, create a track and put the pedal to the metal. Ovi Maps Racing gives racing game enthusiasts a totally unique gaming experience combining map navigation and racing. Why not race on your home street? In addition to creating your own tracks in European cities, you can also choose from pre-defined tracks and check global rankings. Ladies and gentlemen, download and start your engines!

Is this Augmented Reality?

So the argument arises: is this an augmented reality game? It has not been marketed by Nokia as such, and we’ve not made our minds up yet. Do you need to be able to use your current location using the GPS sensor? Is it not enough to just be able to pick a map from a library, or create a map from an Ovi Maps interface? (The application provides both of these options). Is the use of the GPS sensor just a shortcut that feigns ‘augmentation’? Many augmented reality application and games simply give the perception of augmented reality and whilst the technology bubble continues to inflate, maybe this will do for now?

In any case, we’d definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter.

Ovi Maps Racing is available for Nokia Symbian^1 (S60 5th edition), devices: N97, N97 mini, 5800 XpressMusic and can be downloaded for free for a limited time only from the Ovi Store.

Augmented Reality Navigator and Impact Detection

lester — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:02:42 +0000

Looks like I am off to Mobile World Congress later this month to help the Wireless Industry Partnership group run an App Planet event.

What is App Planet?
App Planet is an “event within an event” at Mobile World Congress 2010 that will present a unique opportunity to explore the many dimensions of the dynamic and critically important mobile applications market. By pulling all the key players together in one place at one time, we will make App Planet the new Centre of the Apps Universe for the four days of Mobile World Congress.

more info here:

If you are at MWC I hope we’ll get a chance to meet.

In putting together the ultimate guide to iPhone augmented reality I came across an app called iDRNAVI. iDRNAVI it’s a quiet unassuming application that I have seen in the appstore for awhile but never really taken any notice off. The screen shots didn’t really sell it to me and lets be honest it’s a bit of a crap name. When collecting data for the guide I had to take a look a the app in more detail so I could figure out where it fits.

iDRNAVI is a multifunctional drive-recorder that displays GPS data, acceleration, speed. It’s also a GPS logger, will record up to 120 minutes of video and should you have a car crash it will automatically email pictures of the impact to any email address you specify. With a description and functionality like that it was just begging to be installed and tested.

Before you get excited, there are some serious faults with the app, for example adding a new target defaults to 500 miles East off the cost of Africa, ie somewhere in the Indian Ocean, clicking the current location option doesn’t do anything. This is a real pain when you want to navigate as there is no search so you’ll have to scroll, stretch and zoom all the way from Africa to wherever you want to navigate. It’s slow and tedious.

I tried the impact detection functionality, I get a failure to send email error but 2 emails do arrive, sadly without photos.

From: Lesters iPhone

Coordinate: latitude: 51.59640484, longitude: 0.07633593
Accelerometer: x: 2.32G, y: 2.32G, z: -2.30G, v: 4.01G
Vector: 4.01G
URL: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=51.596405,0.076336

Coordinate history
2010/02/02 12:27:36.495
51.59640484, 0.07633593, 0.0

Accelerometer history (interval: about 0.2 sec)
x: -0.09, y: -0.92, z: -0.69, v: 1.16
x: -0.11, y: -0.78, z: -0.58, v: 0.98
x: -0.25, y: -0.89, z: -0.49, v: 1.04

This application is a really nice idea, especially the impact detection, you can imagine that functionality like this could save lives in the future. Perhaps it’s just my bad luck that it didn’t work for me.

If your looking for a simple HUD, a GPS logger or to record a video of your trip then this might be of interest. Personally I was looking forward to the impact detection and navigation and feel a let down. Buyer beware!

Incidentally, there are still several more parts of the ultimate iPhone guide to come.

Watch iDRNAVI in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGXVG4PXacU

Augmented Mapping The Future Of Maps?

lester — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:37:17 +0000

When it comes to planning a journey from A to B we have no shortage of GPS devices to assist. But sometimes I don’t want to plan a journey, I just want a very simple visual view of what is around me without searching though pages of POIs on my GPS.

MapLense is the result of research from the Helsiniki Institute for Information Technology HITT and could create a new field in augmented reality, Augmented Mapping. The demo below shows a user holding up a smartphone over a map and being presented with local POIs and then getting more information, eg finding out more about local tourist attractions. But I see the potential here for all maps in the future to be dynamic. Imaging taking out a paper map and viewing it with a smartphone and seeing live traffic reports for each of roads overlaid on the map or visual indications where the roadworks are located.

Map Lense 2.0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=00hiRuCTBOQ

HIIT home page. www.hiit.fi

MapLense was built by Helsiniki Institute for Information Technology HITT, University of Oulu, Graz University of Technology, so its a product that has come out of university research and probably not going to be publicly available. The also give thanks to Nokia, HITLabsNZ, University of Otago, Imagination Computer Services GesmbH.

The 2 names that stand out, Nokia obviously, and HITLabsNZ who have an excellent record on producing cutting edge augmented reality solutions. Whatever happens I’m sure we’ll see more on augmented mapping in the future.