Portable navigation and cellphone navigation devices (PNDs) show road maps with the direction of travel facing either up or north up; many show a birds-eye view, too. 3DVU wants your next device to show the route and turn-by-turn instructions overlaid on 3D photos--a photorealistic 3D view. It's going to happen in the first half of 2008 on cell phones, says Isaac Levanon, chairman and CEO of 3DVU, an Israel-based company. Today, Levanon showed off a prototype running on a Windows Mobile-based phone at the Telematics Update Navigation & Location 2007 conference in San Jose.

As you drive along, 3DVU's MovingMap technology shows a 3D photographic view of the terrain. Zooming in, you go from what appears to be the view from a plane flying high over your route to a view just over the building tops, with individual buildings clearly distinguishable. Photos are a combination of satellite and aerial photos.

Levanon says he hopes to have agreements announced in the first quarter of 2008 with a cellular carrier in the U.K. and U.S. service in the second quarter. For cellular navigation, you'll need a Windows Mobile device, with latter support for Symbian phones; the images are streamed to your phone. The technology can also be embedded in PNDs and on car navigation systems. In pedestrian mode using a handheld device, the map in your hand would look like the cityscape around you.

Post by Bill Howard