It basically looks like a standard data collection vehicle. Not sure who designed or built the system but they are using the Velodyne HDL-32 as the LiDAR sensor. It is a different configuration then I have seen in the past as most applications have two sensors on the rear aimed so they can cover both sides of the road and minimize shadowing. They may be using a combination of LiDAR and photogrammetry. It could be for a street view of buildings but the system is powerful enough for the creation of autonomous vehicle base map data. Google uses the older HDL-64 on their self driving cars. Nokia Here, Microsoft and Mandli Communications use the HDL-32.
Street View is awful. You jump from node to blurry, lens-flared, slow-loading node in the most tedious way possible. You think you'll be able to read street-level signs, but the one you want is rarely readable.
If Apple's Flyover, with it's fast, smooth-scrolling 3D, no constant re-loading of the same street, and no special "mode" you must enter, can be brought a bit lower down to the street, now that would be the best of both worlds! It's already more useful than Street View--in the limited number of cities (like mine!) that have it.
And no lens flares hiding the signs!
Respectfully disagree that flyover is more useful than street view. Flyover is smooth, but less practical IMO.
I'm wondering if "Street-Level Flyover" via drones is in the works, to photograph those hard to get areas, better 3D compilations of buildings, & photograph that which would be otherwise impossible without trespassing on private property.
[On a side note: Based on recommendations in this forum, I deleted flash from my MBPro. In the above article, there is a place which says that I am missing the the flash plug-in, so I don't know what I am missing. A little surprised that AI would insert 'Flash-required' content.
While Google Streetview is a bit of a gimmick it does have some value at looking around to get your bearings somewhere new. However, the real benefit and true purpose of these camera cars is to get accurate local ground truth such as junctions, intersections, sign placements, speed information, point of interest locations etc. If Apple took on more data from OSM and combined with their existing data from TomTom and their own ground truth vehicles their maps could easily match the quality of Google. Surpassing them though would require significant investment and a very speedy rollout. It's not good only having it in a handful of major US cities. Streetview is everywhere, it's going to take years for Apple to reach everywhere they have been.
Rolling out the business POI website is another part of this puzzle and points to Apple taking mapping incredibly seriously.
I don't think street view is a gimmick. If you have to go to a building you haven't been to before, it can be good to know what it looks like.
When we start seeing people walking around shopping malls with 12 cameras hanging off their bodies, we will know indoor mapping has started.
Some people are saying it's a mapping car and others are saying it's a driverless car. In a few years, why not both? Mapping drones will just become a fact of life.
I really do hope this is a Street View type data collection. Integration with Flyover would be neat, I'm afraid I see the current Flyover as a gimmick, very clever but of little practical use. Couple it with a Street View type database and I'd change my mind.
I have long felt that there are two major things lacking from Apple's Maps if they are to compete with, never mind overtake, Google's (excellent) product. One is Street View and the other is a search engine; I can't see how anything less than a fully-fledged search engine can match Google's (excellent) location-aware, spelling-aware, domain-aware understanding of what I mean when I type and hence hence its ability to find what I was thinking of. It's not easy.
I have included the 'excellent's in the above because Apple's Maps always remind me of Steve Jobs' comment about skating to where the puck is going to be, not where it is now. And Google has set a very high standard. Sadly, with Maps, Apple skated to where conventional standalone (non-connected) Sat Navs were. The app is great but the system and its database are sorely lacking.
If the street view images can be post-processed to read shop names from signs, that could help with searching. It could also have a database of known corporate logos to look for.
I really do hope this is a Street View type data collection. Integration with Flyover would be neat, I'm afraid I see the current Flyover as a gimmick, very clever but of little practical use. Couple it with a Street View type database and I'd change my mind.
I have long felt that there are two major things lacking from Apple's Maps if they are to compete with, never mind overtake, Google's (excellent) product. One is Street View and the other is a search engine; I can't see how anything less than a fully-fledged search engine can match Google's (excellent) location-aware, spelling-aware, domain-aware understanding of what I mean when I type and hence hence its ability to find what I was thinking of. It's not easy.
I have included the 'excellent's in the above because Apple's Maps always remind me of Steve Jobs' comment about skating to where the puck is going to be, not where it is now. And Google has set a very high standard. Sadly, with Maps, Apple skated to where conventional standalone (non-connected) Sat Navs were. The app is great but the system and its database are sorely lacking.
So which search engine should Apple buy?
You think having flyover was skating to where the puck was? Nothing like flyover was mass deployed at the time.
This article had some credibility until they added the 'interview' with Rob Enderle. He has got to be one of the most clueless people when it comes to Apple and their products.
I had a similar thought. If he says it's a self driving car, then it almost certainly isn't.
Street view makes a lot of sense, but I like to think that it's just a decoy to lead people away from the secret location where Apple is developing a stylish new hat that reads your thoughts and sends commands via bluetooth to your iPhone.
Comments
15 cameras vs 12 cameras? Looks like Apple loses ("looses" in trollspeak) the specs race again. /s
Yeah, but the cameras totally have Focus Pixels.
Google can't claim that they did it first.
This is the original Street View... 1978... invented by MIT and paid for by (D)ARPA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspen_Movie_Map
I don't count proof of concepts as being first when we're talking about a shipping product.
Clearly can't be a Steve Jobs project. It has license plates on it. Steve would never do that.
Deleted
Does it park in the handicapped spaces without proper tags?
Respectfully disagree that flyover is more useful than street view. Flyover is smooth, but less practical IMO.
High res street view imagery applied as textures is coming to maps.
I'm wondering if "Street-Level Flyover" via drones is in the works, to photograph those hard to get areas, better 3D compilations of buildings, & photograph that which would be otherwise impossible without trespassing on private property.
[On a side note: Based on recommendations in this forum, I deleted flash from my MBPro. In the above article, there is a place which says that I am missing the the flash plug-in, so I don't know what I am missing. A little surprised that AI would insert 'Flash-required' content.
While Google Streetview is a bit of a gimmick it does have some value at looking around to get your bearings somewhere new. However, the real benefit and true purpose of these camera cars is to get accurate local ground truth such as junctions, intersections, sign placements, speed information, point of interest locations etc. If Apple took on more data from OSM and combined with their existing data from TomTom and their own ground truth vehicles their maps could easily match the quality of Google. Surpassing them though would require significant investment and a very speedy rollout. It's not good only having it in a handful of major US cities. Streetview is everywhere, it's going to take years for Apple to reach everywhere they have been.
Rolling out the business POI website is another part of this puzzle and points to Apple taking mapping incredibly seriously.
I don't think street view is a gimmick. If you have to go to a building you haven't been to before, it can be good to know what it looks like.
When we start seeing people walking around shopping malls with 12 cameras hanging off their bodies, we will know indoor mapping has started.
Some people are saying it's a mapping car and others are saying it's a driverless car. In a few years, why not both? Mapping drones will just become a fact of life.
I have long felt that there are two major things lacking from Apple's Maps if they are to compete with, never mind overtake, Google's (excellent) product. One is Street View and the other is a search engine; I can't see how anything less than a fully-fledged search engine can match Google's (excellent) location-aware, spelling-aware, domain-aware understanding of what I mean when I type and hence hence its ability to find what I was thinking of. It's not easy.
I have included the 'excellent's in the above because Apple's Maps always remind me of Steve Jobs' comment about skating to where the puck is going to be, not where it is now. And Google has set a very high standard. Sadly, with Maps, Apple skated to where conventional standalone (non-connected) Sat Navs were. The app is great but the system and its database are sorely lacking.
So which search engine should Apple buy?
If the street view images can be post-processed to read shop names from signs, that could help with searching. It could also have a database of known corporate logos to look for.
"Analyst Rob Enderle"
LOL
This article had some credibility until they added the 'interview' with Rob Enderle. He has got to be one of the most clueless people when it comes to Apple and their products.
I had a similar thought. If he says it's a self driving car, then it almost certainly isn't.
Street view makes a lot of sense, but I like to think that it's just a decoy to lead people away from the secret location where Apple is developing a stylish new hat that reads your thoughts and sends commands via bluetooth to your iPhone.