[Yr7-10it] mobile maps

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

JOHN MARKOFF nytimes.com Feb 16, 2009 

The cellphone is the world’s most ubiquitous computer. 

And as cellphones change how we live, computer scientists say they can
change how we think about information .. and that metaphor is the map.

Indeed, a new generation of smartphones like the G1, with Android
software developed by Google, and a range of Japanese phones
now "augment" reality by painting a map over a phone-screen image of the
user’s surroundings produced by the phone’s camera. 

With this sort of map it is possible to see a three-dimensional view of
one’s surroundings, including the annotated distance to objects that may
be obscured by buildings in the foreground. 

For starters, map-based cellphones simply translate paper maps into a
digital medium, but future systems will probably begin to blur the
boundaries between the display and the real world..

"How long will it be before you come out of the subway and you hold up
your screen to get a better view of what you’re looking at in the
physical world?" 

Increasingly, phones will allow users to look at an image of what is
around them. You could be surrounded by skyscrapers but have an immediate
reference map showing your destination and features of the landscape,
along with your progress in real time..

Among cellphone makers, the 'map' metaphor has been adopted most
aggressively by Nokia, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones. 

The company has acquired digital maps of 69 countries and is now rushing
to deliver to developers the tools to create software for Nokia phones
oriented toward maps and navigation. 

In many ways this is similar to the tool kit that early computer
designers gave programmers to develop Windows applications. "This is a
new metaphor upon which others can build," said Michael Halbherr, Nokia’s
vice president for social location services. 

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Cheers,
Stephen

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