Is Apple Building Its Own Street View?

Sam Laird2013-04-06 02:17:16 UTC

An Apple patent filing indicates that the Cupertino tech giant is building a Street View product of its own.

Posted to the US Patent and Trademark Office website on Thursday, Apple's filing describes a "3D Position Tracking for Panoramic Imagery Navigation" — in other words, a way to view a lifelike map of the world around you via smartphone or tablet.

Sounds familiar, no? Google Maps' popular Street View option has been around since 2007.

But Apple's patent filing says its product will do things the Google version can't. Current street-level imaging tech requires users to navigate though, most commonly, their touchscreen or trackpad. This involves jumping from intersection to intersection before navigating further.

"This," Apple's filing reads, "can be a tedious experience for a user of a handheld device that needs to navigate streets of a neighborhood quickly."

The Apple patent, conversely, describes a system in which device hardware is implemented to virtually move a user through street-level imagery. You could in theory navigate through a virtual landscape by simply moving your smartphone around in a series of predetermined directions.

The patent filing also describes the Street View-like product being able to communicate between devices, meaning you could place a pair of smartphones side-by-side for a wider panoramic range. It also describes users being able to virtually enter buildings, where internal panorama displays would take over.

This is seemingly just the latest step in the mobile mapping battle between tech heavyweights Apple and Google.

Apple released iOS 6 last September without support for Google Maps, as its own Apple Maps product became something of a fiasco. Terrible directions and trippy visual bugs were mocked by consumers and blasted by online commenters. Google Maps was finally released for iOS 6 in December.

You can see Apple's entire patent filing here.

[H/T AppleInsider]

Image via Google Street View

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