About a year ago, Tele Atlas announced their plans for the development of 3D maps for navigational systems. The map supplier then claimed that 2006 would be the year when they would move from 2D to 3D maps. We know now that this claim was a bit hasty.But yesterday, electronics giant Samsung released a new Personal Navigational Device which features just that: navigation with 3D images. This new Samsung PND, the STT-D370, is only available in Korea at the moment.
Real 3D
This PND uses the Real 3D map which Samsung created in-house. The driver sees a 3D image on the screen, which not only displays the road he is driving on, but also the buildings in the immediate area. This makes it very easy for the user to orientate themself. The view used in the 3D image is that from the driver's seat itself. Because of this, instructions for e.g. lane changing can be displayed much more clearly than is the case now. The device is updated every 5 minutes with the most recent traffic information via a DMB channel. This enables the calculation of the most optimal route at any moment in time.The STT-D370 connects to mobile phones by means of Bluetooth. It then becomes possible to make hands free phone calls whilst driving, and receive/send text messages. The PND features a built-in microphone.
Handy
This new Samsung unit is a bit less than 17 mm thick, and because of that very handy. Unfortunately, the touch screen is only 3.7 inches across. A bit disappointing, since more recently, a lot of PND’s with 4 to 5 inch screens (or more) have been released.It’s not expected that this world premiere will show up on the European market very soon. We expect to see 3D developments from popular manufacturers like TomTom, Garmin and Mio here first, but so far we haven’t received any info on the existence or development of such systems.





