28 02 2008

REAL 3D NAVIGATION at CeBIT 2008

CeBIT 2008 features the European premiere of the MapaMap® REAL 3D NAVIGATION software technology, which enhances the experience of users of GPS navigators by enriching city maps with realistic 3D shapes of buildings.

Numerous R&D teams worldwide work on three-dimensional building rendering in GPS navigation systems which would present entire metropolitan landscapes instead of just a few landmarks, but it is the Poles who were the first in Europe to have introduced a commercial version of such a product. It is called MapaMap® REAL 3D and appeared on the Polish market in November 2007. That solution is now presented to European users at CeBIT 2008.

"The key innovation applied in our solution consists the technology which allows rendering the real views of cities by introducing 3D shapes of buildings in the GPS devices currently available on the market", says Malgorzata Bartnicka, President of IMAGIS SA. "Our experts managed to overcome both the problem of low processing power of the compact portable GPS equipment as well as the issue of implementing complicated 3D structures on digital maps."


MapaMap® REAL 3D is a navigation system designed for PNDs (Personal Navigation Devices) and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). Since its Polish market launch in November 2007 in Becker and Clarion navigation devices, the MapaMap® REAL 3D system has already been successfully tested on thousands of devices. The market success caused a rapid increase in demand for that kind of solutions and today MapaMap® REAL 3D is offered by 30% of navigation devices brands available in Poland.

"Inflated" buildings or just their contours

Users of MapaMap® REAL 3D NAVIGATION software can choose out of three ways of map presentation available while driving. Those modes are:
• REAL 3D – navigation with a three-dimensional view of buildings in cities
• 3D – navigation with a 3D map view – as seen in almost all navigation
• 2D – traditional flat view of the map
In the latter two modes – 3D and the traditional 2D view – for all sections of the map for which architectural information is available, only the contours of buildings are shown.

Finger Friendly Interface

Finger Friendly is a technology developed by IMAGIS in 2006, which allows a highly intuitive, extremely convenient and safe control of the navigation system with just one finger, even while driving (without a need to use the stylus, which is a common practice with traditional navigators).

Maps with MapaMap® REAL 3D NAVIGATION

MapaMap® REAL 3D NAVIGATION is all-purpose navigation software which can be used with maps from third-party vendors. IMAGIS, the developer of MapaMap®, provides its own maps for Poland. Maps of Europe are provided by NAVTEQ®, a US-based company.

In the last quarter of 2007, IMAGIS started co-operation with regional map providers from the Central and Eastern Europe, the result of which is a set of maps of a much higher accuracy than those offered by NAVTEQ or its European competitor, TeleAtlas. The new maps cover Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine.