Apple maps is currently lagging behind Google maps in many aspects but things are getting better with Apple maps at a rapid pace and few user driven tests also confirmed it recently. One aspect where Google maps is better than Apple maps is with the provision of Street View of a location where users will get the real view of a street upon entering a Street View mode using Google Maps. Apple seems to have filed for a patent taking this technology a bit ahead of Google Maps Street View. Apple’s patent suggests that current Street View technologies are cluttered and need many user actions to navigate which is quite troublesome on mobile devices with smaller screen. Instead Apple is opting to make use of all the sensors on its mobile devices to navigate when in street view.
Apple suggests that using various sensors like Accelerometer, Gyroscope, cameras and other sensors their devices will be able to navigate in the street view mode without the use of specific gestures to be performed by the users. Once the user enters the street view mode all he has to do is to move his phone across and the street view will navigate accordingly. When the user has to look at the street view on the left all he has to do is to move the device to the left (by turning left). With the implementation of Gyroscope on Apple’s devices they are able to detect user’s orientation as well which will be made use of in the patent applied.
Another use case Apple talks about is usage of optical sensors on the device to detect user’s position. After entering street view mode the camera on the device will continuously be reading the surroundings to analyse user’s movement with respect to the surroundings, and depending on the data computed the map in the street view will navigate accordingly.
Apple is also considering implementation of wireless communication and sync between devices with screen to share and display the map data. With lack of proper data currently we are not expecting Apple to implement this technology into their mapping solution anytime soon, but it will be a welcome addition to Apple Maps when it is implemented.