3D Maps in Mobile Devices: Pathway Analysis for Interactive Navigation Aid

2. 3D Maps In Mobile Devices

3D representations for navigation aid in mobile devices over a GSM network were experimented in Raposo et al. (1997) as one of the earliest attempts at the development of such a system. Later, the practical implementation by Rakkolainen et al. (1998) was seen to face a measure drawback where its first field experiments were confined to pre-rendered images on a static web page on a laptop computer, not on a mobile device, during their development of 3D City Info Project that was primarily meant to create mobile interactive 3D maps and visualize real-time GPS data. Furthermore, the frame rate with a Cortona CR VRML browser was one frame for every 8 seconds (0.125fps), with severe problems in running Java 2. However, the possibility of rendering large detailed 3D cities in mobile devices at interactive rates over 5 frames per second (without hardware acceleration) and over 30 frames per second with 3D hardware acceleration was presented in the m-LOMA project developed by Nurminen, A. (2006). Hence, the technology stands firm and more of such system started appearing.