I have been reading a thorough article in the Financial Times, where Richard Waters considers mapping to be the web’s next big thing. His article confirms certain issues which were debated at the recent FT Conference (see previous posts), most notably stuff relating to augmented reality.
Digital mapping companies are hot these days. European regulators cleared the acquisition of TeleAtlas by TomTom, while Nokia wants to buy Navteq.
Maps are no longer boring commodities. Executive Vice President en General Manager of the Markets unit of Nokia Anssi Vanjoki:
We can locate our experiences, our history, on the map. It’s a very concrete expression of a context.
Waters also quotes Mike Liebhold, a fellow at Silicon Valley’s Institute for the Future, who calls what is happening a “3D data arms race”.
Waters discusses the efforts by various technology companies to describe the world “in painstaking detail”, such as Microsoft and Google but also OpenStreetMap.org.
The future digital playground would be augmented reality. As Waters describes it:
Virtual reality would be turned inside out: rather than retreating into a make-believe virtual world, inhabitants of augmented reality will be living in real space but with layers of data overlaid to deliver a supercharged version of reality.
Mind you: the data used could be real or fictitious information. Even though ideas of for instance entertainment applications of augmented reality can sound fanciful, the long-term impact can be very important. Waters:
The project to render the physical world in digital form, down to small levels of detail, marks one of those turning points in the information age that could change everything.
Roland Legrand