Context-Based Imagery Overlay on Digital Maps
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current digital mapping applications lack the ability to seamlessly integrate context-based imagery with interactive maps, failing to provide an immersive and navigable three-dimensional street-level environment that aligns with user interactions and geographic context.
Innovation Solution
A system that utilizes a context-driven image selection engine to choose geographically relevant images and overlay them on digital maps, allowing users to transition from a digital map to an interactive panoramic street-level interface upon selection, using a computing device with processor instructions to manage this transition.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If traditional digital maps are used without integrated imagery, then the map interface remains simple and easy to operate, but the user experience lacks immersion and contextual visual information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines traditional digital maps with context-based photographic imagery into a unified interface. The mapping system merges map data with geographically relevant images, allowing users to view both cartographic information and immersive visual content simultaneously without switching between separate applications or interfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a visual dimension to traditional two-dimensional maps by integrating panoramic street-level imagery and context-based photographs. This creates a multi-layered interface where users can access both planar map views and immersive three-dimensional visual environments, enhancing the overall user experience.
2Adaptability or versatility
If context-based imagery is integrated with digital maps, then user experience is enhanced with immersive visual environments, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a context engine as an intermediary component that automatically selects geographically relevant images based on the user's location and context. This mediator handles the complexity of image selection and integration, shielding users from the underlying system complexity while delivering enhanced visual experiences.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent divides the mapping system into distinct functional modules: a core mapping application, a context engine for image selection, and an integration layer. This segmentation allows each component to operate independently, managing complexity through modular architecture while maintaining overall system functionality.
3Loss of information
If multiple street-level images are displayed simultaneously, then users have more navigation options and context information, but the interface becomes cluttered and harder to navigate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent displays multiple street-level images with different visual qualities and relevance levels in a structured layout. The context engine prioritizes images based on geographic relevance, placing the most pertinent images in prominent positions while maintaining access to additional contextual information, thus balancing information availability with interface clarity.
Data Source
AI summary
A mapping system presents geographically relevant images. The images may be relevant to a search entered by the user, directions requested by the user, or any other factor relevant to the user's relationship to the displayed map. Moreover, the images may change in response to user actions or other factors, wherein new images “bubble up” as user context changes. The mapping system may display geographically relevant images by way of an information card presented in response to a user interacting with a point on a digital map. The user may interact with any of the geographically relevant images, causing an indicator of the map location associated with the image to be presented. Alternatively or additionally, a user interaction with a geographically relevant image may cause an interactive panoramic presentation of street-level imagery to be presented.