Apple acquired mind-blowing 3D mapping company C3 Technologies

http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/29/apple-acquired-mind-blowing-3d-mapping-company-c3-technologies-looking-to-take-ios-maps-to-the-next-level/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+9To5Mac-MacAllDay+%289+to+5+Mac+-+Apple+Intelligence%29

by technoslut • 15 years ago

198 52 15 years ago

9to5mac.com

zobzu• 15 years ago

had to add "mind blowing " or it wouldnt be worth it uh

kristopolous• 15 years ago

cliche headlines make me want to run too ... I despise them.

myspy• 15 years ago

wow, that looks cool. But the whole world has to be 3D, wanna see the Himalaya and rain forests and my home town in 3D :-D

buro93• 15 years ago

I currently work for Yell Labs in the UK (though quit last week to fully commit to the startup I'm working on with 2 other great guys), and we use C3 on the maps part of the main website.

If you want to see what it looks like, try this: http://www.yell.com/map/

Only a few locations in the UK were commissioned... the cost is high so we aimed at the large cities to start with. It's really good stuff so long as you stay away from trees that are near buildings ;)

The dataset is enormous though. Going to be interesting to see that go mobile.

C3 basically took a FPS game map approach (poly data and textures) and overlaid that with a tiled map approach. So each tile downloads the poly and then lays the texture for that tile over the poly.

namityadav• 15 years ago

My question to you, sir, is how did you manage to get such a domain name for a seemingly bootstrapped company? Kudos!

AlecSchueler• 15 years ago

It's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yell_Group

wgx• 15 years ago

Amusing indictment of the UK's longest-established [1] directory service that they look "seemingly bootstrapped" at a glance.

[1] Yellow Pages started 1954 in the UK

buro93• 15 years ago

I think you got confused...

I currently work for Yell (multi-national, been around for ever).

But, I have been working on a startup in my spare time for which I've now (as of last week) quit my day job to fully commit to.

The startup has no money and will be the definition of frugal until we turn profit, Yell has less (they may make tons from sales and be profitable quarter to quarter, but they're saddled with amazing levels of debt).

jabkobob• 15 years ago

This is truly mindblowing. But apart from the obviously neat 3D effect, this is the first time I see aerial photos that look beautiful. Those you find on Bing and Google often suffer from ugly colors.

raquo• 15 years ago

I thought those were satellite, not aerial pics?

elliottcarlson• 15 years ago

The trees definitely do distort certain features though - one good example is the tree lined sidewalk next to Buckingham Palace - when viewing in a top down view and then tilting the camera, you can see how the technology assumes the content under the trees (the sidewalk) would be the same outline as the top down view of the trees that are hanging over the sidewalk. This causes an interesting warp on the rendered view. It's interesting how realistic everything looks until it reaches that issue. Still a very nice example of the technology in use.

martinkallstrom• 15 years ago

The company is headquartered where I live, Linköping in Sweden with 150 000 people. They were spun off from fighter plane manufacturer Saab Aerospace which is also situated in Linköping. Saab owned 53% of the company and Apple paid around $250 millon.

EDIT: Here is a video from Saab showing the process of acquiring map data and it's military applications: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNemPTHOKWg

erikstarck• 15 years ago

That must be why the second video is of "Oslo, Sweden". :)

Tjena, Martin, förresten. :)

kiiski• 15 years ago

At least it says below it: "A fly-through over Oslo, Norway created by C3 Technologies".

JfromSw• 15 years ago

I also figured that :) Kul att se fler Svenskar på HN!

pyrtsa• 15 years ago

Interesting. Previously, the same company has been behind the 3D view of Nokia's map service http://maps.nokia.com/3D/ — more info e.g. here http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/04/c3-technologies-behind-noki...

devtesla• 15 years ago

And still no turn by turn directions :p

georgemcbay2• 15 years ago

This is actually a fairly serious issue for all non-Android handsets, IMO.

The built-in integrated-into-almost-everything Google Nav functionality is the killer feature that trumps all other killer features in phones for me. Obviously YMMV and for some people this feature isn't as big a deal, but it is a huge deal for me and it is what stops me from seriously considering anything that isn't an Android phone these days.

For the record, I do realize there are quite a few GPS turn by turn solutions for the iPhone, but suggesting they are a true replacement for Google's Nav stuff is like suggesting Google Voice Search is a replacement for Siri.

felipemnoa• 15 years ago

I use Tom-Tom in the iPhone and it is good. The most incredible thing is that if I make a wrong turn it recalculates new directions. I knew this existed in classic GPS devices but never realized how useful it was until I actually used it. Plus it does not require a signal which is actually really useful when you travel to Canada (from the USA) where you cannot use the local telephone service unless you are ready to pay a lot of money.

I think iPhone with Tom-Tom is fine. It costs $60 dollars but you can share it with 4 other devices which means you can spread the cost.

damptrousers4• 15 years ago

I don't get the comparison. I use Navigon on my iPhone. I travel extensively. It's been 99.9 percent perfect. As good if not better than stand alone GPS devices. I understand how it's nice to have it built into Android, not having to pay for a separate app, but turn by turn directions either work or don't work. And I use them every day.

I'll be more than happy when Apple builds it in, but until then, I've more than happy, and it's certainly not enough to make me look at switching to Android, even if it never happened.

MatthewPhillips• 15 years ago

Nokia Drive is considered as good and in many ways better than Maps Navigation.

Anechoic• 15 years ago

>This is actually a fairly serious issue for all non-Android handsets, IMO.

Well not all non-Android handsets - Nokia maps has free turn-by-turn directions as well as downloadable maps (not just pre-caching a route, you can download maps of the entire USA if you want). As I tend to travel a lot to areas with spotty or non-existant cellphone coverage, this is the primary reason I'm sticking with Symbian for the time being.

falling2• 15 years ago

> For the record, I do realize there are quite a few GPS turn by turn solutions for the iPhone, but suggesting they are a true replacement for Google's Nav stuff is like suggesting Google Voice Search is a replacement for Siri.

How do you think it is better than conventional navigation devices/apps? Do you have a link to a demo video or a review that shows the coolest features? The only distinguishing feature I can see is Street View integration.

mahyarm• 15 years ago

I've tried google navigation, and it didn't work that well compared to a typical paid turn-by-turn navigation app with offline maps.

damptrousers4• 15 years ago

If you actually used a well known GPS app on the iPhone, you'd realize how ridiculous your Siri comparison is.

bane2• 15 years ago

Every time I think about switching to an iPhone for my daily use, I remember this. This is a huge deal and replaces yet another device I don't have to lug around while on travel. I've even stopped using my Garmin since the maps tend to be much more up-to-date and the screen is easier to type addresses on.

alwillis• 15 years ago

This is another issue that's been mythicized by Android users. There are plenty of great turn-by-turn apps—free and low-cost—that work online and offline. I've used MapQuest (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mapquest-4-mobile/id316126557) on my iPhone; worked great.

Come on in, the water's fine: http://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/ios-navigation/id6010

Geee• 15 years ago

How is it different from this? WebGL 3D maps. http://maps3d.svc.nokia.com/webgl/

Edit: Of course they will do it Apple way, which means excellent execution and integration.

cpeterso• 15 years ago

Patents?

efraim• 15 years ago

It's not different at all since Nokia is using C3's techology.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110419007396/en/C3-T...

dmix• 15 years ago

My first thought after seeing the videos is how this will apply to video games.

It seems like a relatively easy way to replicate the real world into a game map.

gacek• 15 years ago

Reminds me of http://hitta.se/3d - zoom to Stockholm.

[edit: its their work as well]

frooxie• 15 years ago

Yeah, I was wondering if this was the same technology that hitta.se has been using for years.

yellowbkpk• 15 years ago

I remember these guys being at Where 2.0 a few years ago. They were not hiding their desire to be acquired very well at that point: they were almost begging to get every Google employee present into their exhibit booth. Interesting to see they finally got a bite from Apple.

Apple acquired mind-blowing 3D mapping company C3 Technologies

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