Tom Tom is taking your picture?

Disclosed in a new patent by GPS concern Tom Tom, is the injection of a forward facing camera that allows a virtual reality display to combine the road ahead with direction overlays. Those of us that have GPS experience know that trying to translate from the box’s map to reality can be confusing; Tom Tom believes they have the answer.

GPS manufacturers have previously thought that building 3D models would be the solution, but this requires building everything in 3D. Tom Toms patent looks to jump to something very interesting and instantly understandable. I liken it to the Google Maps hybrid look, you can zoom in on satellite imagery and have an overlay of street data.

Tom Tom’s solution places arrows between buildings (like in the patent drawing) showing you where the turn will be and what you can expect the intersection to look like rather then just two lines intersecting at some angle. The photo shows what the patent could produce, a line overlaid on your current route, confirming you are headed in the right direction.

Read [Engadget] Via [pocketinfo]