REAL NAVIGATION

Blom has set a new industry standard for navigation with its unique Real Navigation solution. The Real Navigation Solution makes use of Blom’s databases and enables navigation by means of detailed, natural oblique images. Blom’s unique oblique photo database consists of high-resolution aerial photos from over 1,000 of the largest cities across Europe.

For navigation, traditional vector maps are useful to provide schematic information. Natural images are the perfect complement to provide additional information regarding the area the user is located. With natural images, users can easily and rapidly identify the area and locations, and even “look” around corners to identify landmarks and locations before going there.

Each object, or geographic location, in the images used for Blom’s navigation solution is photographed from five different angles; straight above (ortho or satellite type of view), North, South, East and West. This makes it possible to see the facades on the buildings along the navigation route. Due to the high level of detail, it is also easy to recognize buildings, roads and most other landmarks and objects on the ground.

Blom’s aerial photos have a significantly higher resolution than corresponding photos captured by satellites. A satellite produces a maximum resolution of 0.6-1 meter per pixel and 10-15 meters are most common, while photos in Blom’s solution have a resolution of 15 cm per pixel.

Blom’s unique navigation solution deals with GPS satellites in the same way as other navigation units. In a single key stroke the user can switch between photos and the traditional vector graphic presentation. If the user moves to an area that is not covered by the image database the screen will switch automatically to the graphic map mode.

The solution is adaptable for both car navigation units, pedestrian units and any other handheld navigation system. The application can easily be integrated with any location based service. Blom provides its own platform, BlomURBEX, where customers, partners system integrators and software developers can integrate the images and navigation functionalities into their own solution.