Looking at the navigation and still can’t find the way? This may be the pain in the heart of many "road idiots". Can the guidance tool be more intuitive? AR walking navigation, which is known as the gospel of "road idiots", may be able to do it.
In order to solve the "road crazy" problem, Autonavi recently announced that it will cooperate with OPPO to launch the first AR walking navigation using SLAM technology in China.
What is this navigation system? Mobile AR walking navigation refers to the combination of AR technology and navigation functions, allowing users to see the panoramic route and destination location through the mobile phone camera, making it convenient for users to identify directions. During the navigation process, users don’t have to check the map route information repeatedly, just combine voice navigation, real street view, and follow the instructions of arrows or cartoon characters to find the direction and reach the destination smoothly.
So, can AR walking navigation really help "road idiots"? Compared with 2D navigation, how accurate is it? What technical bottlenecks does it still have to break through?
Still in the exploratory stage, the user experience needs to be improved
Usually, with traditional two-dimensional navigation products, users need to constantly observe the real world, compare it with the two-dimensional map on the mobile phone, and then identify the direction they should go. Many people feel that when using two-dimensional navigation tools in unfamiliar environments, because they are not familiar with road conditions, this "map-to-road correspondence" will distract a lot of driver’s energy and even increase the probability of traffic accidents.
AR Walking Navigation attempts to solve the above problems. It deeply combines maps, mobile phone cameras and AR technology. The camera will present everything in the real world on the mobile phone screen, and virtual models such as cartoon characters and indicator arrows will be superimposed on the existing images. This virtual model can guide pedestrians. During the guidance process, users only need to look at the screen to reach their destination, and no longer need to rack their brains to "translate" the information on the 2D map.
"For pedestrians, AR navigation does provide some help, but there are still problems in tracking accuracy and user experience." Weng Dongdong, a researcher at the Institute of Optoelectronic Information Technology and Color Engineering of Beijing Institute of Technology, explained to the Science and Technology Daily reporter that traditional two-dimensional GPS navigation requires relatively low accuracy in positioning and direction, and even if there is an error of a few meters, it will not have much impact on navigation. But AR navigation has very strict requirements on accuracy, with an accuracy of centimeters and a direction accurate to a few tenths of a degree. This means that as long as there is an error of a few tenths of a degree, users using AR navigation will feel that the wayfinding logo is "floating" on the screen, affecting the accuracy of the indication.
In addition, AR navigation requires real-time monitoring of the environment, and the mobile phone needs to keep moving with the progress. But if the mobile phone shakes frequently, the image will change rapidly, which is easy to lead to tracking failure, and the experience of AR navigation will not be so good. "Compared with a few years ago, AR navigation has made great progress, but the user is the examiner. If you go from 10 to 59, you still fail the examiner, although this process of improvement requires great effort," Weng Dongdong said frankly.
"Even if mobile AR navigation can be very accurate now, the only way to use it is to take it out and take a look and then continue walking. Keep holding the phone to see, many people will find it unnecessary." Weng Dongdong believes that mobile AR navigation is not in line with users’ usage habits.
However, Weng Dongdong believes that the concept of AR walking navigation is not wrong, but the current product is still in the early exploration stage, and there is still a long way to go before the mature product form. "At present, this type of AR navigation is more of a tentative transitional product, so that everyone can find a sense. Companies use this to collect some user experience as feedback and test some new ideas."
Hardware affects experience, and breakthroughs require basic research
In Weng Dongdong’s opinion, an important reason why the current AR navigation experience is slightly inferior is the hardware. "The most important breakthrough in AR navigation technology is the’end ‘, that is, the hardware device." In his opinion, AR navigation on smart glasses is more practical than on mobile phones, but it is difficult to achieve large-scale popularity of glasses in a short period of time.
In addition to mobile phones, hardware that can be equipped with AR technology includes fixed AR devices (virtual fitting mirrors), head mounted displays, smart glasses and other hardware devices. But currently compared to mobile phones, the market share of other AR devices is very limited.
The relevant market report released by IDC this year shows that in 2017, the global tethered AR device (even PC computer/host) sales are about 30,000, the all-in-one AR device is about 120,000, and the screenless AR device (inserted into the mobile phone box) is about 450,000. The report predicts that the sales of tethered AR devices in 2018 are expected to reach 120,000, the all-in-one AR device is expected to reach 290,000, and the screenless AR device is about 820,000.
Compared with a few years ago, the sales of these devices have improved significantly, but compared with the mobile phones with annual sales of hundreds of millions, the market for these AR hardware is still too niche.
The first reason why the market space is difficult to open is the price. Dr. Bouhamri, a technology and market analyst at French market research firm Yole Développement, has said that although AR technology has great prospects, it also has limitations, and its promotion cost is high, especially reflected in the price. For example, Microsoft HoloLens, a head-mounted display released by Microsoft in 2015, has been well received by the industry, but its price of up to 30,000 yuan is prohibitive.
Another barrier to AR’s popularity lies in technology. "At present, there is no AR device with a particularly good experience on the market," Weng Dongdong said.
Zheng Yu, CEO of AR start-up company Lingxi Shimmer, expressed a similar view. At an offline salon, taking the popular AR game "Pokemon Go" as an example, he said that the real AR gaming experience should not require the help of mobile phones, but can see the real Pikachu (the cartoon image in "Pokemon Go") directly on this table. "This is a very important concept. If we also use the intermediary of mobile phones, the AR effect will be greatly reduced." Zheng Yu admitted that there is currently no AR device that can achieve this effect.
How long will it take to do the "end" of AR navigation well? It depends on the speed of basic research development in related fields. "Mainly basic research in optics, from principle to process, from sample process to mass production process, it takes a long time." Weng Dongdong stressed that hardware development cannot be separated from technological progress, and technological progress is inseparable from basic research.
However, when the hardware is powered up, the software can work first. "No matter what kind of hardware device is used, the software technology of AR navigation is the same, such as GPS, SLAM, computer identification, background computing, big data, etc. Before the hardware is ready, the software problem can be solved first," Weng Dongdong said.
extended reading
SLAM: AR navigation from fake to real key
In fact, AR walking navigation is nothing new. Map apps with this feature have been available for several years.
"From a global perspective, most of the early AR navigation products are based on GPS, that is, GPS AR, which is called’pseudo ‘AR by some people." The relevant person in charge of Autonavi map navigation technology told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that SLAM technology can create an accurate "real" AR navigation experience for users. SLAM, as the key underlying technology of AR navigation, is SLAM AR. It can combine real scenes with imaginary space, and use the power of computer vision and graphics technology to eliminate the boundary between virtual and real, and improve the navigation efficiency of users.
SLAM (Simultaneous localization and mapping). Many scholars believe that it is the key to realizing a truly fully autonomous mobile robot. With SLAM technology, the robot starts to move from an unknown location in an unknown environment, locates according to the map during the movement, and builds incremental maps on the basis of its own positioning to achieve autonomous positioning and navigation.
In layman’s terms, SLAM answers two questions: "Where am I?" and "What is around me?" Autonavi’s head of map navigation technology explained that, like a person in an unfamiliar environment, SLAM is trying to solve the problem of restoring the relative spatial relationship between the observer and the surrounding environment. "Where am I?" corresponds to the problem of positioning, while "What is around me?" corresponds to the problem of mapping.
"SLAM technology is the key technology for AR navigation, and if it fails, it will cause a series of problems." Weng Dongdong pointed out that SLAM has developed rapidly in recent years, but the technology also has certain limitations – it is very demanding on the environment, such as object movement, mobile phone shaking, occlusion, etc. can interfere with it.
In addition, the high power consumption is also one of the shortcomings of SLAM technology at present. "In theory, SLAM AR does consume more power than GPS AR, but after local optimization, the power consumption of SLAM AR integrated with GPS technology, that is, SLAM AR + GPS AR, can be the same as that of GPS AR as a whole. At the same time, SLAM AR + GPS AR can improve the accuracy of user walking navigation, and the future development is worth looking forward to." Autonavi map navigation technology related person in charge said.