LiveSight: immersive experiences you can act on

Published by Pino Bonetti on November 13, 2012

Nokia City Lens, exclusively available for Nokia Lumia, is one of our most-talked-about apps and we’re very proud of it. Using the phone’s camera viewfinder, Nokia City Lens provides an augmented reality overlay view of buildings and instantly highlights places of interest. Nokia City Lens is basically turning sight into the next interface for searching the world around you. Although Nokia City Lens is powered by a complex system of collection technologies, it’s very easy to use. After all, what could be simpler to use than sight? It’s the most human sense for sensing and exploring the world.

After type pads, touchscreens and voice recognition, we want sight recognition to be another standard way to interact with the world around you. But it’s not only about sight recognition; it’s also about live map information. In one word, it’s… LiveSight. Nokia City Lens, developed exclusively for Nokia Lumia devices, is the first application providing a LiveSight-enabled experience.

LiveSight is a collection of mechanisms:

  • 3D sight interface: buildings are detected by our collection technologies with high accuracy and feeling of depth
  • Line of sight: with the line of sight view, only POIs in sight are displayed
  • Freeze frame: save a live view to inspect the city without having to hold the camera pointed at the target

This new technology is going to address everyday actions like finding a store indoor, finding your friends in a crowd or your parked car. Yes, with LiveSight you can create a place for your parked car.

“We’ve all been there — trying get to where we are going by following that dot on our phones; you take a few steps in one direction to see if the dot moves where it should; with LiveSight you can orient yourself by simply lifting up your phone and looking through the camera view finder and find your destination whether it is right in front of you or three blocks away” said Peter Skillman, head of UX Design for HERE.

You can also follow us on Twitter: @heremaps.

Comments

  • Björn

    I tried the app on WP8 yesterday. It’s nothing more than any other Augmented Reality apps for iOS. It doesn’t even work well because the icons “jump” around and show you the wrong places.

    • pdexter

      Did you watch the video? You are talking about City lens, not it being integrated like it is.

      • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

        Hi guys, Nokia City Lens is the first example of LiveSight technology.

        Indeed it’s not just like any other Augmented Reality app. It works with much more precise 3D data: http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/10/25/fueling-the-future-of-digital-maps/
        Additionally it integrates drive, walk and public transport directions by Nokia Maps.

        In future releases you will be als able to freeze the view and recognize whether places are in the line of sight.

        • sledge1234

          Hi Pino, any possibility of getting access to LiveSight API or something, My AR implementation isn’t up to par with this.
          Regards.

          • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

            This is a good idea @sledge1234:disqus but right now we have not made such an announcement. Our developer offering is anyway available at http://developer.here.net/

        • http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

          Don’t argue with an obvious iTrolls! :) @disqus_JmsYSNJ4St:disqus seems like an iPhone user not inclined to find anything good with Windows Phone or Nokia.

  • http://twitter.com/Hdrules Hradayesh

    “Yes, with LiveSight you can create a place for your parked car.” This is cool… I can imagine so many possibilities using this.

  • C38S

    This gave me an idea for an augmented reality kids app. This could be fun!

  • http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

    THIS is awesome. Now please don’t give it to iOS and Android! :)

  • http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

    Any word on if we will ever be able to add reviews or missing locations or even “check in”, directly from CityLens?

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      This is currently only possible with Nokia Maps (or on here.com) which shares the same POI database.

  • ano.nymous.36

    Seriously, “collection technologies”, “feeling of depth”, “line of sight view”? Even for marketing material, you may want to have someone more technical writing articles. How can Nokia Maps / HERE be taken seriously when all the advertising is based on random agglomeration of technical terms… On top of this, the supposedly awesome LiveSight techncology is announced but only concept videos are shown, no actual product yet.

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @ano_nymous_36:disqus Nokia City Lens is a product, available right now, which uses LiveSight.

  • http://twitter.com/halamadridkimi halamadrid

    Nokia plz tell us when livesight is coming up? Its been 5 months since u showed livesight, come in release it I want it so bad

    • http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

      Hi @twitter-1189676221:disqus I believe I answered this question on Twitter. As I said there, LiveSight is already available as part of HERE City Lens. HERE Maps with LiveSight integration is close to release.

      • http://twitter.com/halamadridkimi halamadrid

        How close are we talkin about days weeks or months?

        • thomas

          today

  • Divyang Patel

    No HERE maps for WP7 devices… MSFT and Nokia abandon users once device sold… No Software updates… No Apps… I own Lumia 800 and seriously advice not to buy in all this bullshit of MSFT and Nokia…