Japan's KDDI offers 3-D navigation on cellphones

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2006

TOKYO (AFP) — Japanese mobile operator KDDI have unveiled plans to let users find their way to shops and restaurants by looking at 3-D satellite images on their cellphones.

The service, to be launched at the end of April, is an updated version of its already popular "EZ Navi-Walk" programming which uses the satellite Global Positioning System (GPS) and offers vocal guidance.

The new version, equipped with a compression technology so as not to overload the system, offers three-dimensional images that show surrounding buildings and sidestreets or directions once one is inside a building.

The feature is of particular use at intersections where two-dimensional graphics often result in errors.

A cellphone user enters in a postal address, a telephone...