First time I saw this idea was Berg's "Here and There" poster from 2009 (a year before Inception) though they acknowledge a bunch of earlier inspirations...
https://berglondon.com/blog/2009/05/04/here-there-influences...
First time I saw this idea was Berg's "Here and There" poster from 2009 (a year before Inception) though they acknowledge a bunch of earlier inspirations...
https://berglondon.com/blog/2009/05/04/here-there-influences...
That seems like enough prior art to invalidate much of what could conceivably be considered novel in the pending patent...
I once saw a patent on that already earlier somewhere, which i assumed was the reason none of the automotive navigation UI's where doing this.
Just checked again, and it's verbatim this use case and even active until 2030 still:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20100305853A1/en
3-D map display
Abstract
A computer generated 3-dimensional map display includes a reference icon identifying an observation point in the geographic area defined by the map, the map being presented on a curved surface which extends from a first plane to a second plane which is substantially orthogonal to the first plane. The observation point is located in the first plane. The display is configured such that the height of landmarks and buildings in a defined foreground of the reference icon are presented normal to the first plane, the height of land marks and buildings at a defined far distance are presented normal to the second plane and the height of land marks and buildings in a defined middle ground are presented normal to the non-linear portion of the curved surface. The geographic area represented can be translated along the curved surface to provide a perception that the reference icon is roaming through the displayed geographic area.
By no other than "Here and There" Schulze and Webb Ltd later rebranded to BERG.
The generic use case of a multiperspective camera method for that was arguable covered in a 1997 Disney paper latest.
Multiperspective Panoramas for Cel Animation https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/fall00/cs597b/p...
The patent application is not yet publically available, so I can't tell what aspects of the system they are trying to protect. They probably have some narrowly tailored features that they can protect. Maybe related to the rendering, or some toggle button feature of the display. But, as to the broad concept of a curved hybrid combination of street view and overhead view, I agree that they will not be able to protect that aspect.
Yep. First time I saw this idea was Animal Crossing: Wild Word's "rolling log" effect in 2005, albeit in reverse. (So you get a top-down view and a horizon view at the same time). Second time I saw this specific idea was a Minecraft vertex shader in 2013 with the "Acid Shaders" vertex transform shaders.
For me it was Halo: Combat Evolved
Was thinking the same thing- I still have those posters and was thinking of them when I saw this was patent pending.
Exactly what I thought of, I bought these posters at the time and they are still in the cardboard tube.
Great memory, great reference!
I remember working on something like this as early as 1999! It was for a small European company, sadly we weren't able to put it out due to licensing restrictions at the time.