Naver offers 3D display of store locations in Street View

[Courtesy of Naver Labs YouTube channel]

South Korean platform giant Naver Corp. is piloting a new Street View service in the Gangnam area in southern Seoul. When exploring the area using Naver Map’s Street View on a computer, users can now check the names of nearby buildings and find out which floor specific stores or hospitals are located.

According to the official Naver Labs YouTube channel on Tuesday, Naver recently began enhancing its Street View product. Naver Street View is a service that allows users to view real street scenes in a 360-degree panorama format.

The most significant change from the previous version is the ability to view information about nearby buildings, cafes, and hospitals in 3D. Previously, Street View only provided directional information at intersections, but users can now see which floor the store they are going to is located on in a specific building directly on the map.

Naver used Naver Labs’ new digital twin equipment for this process. Naver Labs, which is responsible for the research and development of future technologies like robotics and autonomous driving, recently developed the mobile mapping system equipment, P1. MMS is equipment that uses cameras and other devices to acquire spatial information about the surrounding environment.

The biggest feature of P1 is the addition of LiDAR sensors and dual antennas for improved GPS quality, unlike Street View vehicles. The new Naver Street View vehicles use 7 cameras for 360-degree images and 2 LiDAR sensors to obtain 3D spatial information.

“The main difference is acquiring 3D information of the surrounding environment together,” Naver said. “With 3D information, a more realistic Street View service is possible and allows for more intuitive delivery of location-based information.”

The latest Street View is only available for the Gangnam and Bukchon areas of Seoul on the PC version as of July 2024. Naver has begun updating Street View nationwide using P1, and the new Street View will be expanded to other areas after stabilization.

[Graphics by Song Ji-yoon and Lee Eun-joo]

For its part, Kakao Map introduced a similar service, Kakao Road View, ahead of Naver Street View. Kakao has also been steadily researching and developing 3D spatial information generation projects and introduced its 3D spatial project Special Connection Map (SCM) at the 2022 Kakao Developer Conference.

SCM aims to provide detailed 3D spatial information by processing road signs, lanes, and store names using Road View video data. Kakao presented cases such as estimating the shooting location based on user input videos or using location-based augmented reality applications.

“We plan to continuously enhance the 3D spatial information generation project,” an official from Kakao said.

Kakao also started its indoor map service for over 100 major shopping malls on Kakao Map in January 2024 and aims to expand beyond flat maps to 3D information. Kakao Map is also developing indoor navigation features following the indoor maps.

As Naver Map and Kakao Map enhance their 3D information, there is potential for new services linked to map apps.

As Street View becomes more sophisticated, for example, providing detailed store information, users could connect directly to services like restaurant reservations from within Street View.

“The map paradigm that stayed in places has now expanded from movement to consumption,” Kakao said in March 2024, reinforcing its identity as a location-based life platform.