3D Landscape by Ericsson Labs brings 3D Maps to Android

Sony Ericsson demos 3D Maps on its Android phone, the Xperia X10. The 3D Landscape provides three different API:s for developers to use and display high quality 3D maps in web services or mobile applications. With 3D Landscape you can create your own applications such as navigation systems, restaurant locators, weather services, location based social networks etc.

The 3D Landscape SDK consists of both a Java ME and an Android library that you can download and use to create your own innovative map applications. The libraries provide the functionality to retrieve, display and interact with 3D maps in your application. The other API is a web service that creates static 3D map images based on provided parameters in a http request. The web service API can be used standalone or as a part of an application to access and display static map images in 3D on various locations.

The SDK libraries uses unique maps in 3D and fast methods for rendering the maps which makes it possible to show realtime 3D maps in high quality. The maps for the SDK:s are downloaded from a backend server and buffered in the mobile as needed.

3D Landscape Features
+ Realistic maps in 3D
+ Free access to map data
+ Advanced rendering engine
+ Simple API

Here's a short video showing how 3D Landscape will look on the Android phone.