Every GPS unit out there that supports mapping only supports "vector" maps. These vector maps are not scanned images. Think AutoCAD drawing and it should help. These type of maps take up less memory than raster(or scanned) maps like the ones Maptech sells. Now you can buy software that provides vector maps for GPS units. However, there's no standard format. So each GPS manufacturer provides their own format. So if you buy a Garmin unit that supports maps, then you would need to purchase their map software called MapSource. If you buy a Magellan unit, then you would need to buy their map software called MapSend.
It is possible in a round-about way of getting raster map support for GPS units. How it works is you buy a PDA(Palm or PocketPC) and then run a mapping program on it that supports GPS units. You copy the maps that are supported by the mapping program to the PDA and then connect a GPS to the PDA via a cable, Bluetooth GPS or compact flash GPS. The mapping software just communicates with the connected GPS unit and displays your position on the map, along with routes, tracks, etc. Most GPS mapping software give you the same functionality that the GPS unit does.
Worth a thought.
Friday, 27 April 2007
Take Me Home
Show me the way to go home
One of the pleasures of moving to a new city is learning your way around – but what if technology means we never get lost again?
London has some strange and twisted corners, and its incomprehensible traffic regulations and confusing maze of one-way streets are pleasantly intimidating to some of our foreign visitors, especially some Americans. Once you've got used to the nice wide American streets, in a neat grid of alternating streets and avenues, clearly numbered to simplify your navigation requirements, some of London's tangled medieval streets, in many places designed for a couple of horses to pass comfortably, can seem completely bonkers.
A powerful emblem of London's pride in its own byzantine complexity is The Knowledge, that ritualised memory game which ensures not everyone has what it takes to drive a black cab. Yet most minicabs I take now are driven by people with knowledge provide by Tom Tom, or Garmin, or Mio. It's become convenient to know the exact post code of the people you're going to visit, so that the driver can get a lock on your target destination more quickly. When you're returning home after a heavy night, the sat-nav's blinking interface is now as much a part of the drunken ride home as your sleepy companion or the bittersweet pop music on Heart or Magic radio, tuned too high to block out but too quietly for you to be able to reasonably ask that it be lowered.
I started my driving life in South Africa and have only just started driving in London, and I'm torn: the gadget-head in me knows that it's a perfect opportunity to stick a sat-nav on the dash and see what this technology is all about. It will stop me getting lost as I concentrate on driving. There's also a marriage to preserve. When a sat-nav gets it wrong, no one has to stop the car "to cool off," and no one else has to explain that they meant the other East Finchley turn off, which some people would have realised if they weren't so bloody stubborn.
And yet – surely it's cheating? Surely the knowledge of London's grimy fly-blown streets should be hard won: turn left at the Hoover Factory and hum the Elvis Costello song to yourself; surf the horrors of the Holloway Road every grim day of your commute; go into orbit around London on the M25 and discover for yourself its Bermuda-Triangle like ability to make vehicles mysteriously vanish from where they belong and make them reappear somewhere quite other. Knowledge, built up like coral, through trial and error.
The end-game for sat-nav systems is a world in which GPS chips get integrated into our phones. Eventually affluent people in the developed world will start to forget what it was like to be lost - just as we are all beginning to forget what research was like before Google. I suspect I shall crack and get one of these little information devils: it's probably safer than arguing over the torn pages of a coffee-stained atlas at 50 mph. It's just that I'd quite like it to be my London, not London according to TomTom, or Garmin, or Mio. What do you think? Does sat-nav make your life better or worse?
Let me know.
One of the pleasures of moving to a new city is learning your way around – but what if technology means we never get lost again?
London has some strange and twisted corners, and its incomprehensible traffic regulations and confusing maze of one-way streets are pleasantly intimidating to some of our foreign visitors, especially some Americans. Once you've got used to the nice wide American streets, in a neat grid of alternating streets and avenues, clearly numbered to simplify your navigation requirements, some of London's tangled medieval streets, in many places designed for a couple of horses to pass comfortably, can seem completely bonkers.
A powerful emblem of London's pride in its own byzantine complexity is The Knowledge, that ritualised memory game which ensures not everyone has what it takes to drive a black cab. Yet most minicabs I take now are driven by people with knowledge provide by Tom Tom, or Garmin, or Mio. It's become convenient to know the exact post code of the people you're going to visit, so that the driver can get a lock on your target destination more quickly. When you're returning home after a heavy night, the sat-nav's blinking interface is now as much a part of the drunken ride home as your sleepy companion or the bittersweet pop music on Heart or Magic radio, tuned too high to block out but too quietly for you to be able to reasonably ask that it be lowered.
I started my driving life in South Africa and have only just started driving in London, and I'm torn: the gadget-head in me knows that it's a perfect opportunity to stick a sat-nav on the dash and see what this technology is all about. It will stop me getting lost as I concentrate on driving. There's also a marriage to preserve. When a sat-nav gets it wrong, no one has to stop the car "to cool off," and no one else has to explain that they meant the other East Finchley turn off, which some people would have realised if they weren't so bloody stubborn.
And yet – surely it's cheating? Surely the knowledge of London's grimy fly-blown streets should be hard won: turn left at the Hoover Factory and hum the Elvis Costello song to yourself; surf the horrors of the Holloway Road every grim day of your commute; go into orbit around London on the M25 and discover for yourself its Bermuda-Triangle like ability to make vehicles mysteriously vanish from where they belong and make them reappear somewhere quite other. Knowledge, built up like coral, through trial and error.
The end-game for sat-nav systems is a world in which GPS chips get integrated into our phones. Eventually affluent people in the developed world will start to forget what it was like to be lost - just as we are all beginning to forget what research was like before Google. I suspect I shall crack and get one of these little information devils: it's probably safer than arguing over the torn pages of a coffee-stained atlas at 50 mph. It's just that I'd quite like it to be my London, not London according to TomTom, or Garmin, or Mio. What do you think? Does sat-nav make your life better or worse?
Let me know.
Thursday, 19 April 2007
A New Voice
I know that some car GPS navigation systems offer customised celebrity or funny voices for their products.
Just imagine choosing something a bit more adult in tone than the standard offering and then having to explain to your mom/kids/better half why the GPS is letting rip at you.
Definitely one of those moments to be avoided.
Just imagine choosing something a bit more adult in tone than the standard offering and then having to explain to your mom/kids/better half why the GPS is letting rip at you.
Definitely one of those moments to be avoided.
Wednesday, 18 April 2007
Driving the Wrong Way
I have always relied on a map to get me to somewhere I have never been to before. You know, a different town buried more than three or four turns off a main road.
With the advent of in car GPS systems this has led to more than one case of people not understanding the route to their destination. They know where they are starting from and where they will end up, but the actual route, well that they haven't a clue about. Call me old fashioned, but I like to know about the middle bits, just in case I need to 'divert' for some reason or other in an emergency.
We have all seen or heard the stories of someone who was following the in car GPS so carefully and exactly that they got into trouble, driving into streams, buildings and roadworks. Is it their fault - most assuredly. The box on the dashboard, hasn't a clue about the roadworks which just sprung up overnight and that burst watermain or even the accident causing the tailback.
So eyes on the road drivers and let your tomtom or garmin help you get to your destination, not lead you astray.
With the advent of in car GPS systems this has led to more than one case of people not understanding the route to their destination. They know where they are starting from and where they will end up, but the actual route, well that they haven't a clue about. Call me old fashioned, but I like to know about the middle bits, just in case I need to 'divert' for some reason or other in an emergency.
We have all seen or heard the stories of someone who was following the in car GPS so carefully and exactly that they got into trouble, driving into streams, buildings and roadworks. Is it their fault - most assuredly. The box on the dashboard, hasn't a clue about the roadworks which just sprung up overnight and that burst watermain or even the accident causing the tailback.
So eyes on the road drivers and let your tomtom or garmin help you get to your destination, not lead you astray.
Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Frustration
Mapping in the UK is hamstrung. All the data is owned by the Ordnance Survey who will happily licence you their data at an astronomical cost. This excludes all but the most well funded organisations or individuals from using the data.
For the rest of us, well there are a couple of groups whose aim is to collect and collate open source data and then make this data freely available to all who want a copy. While not perfect for those dedicated and hardcore mapping enthusiasts it is certainly adequate for developers dipping their toes into the new world of online mapping.
The openstreetmap project aims to take all of the uploaded GPS tracks and build a UK street map.
Freethepostcode on the other hand is attemting to get people to submit GPS co-ordinates of their postcode.
Both are admirable projects and I wish them all the best for the future.
For the rest of us, well there are a couple of groups whose aim is to collect and collate open source data and then make this data freely available to all who want a copy. While not perfect for those dedicated and hardcore mapping enthusiasts it is certainly adequate for developers dipping their toes into the new world of online mapping.
The openstreetmap project aims to take all of the uploaded GPS tracks and build a UK street map.
Freethepostcode on the other hand is attemting to get people to submit GPS co-ordinates of their postcode.
Both are admirable projects and I wish them all the best for the future.
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