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Re: GPS with Laptop
scoundrl <scoundrl@vnet.net> wrote:
|> The following is a report I have written about my experiences connecting
|> my TP755CD to a GPS receiver and using DeLorme's MapExpert software to
|> display a continually updated map in my car.
Quite an interesting report(!).
Just two comments...
|> GPS and a Map In Your Car!
|> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Aren't ready-made products for this already available? Maybe I'm out of
tune with the US market, but combo map/tv/radio/cd systems have been common
here (Japan) for about five years. Some from Sony even have 8mm VCRs hooked
in. They're about as common as, say, cellular phones (i.e. common).
One problem is that there don't seem to be laws about having the display
viewable to the driver.... I've been riding alongside a car where the
driver has 1.5 eyes on the baseball game and 0.5 eyes on the road (I don't
stay alongside such cars for long!).
Anyway, you can buy these at the corner A/V store. They have talking ones
that allow you to program your route and announce "turn right in 200
meters", etc. Some also hook up to a (cellular? radio?) traffic information
system and (compute?) routes around tie-ups. Others interpolate your
position from recent data when the signal is lost, such as when going
through a tunnel (bug whoop). At least that's the impression I get from
some of the commercials. As I said, they've been out for some time, so
they're several generations matured.
But you'd not be able to do your own overlays like you described.
And of course, you can't play DOOM on them! :-)
|> MapExpert 2.0 CD ROM by DeLorme Mapping (207) 865-1234
|>
|> This CD Rom is a street atlas of all streets, drives, roads, lanes,
|> creeks etc. in the continental USA, including Alaska and Hawaii.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
this would be called "the USA"
:-)
Jeffrey
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey Friedl <jfriedl@omron.co.jp> Omron Corp, Nagaokakyo, Kyoto 617 Japan
See my Jap<->Eng dictionary at http://www.wg.omron.co.jp/cgi-bin/j-e
and http://enterprise.ic.gc.ca/cgi-bin/j-e