NaviGadget

An article worth reading. I’ve always wondered about the ground work that needed to be done before the software could give me directions…

…Navteq supplies the raw map data that underlies those directions. That data isn’t as raw as you might think, though. Unlike paper maps, Navteq’s digital maps have to include details about which roads are one way, which way, and things like whether left turns are illegal Monday through Friday, excluding holidays, from 7:00 a.m to 10:00 a.m. unless you’re driving a bus.

Users who rely on this data to guide them from one place to another expect an extremely high degree of accuracy. People who use paper maps understand that their map may be old and that the map can’t tell them which way they’re allowed to go at a given intersection. People using computer programs just expect them to be right.

To check those sorts of details, Navteq relies on hundreds of Geographic Analysts like the two men I was with, Senior Geographic Analyst Christopher Arcari and Geographic Analyst I Jean Pierre Loize. They spend about half their time driving around gathering data about every road, large and small, in their designated region of the country. The other half of their time is spent sorting out all that data… read

• MapQuest PND
• MapQuest Navigator will give you directions on your mobile phone
• where does navigation info come from?
• AT&T A-GPS
• TI announces the first single chip GPS

This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2006 at 5:54 pm and is filed under gps navigation, misc news, software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.