Friday, September 25. 2009

Butterflies Use Antenae (among other things) to Navigate

Researchers used black enamel paint to block Monarch butterflies use of their antennae. The result: those with antennae covered (ore removed) got lost traveling to Mexico from the U.S. (Those with clear paint on their antennae did fine.) The conclusion is that the butterflies use antennae as both light sensors and clocks that work in conjunction with clocks in their brains.

- AP

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Satellite Navigation at 06:00 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Thursday, September 17. 2009

"SatNav Made Me Do It" Doesn't Fly in UK Court

Robert Jones was found guilty of "driving without due care and attention" in the UK. He followed his satnav device's instructions and drove down a path not designed for cars and made contact with a fence. He also travelled onto some private land. The court didn't buy his explanation that he followed the directions. He was fined $1,470.

- C|net
- Examiner

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Satellite Navigation at 10:58 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Local Man Raises Funds for GPS for Fire Engines

A Slidell (Louisiana) resident held a wine tasting event and a raffle to fund the purchase of Garmin GPS devices for the local fire department. The local Best Buy provided a discount to make the money go further and even installed the devices in the fire trucks.

- Tammany News

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Satellite Navigation at 07:32 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0) |

Tuesday, September 8. 2009

Scrabble + GPS + iPhone = Seek 'n Spell

Ok, I've been reading about iPhone apps, specifically location-based ones. for quite a while. None have made me think, "wow, I want that"...until today. Seek 'n Spell is a letter hunting game played in a park - the game downloads a satellite image for you to use as a map and you capture virtual VW Beetle sized letters by running to them, to spell words for points. This sounds fun - but then I used to play Scrabble competitively and am a runner...

- GPS Business News

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Satellite Navigation, Apple at 07:51 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

TomTom Shares OpenLR Standard: What is it?

The press release says:

OpenLR has been designed for traffic information systems and dynamic route
guidance, and is available as an open-source technology a
http://www.tomtom.com/page/openLR. It can easily be adapted to the requirements
of system integrators, and the technical community can contribute with their
ideas to improve it.

Location data can range from static road sign information to highly dynamic
traffic and weather situation information as well as safety-critical information
- anything that needs to be accurately linked to a specific piece of or position
on the road network. The OpenLR technology allows location content providers to
reference any location on any navigable map, completely royalty-free.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Open Source, Standards, Real-Time/Dynamic Data, Satellite Navigation, TomTom at 06:17 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Wednesday, September 2. 2009

iSuppli: By 2014 perhaps no market left for Personal Nav Devices

Despite all the positive words from PND vendors, the research firm says a study points the other way: "According to market research firm iSuppli, by 2011, virtually all smartphones will sport built-in GPS functionality, and by 2014 there might be no more market left for PNDs." For now though, PND still rule: " According to iSuppli, PNDs will continue to lead the navigation market in 2009, with some 114 million sets predicted to be in use by the end of the year, compared with 57.8 million navigation-enabled smart phones."

- C|net

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Satellite Navigation at 06:38 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |