A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, recasts how we make geographic sense of our "home town."
In [the study], 26 residents of Tübingen (who had lived in Tübingen for at least two years) were put into a virtual-reality headset and seated in a chair that didn’t allow them to swivel. Participants found themselves in the virtual three-dimensional photorealistic model of their hometown, at locations familiar to them, surrounded by fog masking all but the near distance. Then they had to point to an invisible location—say, the main gate of the university or the fire station. The scenes changed, and so did the participant’s spatial orientation. After 60 three-location trials, participants were asked to draw a map of the town including all the locations they’d pointed to.
The results: Although participants drew differently oriented maps, everyone performed most accurately when facing north and got worse the further they deviated from north. The only explanation the researchers could figure was that they’d all seen, and internalized, a map of Tübingen at some point, and Western maps are all oriented the same way—north on top.
- Medical Xpress
by Adena Schutzberg on 01/18 at 06:20 AM |
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Maps are favoured by 81 per cent of drivers, who believe they can find their way without the help of the dashboard gadgets.
The report, for Kia Motors, found that 34 per cent of the 1,100 UK drivers surveyed admitted losing their way despite using a Satnav.
- Daily Mail
by Adena Schutzberg on 12/19 at 05:31 AM |
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The Localscope team wrote to share this news:
Apple has announced the much awaited Rewind 2011, considered to be the Oscars for the Appstore, presenting the best Music, Books and Apps of the year. We are honored and ecstatic to be chosen by Apple as the #1 App in the navigation category in the US Appstore and in the top 5 Navigation Apps in most other countries.
It's not an app I hear much about at all. Per the website: "Localscope is your social data powered GPS app."
- Cynapse blog
Boulder-based PlaceIQ, a startup collecting location based information about the world, has raised 4.2M in a Series A funding--but is moving to New York City. The startup--headed by Duncan McCall--said the funding was led by US Venture Partners, and also included Valhalla Partners, IA Ventures, kbs+p ventures, and Jerry Neumann. The firm said it is moving to New York to be closer to the advertising industry.
- Tech Rockies
Google is acquiring the Silicon Valley-based startup Clever Sense, both companies are announcing today. Clever Sense, as you may recall, is the maker of the mobile application “Alfred,” which delivers personalized recommendations for nearby restaurants, coffee shops, bars and nightclubs using a combination of artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithms.
I've never heard of the company or product. The plan is for the team to join Google Places (not something you hear about much) and perhaps have the tech be used in Schemer.
- TechCrunch
by Adena Schutzberg on 12/14 at 05:42 AM |
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When you have only two major players in a market, the competitive differences are magnified. And if one coughs, the other sneezes. Such is the case with TomTom and NAVTEQ. Both companies have acquired or been acquired; experienced layoffs, and refocused their business model. The disruption can be directly tied to an explosion in the mobile device market. You would think this would be good for both companies? But in a market where everyone has a navigation device, and you are competing with a company that is both a client and a competitor (i.e. Google), what do you do?
Reorg
Today, TomTom issued a statement regarding the company's reorganization and we've posted the important news items; see the company's press release and All Points Blog about the layoff of 10% of their workforce. When I spoke with company executives this morning, they reiterated that the change to their business model would focus on faster time to market of products and the ability to leverage core assets that include traffic data and an adherence to the Navigation Data Standard (NDS). The NDS has been identified by TomTom as a means to help standardize how maps go into navigation devices. Charles Cautley, managing director of the Automotive, Enterprise & Government Business unit (AEG) for TomTom said, "NDS is hugely strategic for TomTom." Cautley believes that this simplifies content accessibility and the map compilation process.
TomTom sees that there is still lots of growth in maps, POIs and especially traffic products. In the traditional GIS and enterprise market, the company sees growth in various site selection applications as well as real-time information to engineers and city planners. TomTom wants to combine their map products, traffic information and geocoder, essentially a bundle of their strategic assets, and offer them to industry segments.
A focus on Dynamic Traffic Data
Late last year, TomTom released their Traffic Manifesto thereby attempting to stake a unique selling proposition in the navigation market. On a webinar yesterday (December 7), the company announced that they had captured 5 trillion anonymous GPS traffic measurements since 2007 and used the data to create a rich database of historical traffic profiles. The data goes into TomTom's HD Traffic products.
Why the upheaval in digital navigation? What's Changed?
Navigation is becoming pervasive," said Cautley. "Everyone can have navigation; more devices; in car units; or web at home. "[TomTom is] rethinking how you take advantage of navigation." TomTom wants to leverage both crowdsourced and probe data to create more accuracy in maps. "[These] new data are giving us tremendous information," said Cautley. "The strategy is a move to provide more dynamic content … Better quality and more value to our customers."
by Joe Francica on 12/08 at 01:35 PM |
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It's distracting enough sometimes to look at your personal nav device and watch the road at the same time. But this new augmented reality app from Route 66 has added another element that may further throw drivers off course. The app shows drivers the way by placing a vehicle graphically superimposed onto the road network of the navigation device. You follow the vehicle along the path just like you might follow a friend who knows the way. However, to me this is a recipe for disaster. You need to watch the "real" car in front of you not the graphic. See the video below and see if you agree.
Continue reading...
by Joe Francica on 11/26 at 11:54 AM |
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