GPS in cars

regarding the research project:

How Do In-Car Navigation Systems Work?
In-car navigation systems utilize GPS with a combination of the following computer hardware and software components:

Map Database: A highly detailed database, including an electronic map of the road structure, is stored on CD-ROM. This database includes a directory of potential travel destinations and businesses in the region.

GPS Receiver: This instrument picks up Global Positioning System (GPS) signals that locate the car's position as it travels.

Monitor: A screen displays electronic maps, system menus, and other information useful to the driver.

CD-ROM Drive: This device reads the database and electronic map features that are stored on CD-ROM.

Central Processing Unit (CPU): The computer's CPU works with information received from each component of the navigation system to determine a driver's location, calculate routes, display the car's position on the monitor, and more.

So the maps are just kept on a CD-ROM. And since a CD can only hold a certain amount of maps, different discs are used for different regions. For example, I'm pretty sure that the CD included with US manuf. cars is the US + major cities in Canada. So if you're travelling in the yukon or something, you'd have to buy another disc. I guess the switch that's happening is that DVDs are replacing the CDs so that a single disc can be more comprehensive. So it seems for the purposes of this project, the way they feed the maps is pretty uninteresting. Although, on a significantly cooler note, I learned that pre-GPS cars used to use systems called autonomous navigation systems (ANS), which used a internal gyroscope and the calculations of a car's rate of travel to track it's position relative to a given starting point. Turns out these systems were quite accurate, except when the car was travelling on dirt, gravel, etc., which would cause the tires to spin more frequently relative to the total distance travelled. But this system is apparently still used in some GPS-ANS hybrids, which use the ANS to make up for a loss of GPS information when, for example, the car goes underneth a tunnel. When the car emerges, then the GPS info is reestablished.

For the most popular GPS mapping device, the Garmin V GPS, comes with a series of base-maps loaded into it's firmware - in the U.S. this would include parts of major cities and the interstate system. The local CDs are loaded on top of these, and if you venture outside the local maps, then the system reverts to it's base-map.

These maps can be purchased at the Garmin subsidiary Map Source: http://www.garmin.com/cartography/ or at a site called Route 66: http://www.66.com/route66/index.php.

kiosk solution

Proposals for Mobile Projects.
William Carter | wc@hauntedcastle.org
Division of Interactive Media | USC CNTV

a. Conquering Trojan Vision

The current application of the Video kiosk near the Tommy Trojan Statue is painfully uninteresting, yet full of possibilities. I plan on wresting control of this kiosk and developing one of the following two wireless, community based applications:

i. USC is an egregiously poorly designed campus. There is no real center, and therefore the space feels somehow lacking, devoid of a central meeting area- the one place that defines the campus, the spot where university-shaping events transpire. Therefore, the kiosk near that one trademark symbol of USC - the unfortunately lackluster statue of Tommy Trojan- offers an ideal location for a project where we can attempt to overcome these spatial problems and demonstrate university connectedness.
ii. Solution no. 1 – Leveraging the growing mobile community while still inviting the wired folks. By using short-range wireless technologies such as Bluetooth to send out SMS messages to wireless users walking within a set radius of the kiosk, students, staff, and faculty would be invited to register themselves, thereby adding a set of information to a database. The registration process could be accomplished at the physical location of the kiosk, or remotely, via a wireless device or a World Wide Web page. The first trespass within the kiosk’s virtual jurisdiction—the Bluetooth radius—would therefore yield an invitation. Once registered, subsequent entrances would prompt the system to scan the database to find new ‘connections,’ new registered users that, based on a registration questionnaire, have one or more links with the user, and then either send out an SMS message or an email containing this information. Wired, non-mobile users could similarly access the system by requesting during the registration process that emails be sent out automatically when new ‘connections’ were formed. The Kiosk – Serves 3 major functions. 1) Aware of mobile users within its radius, which it sends messages to. 2) Provides access to a registration page. 3) Displays, and allows string searching of, the current database of Registered Users to exhibit current ‘connections.’ Registration – allows users to enter themselves into the database, and asks them to fill out a questionnaire that enables the system to compare the responses with those of other users to forge ‘connections.’
iii. Solution no. 2 – Building collaborative structures that are rendered at the physical location of the kiosk. As mobile users walk within a set radius of the kiosk, they are invited to contribute to a collaborative project. Non-mobile users can access these processes via the web, or on-site at the kiosk. Specific projects run their course of 2 or 3 weeks until they are in a relative state of completion. One example project would be a system where users create virtual creatures or characters and place them in a virtual environment. These structures are tagged with the users name, and can be updated to contain images and sounds, or other bits of text. Once built and added, these creations wander the USC landscape according to the GPS position of the user, and the kiosk user is free to navigate around the space, locating other creatures and clicking or mousing over to gain information about others in this community. The mobile user, alternatively, can track information about others in their proximity.

These ideas can, and need to be, further developed. Right now they are just ideas, and require more comprehensive planning and tweaking in order to have a feasibly constructible project. I would also expect that this project would be collaborative in nature, and would be a good opportunity to get some people from engineering involved, perhaps.