Sat-nav that can show AND tell?
05 Jul 2007 15:00
For those fed up with maps, incorrectly reading maps, and getting lost, satellite navigation systems">satellite navigation systems must have been the best thing since sliced bread. Well, maybe not sliced bread, but certainly since maps anyway.As such, news that sat-nav makers TomTom have filed a patent for a camera sat-nav may well be considered extremely interesting to these folk, an indeed anyone with a bit of a thirst for all things technological.
A standard sat-nav uses a GPS receiver to determine a route that will get the driver from A to B, and delivers spoken and visual directions.
However, according to the European patent application the proposed GPS device would have a built-in camera that would show drivers not just a map of where they are going, but actual images of the streets and roads that they are driving down.
These images would theoretically include useful road markers such as traffic lights, road signs, and traffic jams which, all in all, would be pretty useful stuff.
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