TomTom Announces an Open Source GPS Technology 177
TuringTest writes "According to OStatic, European company TomTom (which recently settled a patent agreement with Microsoft) has announced a new open source format OpenLR for sharing routing data (relevant points, traffic information...) in digital maps of different vendors, to be used in GPS devices. The LR stands for Location Referencing. They aim is to push it as an open standard to build a cooperative information base, presumably to operate in a similar fashion as its current TomTom Map Share technology, in which end users provide map corrections on the fly. The technology to support the format will be released as GPLv2. Does that make OpenLR a GPL GPS?"
Better than GPX *how*? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't object to diversity of choice, but really... Sometimes you just can't do better than sticking with the wheel for moving your cart.
Not another "standard" exchange format, please! (Score:5, Insightful)
We have GPX - it is widely adopted, supported by multiple devices and extremely extensible. Why not add extension to GPX and make your data more compatible with existing software? Instead they create another incompatible "standard", slap an "open source" moniker on it and here we go - another incompatible "technology".
Re:Handheld GPS and Linux (Score:1, Insightful)
I use a Garmin Etrex (Venture Cx, though I'd recommend the Vista HCx as the best of the bunch) and OpenStreetMap.
The Garmins have drive / bike / foot routing and are good all-rounders. They don't have voice directions or lane assist.
OSM is the wiki-worldmap and there are lots of Garmin-compatible map sets produced by OSM users. Cloudmade.com do a nice global set updated monthly. It's all free CC-sharealike licence so we get to play with the maps, remixing them in all sorts of map-nerdy ways.
As a hiker, I don't like the idea of relying on a phone GPS. GPS is battery-hungry and my phone is my emergency get-out-of-trouble card. I'd feel a royal ass if my routing app ate my capacity to call mountain rescue.
Re:Excellent (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Excellent (Score:2, Insightful)
aEN
Re:Excellent (Score:3, Insightful)
GPS will almost completely replace maps and mapreading skills, as it is easier, safer, and more convenient. It completely reproduces the map's functionality and adds indispensable features like traffic updates and never getting lost.
Last time I tried to use one, I got lost. I had scroll around on its map to figure out where I was and a SANE way of getting where I wanted to be. I think I'll stick to paper maps, which actually help me get acquainted with where I'm going so I can concentrate on traffic more, thanks.
That, and back when I used to listen to talk shows TomTom's male-bashing commercials pretty much turned me off to their brand. But go ahead and mod me down. I'm sure I'm just being oversensitive or something.
Re:Patent card waiting to be played? (Score:3, Insightful)
or we live in europe!
Re:Handheld GPS and Linux (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly. Whatever was running (GPS in this instance) was boss...until you answered the phone.
Convincing a 22year old female not to answer the phone or text for 5 hours was a physical impossibility.
As I said...phone for phone things, GPS for GPS things.
Re:GPL? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not sure what you are trying to say, but you sound like an idiot.
Re:GPS !replace maps & skills Re:Excellent (Score:3, Insightful)
Spoofing multiple GPS signals in real time would be the pinnacle of human hardhack achievement. Please link me, I beg you
Re:Excellent (Score:5, Insightful)
Last time I tried to use one, I got lost. I had scroll around on its map to figure out where I was and a SANE way of getting where I wanted to be. I think I'll stick to paper maps, which actually help me get acquainted with where I'm going so I can concentrate on traffic more, thanks.
I beg to differ. In a new city, when the GPS receiver is handling the navigational duties, you get to focus lots more on the traffic because you aren't hunting for the one sign that says "Hwy 5 West" or trying to remember if you should be taking the west or east exit. It sounds like a small thing, but it really frees you up to watch the idiot in the left lane on his phone who likes to drift over the line, and the guy in your rear view mirror speeding up and weaving through the three cars behind you. The little voice saying "in one mile keep right, then exit right on Highway Five West" is timely and useful, and not nearly as distracting as the frantic search for the obscure sign, or wondering if you accidentally passed it.
The downside is that if you let the box navigate, you don't have to learn the route yourself, and you may never learn the new roads. It's up to you to decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Re:Better than GPX *how*? (Score:3, Insightful)
Both GPX (ubiquitous) and KML (Google Earth) support routes
But none of them supports actual ROADS.
From what I read, that OpenLR is targetet ad information exchange between different VECTOR BASED maps. (TeleAtlas, and the other company I cant remember right now)
GPX and KML simply say "move from Point A to Point B in a straight line" but this should say "Follow the road from the intersection thats nearest to Point A until it ends near Point B" thus considering a) the actual path the road takes and b) small differences between the measured coordinates of Point A. If in different maps the location of an intersection differs a few meters, both still can agree on the meaning of those coordinates, instead of using it as simnpel raw data.
Re:Handheld GPS and Linux (Score:3, Insightful)
If you want maps, just buy something and don't waste your time playing with the OSS variants or trying to use OpenStreetMaps, its really not worth it at this point.
unless you happen to travel in area's with incomplete commercial maps, where I live the road is unnamed and isn't marked on googlemaps or on tomtom maps. It also runs parallel to the N20 before turning 90 degree's left which is where I live.
The end result confused motorists turn left 5 meters too early the gps software corrects, assuming the data is a bit off for the N20. They carry on for a mile till they hit the 90 degree left turn and then proceed to turn around in my gateway.
The only maps showing the correct data for this area is openstreetmap and I put it there.
Paper maps tend to skip over details, Blarney tends to be a circle on most maps for example.
Unfortunately there are problems in all the mapping solutions, open streetmap isn't very good at naviation, other maps are less detailed (so is open streetmap depending on the area)
Contributing to open streetmap can be as easy as using your gps to make a trace and driving round. My mapping was done with a bluetooth gps and a htc universal (windows mobile phone). With sharing the gps I could both create traces and also run the Tomtom application. Which meant I still had working sat nav.
Openstreetmap is focused as a mapping project not a navigation project and so in my opinion if you want a map open street map may have the best available and if the data isn't good enough you can improve it.
Navigation is still pretty difficult with openstreetmap although being able to place your position and heading on a map is useful.
The Garmin handheld units can record traces suitable for openstreetmap.
The parent post is pretty dismissive of Oss solutions and openstreetmap in particular however it gets better every day and is the easiest project to contribute to
Re:Excellent (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a bad thing.
Is it really a bad thing, or is that just a visceral reaction to an idea that challenges old assumptions? Be honest with yourself. If you travel for pleasure, are you visiting a new city to see the sights, museums, beaches, restaurants and theaters, or is your trip there to learn all their exiting, history-filled roads, and drive their fabled five-lane freeways? I never once heard my dad say anything like "Look, John, it's mile marker 5! Elvis once flipped off your grandfather for driving slowly in the right lane near that very sign!"
And I don't know about you, but when I'm traveling on business I usually have a short time to get from the airport to my destination, find my way out of there late at night, get checked into my hotel, maybe find some overpriced restaurant to use up a few expense account dollars to make up for being stuck in some place I'd rather not be (no offense to anyone in Toledo was meant by that last statement), get back to the room and crash, fail to fall asleep in a crappy bed, groggily check out the next morning and head back to work, put in 10 more caffeine-fueled hours and then find my way back to the airport before the airline gives my seat away. I simply don't want to be glancing at an under-detailed Avis map that is bouncing around on the floor in front of the passenger seat, trying to figure out if I passed my exit. It's not safe. In that stressful environment, it's far more important to be able to focus my remaining two neurons strictly on driving.
In almost no case do I really need to learn the roads around a new place. The destinations hold my interest far more than the paved lanes that bring me there.
Re:Excellent (Score:3, Insightful)
An incompetent driver is in a position to do allot of damage. In fact experienced drives can and do allot of damage sometimes. Everyone fucks up eventually.
A bean counter who employs incompetent drivers is only going to save money in the short term, even without major stuff ups it's all the little ones adding up that make the big impact.