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General Software Discussion / Directional map functionality for navigation device or tablet with gps?
« on: January 19, 2017, 06:59 PM »
Hi.
I have a question with regards to navigation devices. Modern ones come with gps functionality, meaning they know, more or less precisely, where the car is in which they are installed. They are used to get from point A to point B, so you enter the target address, and they tell you how to go there.
My intention to use such a device for a different purpose. Imagine you don't know some town which you visit, and you want to do some sightseeing, for example as a tourist, or you are new in that town and want to know that town better, after having relocated there or even before relocating there, for example in order to check in which precinct you would like to search for a flat, or what precincts to avoid.
That's why you would need different functionality than the one described above. In the old days, you would have taken a map with you, and you would have tried to identify your position within that map, which for most people, after some turns, would not have been possible anymore, the distance between your eyes and the map on the other seat being too big anyway.
Or even, you could have cut up the map in pieces rather large but tiny enough in order to glue them to your steering wheel, and, depending on the kind of the glue, it would even have been possible to turn the map piece around with every turn, in order to always have your current direction at around twelve o'clock before your eyes.
I've done this description in order to make me better understood in what functionality I am searching for within a navigation device, or with a tablet, Android or iPad:
- has gps, thus knows where you are, with more or less precision
- knows your direction from a combination of gps positions history checked against the street data in the map: streets assumedly taken - directions, lengths - I know this may not be entirely accurate since the device is in the car but not electronically relied to the car, so it does not know turns from your steering wheel but only from gps positions checked again the street data
- has some prefigured zoom level, as with google maps - it should be possible to change zoom levels quickly, in order to see every narrow lane, or in order to see where you are going within a big picture - perhaps 1 tap for zooming in, 2 quick taps for zooming out
- will shift the map to be displayed on the screen in accordance with your movement out of the map - assumes you want to see a maximum of map in front of you, and not so much behind you
- will turn the map with your turns, at least some time after your turn when by checking the new gps data against the map data, it then knows your new direction - will accordingly shift the map area, too - since with a 90 degrees turn, what had been sideways becomes front and should hence be enlarged, so the software would turn the map and step back, too
- a big red, wandering point will show your current position in the map, at far as the device can identify your position - in fact, that position indicator missing is the factor that makes you lose position when trying to cope with printed maps spread on the passenger seat
Does anybody know such functionality, inbuilt in a navigation device or as additional software - application - for a navigation device, or for a tablet, even in rudimentary form, instead of the elaborated version I've dreamed of above?
I have a question with regards to navigation devices. Modern ones come with gps functionality, meaning they know, more or less precisely, where the car is in which they are installed. They are used to get from point A to point B, so you enter the target address, and they tell you how to go there.
My intention to use such a device for a different purpose. Imagine you don't know some town which you visit, and you want to do some sightseeing, for example as a tourist, or you are new in that town and want to know that town better, after having relocated there or even before relocating there, for example in order to check in which precinct you would like to search for a flat, or what precincts to avoid.
That's why you would need different functionality than the one described above. In the old days, you would have taken a map with you, and you would have tried to identify your position within that map, which for most people, after some turns, would not have been possible anymore, the distance between your eyes and the map on the other seat being too big anyway.
Or even, you could have cut up the map in pieces rather large but tiny enough in order to glue them to your steering wheel, and, depending on the kind of the glue, it would even have been possible to turn the map piece around with every turn, in order to always have your current direction at around twelve o'clock before your eyes.
I've done this description in order to make me better understood in what functionality I am searching for within a navigation device, or with a tablet, Android or iPad:
- has gps, thus knows where you are, with more or less precision
- knows your direction from a combination of gps positions history checked against the street data in the map: streets assumedly taken - directions, lengths - I know this may not be entirely accurate since the device is in the car but not electronically relied to the car, so it does not know turns from your steering wheel but only from gps positions checked again the street data
- has some prefigured zoom level, as with google maps - it should be possible to change zoom levels quickly, in order to see every narrow lane, or in order to see where you are going within a big picture - perhaps 1 tap for zooming in, 2 quick taps for zooming out
- will shift the map to be displayed on the screen in accordance with your movement out of the map - assumes you want to see a maximum of map in front of you, and not so much behind you
- will turn the map with your turns, at least some time after your turn when by checking the new gps data against the map data, it then knows your new direction - will accordingly shift the map area, too - since with a 90 degrees turn, what had been sideways becomes front and should hence be enlarged, so the software would turn the map and step back, too
- a big red, wandering point will show your current position in the map, at far as the device can identify your position - in fact, that position indicator missing is the factor that makes you lose position when trying to cope with printed maps spread on the passenger seat
Does anybody know such functionality, inbuilt in a navigation device or as additional software - application - for a navigation device, or for a tablet, even in rudimentary form, instead of the elaborated version I've dreamed of above?