Things I'd Like To See (creative Minds Only)

[planewood]

1) the marriage of GPS and Virtual Reality (cachers running around with helmets and visors)

 

2) A handheld GPS with a 8"x11" hi color screen and 15 hr battery life

 

3) a 2 button handheld. MARK and GOTO last marked position, that also erases the marked position when turned off. My wife loses her car in the shopping mall parking lots. I may be close to needing one too.

 

4) A handheld with no icons

 

5) A GPS that loads its current position every 5 minutes to my web page. (so I can go find my wife when she gets lost at the mall) Actually, these are available.

 

6) A GPS that uses raster images and credit cards. A pimp's dream! (think about it)

 

7) ????? I have more, just can't think of them now.

 

Setting here twiddling my thumbs waiting on a 60cx to be delivered.

[CenTexDodger]

Well, some of your wishes are available now!

 

1. ??????

2. You can accomplish this with a tablet computer and a usb gps puck.

3. Some of the new Garmin streetpilots--the c330 comes to mind--already works similar to this. It has two options--"where to" and "View map". It is a very simplified interface, and that is why I am recommending it to my parents.

4. Not sure what you mean by this one.

5. ...

6. The new deLorme unit that is due out this spring is supposed to use raster images, and the PDA units will use raster images.

 

Now, you probably want all this in one unit.

[+Renegade Knight]

How about a heads up display on your windsheld for when you are driving to work around that dinky small screen a handlheld GPS has. It could only work when you are plugged in but it would be cool. You would have to calebrate it for each windsield configuration but life is roughe.

[+Ole Cache]

One thing I would like a LOT is a GPSr that does auto-mapping and incorporates this knowledge into it's routing capabilities. For instance, each time you go into a street that's not in the unit's map, it'll prompt you for a name and other road info. Regardless of you input (or lack, thereof), the GPSr should acknowledge the existence of the road and use it in future Gotos/Follow road. This should be configurable in Setup.

Other thing I would like is that the GPS would think like a chess player, calculating in the background 2 or 3 alternate routes on the fly. Imagine you are on a road that according to the map is rated at 60mph but you have 5 minutes in it doing 3mph. The GPS should get you out of there ASAP, using one (the best?) of it's precomputed routes. Other case will be going at normal speed on a street but noticing something that would slow you down past the intersection, what do you do? you turn left or right of course, and here's where the precomputed routes should come up INSTANTLY, no recalculating routes.

I guess I'll have to wait till handheld GPSr have the computing power of a Pentium 4 HT to work that way.

[planewood]

Well, some of your wishes are available now!

 

1. ??????

2. You can accomplish this with a tablet computer and a usb gps puck.

3. Some of the new Garmin streetpilots--the c330 comes to mind--already works similar to this. It has two options--"where to" and "View map". It is a very simplified interface, and that is why I am recommending it to my parents.

4. Not sure what you mean by this one.

5. ...

6. The new deLorme unit that is due out this spring is supposed to use raster images, and the PDA units will use raster images.

 

Now, you probably want all this in one unit.

 

Yep, I want a handheld with no icons and look what I'm getting - a 60cx!!!!! Go figure.

 

I retired from the computer business 7 years ago and I'm trying to figure out what a PDA, IPOD, Blueberry (or is it Blackberry) is. And I'm jealous of my daughter that has two DVD players with MP3 and earphones in the back of her Lexus! At least she doesn't have a GPS, yet. I asked for a simpler cell phone here while back and the guy said, "Sir, that is the simplist we have". He kind of smirked when he said that. I might put my 60cx up on ebay if I can't figure it out.

 

Oh Yeah,

7) A GPS for the pre-baby boomer set!

[+Greymane]

Actually, in reference to #1, I have used a SecondSight unit with my PDA for about two years now (off and on). It is a head mounted display for one eye and allows you to view the screen without having a hand occupied. (Similar to the HUD units the Army is using right now.)

[+WeightMan]

What I would like is a way to tell my Garmin 60c that I don't ever want to travel along that street. Quite often when it auto routes me around town, I know a way to ge without the traffic lights or the backups. I would love to be able to tell it not to go where those are. Perhaps, and we are thinking ahead here, it could access real time traffic info and route me around it. That would be really cool in a handheld unit.

[+darus67]

 

2) A handheld GPS with a 8"x11" hi color screen and 15 hr battery life

 

 

Just how big ARE your hands??

[planewood]

 

2) A handheld GPS with a 8"x11" hi color screen and 15 hr battery life

 

 

Just how big ARE your hands??

 

Well, I was raised on a dairy.

[Neo_Geo]

5) A GPS that loads its current position every 5 minutes to my web page. (so I can go find my wife when she gets lost at the mall) Actually, these are available.

 

CLICK HERE to google "APRS" (Automatic Position Reporting System)

 

==========================================

 

I'm waitin' for a GPSr to interface with the controls of my car! Plug in the USB interface cable attached to the car's dashboard, power-up the GPSr, Find a waypoint or POI, Goto, Follow Road, and then select between the "Navigate" and "Drive" options. Selecting "Drive" makes your GPSr drive the car for you while you sit back in the driver's seat and read a book!

 

I guess I'll be waiting about 10 or 20 years for this.

[planewood]

All they need to do is put a GPSr in a cellphone and the electronics to download the latest route data to another GPS cellphone.