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Future Dream GPS, What Would You Have Yours Do?

Guest Zig

By Guest Zig
in GPS technology and devices

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Guest Zig

Guest Zig

Posted
Posted

If you could design your own GPS, what would you want it to do? I would want one that does all the things that my Emap does, but I want a illuminated screen that I can plug in and mount to my truck dash for navigation like the luxuray cars have in them. icon_smile.gif

 

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Beter to Zig then Zag

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Guest Mopar

Guest Mopar

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by garminpilot:

High Res display

More than 18 MB of Map Memory

Helix antenna for great canopy reception

light weight, small

 

Never mind ..GARMIN already makes those

  • Geocaching Icons
  • Waypoint comments that dont reset every time I power off the unit.
  • Waypoint projection in feet, not miles.

Those are some of things I'd love to see on the otherwise awesome Garmin 76/MAP76 series.

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Guest ClayJar

Guest ClayJar

Posted
Posted

My dream feature, which I have attempted to pass along to the Magellan firmware guys, is to be able to save/load waypoints/routes and tracks to/from SD cards. Imagine the looks on the Garminites faces when the Magellanites show them infinite saved tracks! Mua-ha-ha-HA! icon_biggrin.gif

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Guest worldtraveler

Guest worldtraveler

Posted
Posted

Adding a MMC card slot to the Garmin V to hold 64 meg (or more) of map info that could be downloaded from a PC via a USB cardreader lickety split instead of the current ~30 min. for 19 meg.

 

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Worldtraveler

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Guest macdaddymd@aol.com

Guest macdaddymd@aol.com

Posted
Posted

?A GPSrt (receiver-transmitter) that would know where you are and advise you if you are approaching a problem zone (weather, accident, construction, etc.) and recommend detours.

?A GPSr that was connected to geocaching.com, and advised you when a new cache was placed in your area of interest, placing the coordinates, icon and comment directy on your GPS.

?An emergency locator button that sent your coordinates to emergency personnel in the event of an injury.

 

Oh, yes... I'll be wanting all this in a unit with 10-day battery, hi-res color screen with 3D topo rendering, weighing 4 oz, fitting in my pocket. And 1 Gb memory. And about $200. And unlimited free hardware/software upgrades for life.

 

Okay, I'll shut up now, but it's a nice dream!

 

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Kent

Harrisonburg, VA

macdaddymd@aol.com

 

[This message has been edited by macdaddymd@aol.com (edited 28 December 2001).]

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Guest Geoffrey

Guest Geoffrey

Posted
Posted

How about a rechargable GPS. Just plug in the GPS into a 12 volt source to power/Recharge the GPS.

 

A GPS that can use Sony Camcorder Lithium-Ion batteries for instance.

 

A GPS with an emergency hand crank to recharge the internal batts in the middle of the forest.

 

Garmin could comeout with a rechargable battery pack for the Etrex series, since the battery door comes completely off the unit.

 

------------------

Geoff's GPS Information Page

 

Geoff's Information on GPS units, and price guide for several units

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Guest GeoScouter

Guest GeoScouter

Posted
Posted

A GPS with memory banks:

 

Each bank would store custom waypoints, routes, etc and you could choose which memory bank the GPS would display. I would have one memory bank for geocaching, another for camping, hiking, hunting, traveling, etc. This would eliminate clutter on the display. Of course you would be able to copy waypoints or routes from one bank to another and over lap the memory banks if needed.

 

Locking waypoints, routes:

 

You could lock a waypoint or route so it can't be deleted or changed in the field.

 

IR sensor:

 

So you can transfer waypoints in the field to a friends GPS like a Palm tranfers programs to another Palm.

 

Display and Storage:

 

Display more then one coordinate system format at one time.

 

Higher resolulation and larger display.

 

Easier editing of waypoints and text.

 

More memory and have removable media and mapping software become more of a standard.

 

Faster CPU for screen redraws.

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Guest n1niq

Guest n1niq

Posted
Posted

I would love a gps/ham radio combination with a terminal node controller (radio modem).

 

A keyboard would also be nice as well as the ability to store the text of a cache web page.

 

Chris

 

[This message has been edited by n1niq (edited 28 December 2001).]

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Guest Hamster

Guest Hamster

Posted
Posted

Great Dream! I really like the idea of the traffic hazzards etc. This could be done a number of ways, but some kind of wireless internet access could allow this type of advanced functionality. It would be very very cool.

 

quote:
Originally posted by macdaddymd@aol.com:

?A GPSrt (receiver-transmitter) that would know where you are and advise you if you are approaching a problem zone (weather, accident, construction, etc.) and recommend detours.

?A GPSr that was connected to geocaching.com, and advised you when a new cache was placed in your area of interest, placing the coordinates, icon and comment directy on your GPS.

?An emergency locator button that sent your coordinates to emergency personnel in the event of an injury.

 

Oh, yes... I'll be wanting all this in a unit with 10-day battery, hi-res color screen with 3D topo rendering, weighing 4 oz, fitting in my pocket. And 1 Gb memory. And about $200. And unlimited free hardware/software upgrades for life.

 

Okay, I'll shut up now, but it's a nice dream!

 

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Guest WaylandersMA

Guest WaylandersMA

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by Geoffrey:

How about a rechargable GPS. Just plug in the GPS into a 12 volt source to power/Recharge the GPS.

 

 

Yeah. Imagine having it always plugged into the car and you pull it out for the hike fully charged. With the 30 second turn off on the Etrex already there this would be perfect.

I would pay Garmin $70.00 for a rechargable pack that fit into my Etrex.

 

Paul

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Guest welch

Guest welch

Posted
Posted

im thinking about trying some night time caching. reading over the post from ppl who have tried it, they seemed to really enjoy it, and it appelled to me.

 

the thing is im not sure how well i could watch the trails with my flashlight or NVG if i get a pair and watch my gps for directions. i thought it would be cool if there were a gps that gave you directions to the cache so you dont need to turn on the light or bother to look at the thing for any reason. just set it to "go" for the coors and listen to the thing.

 

i guess having different tones for the direction you need to go/ the direction. or even better have the thing actually talk, you it tells you got left, you turn and it tells you to go forward XXXFt./ miles whatever. and of course you would also need to able to turn off the voice so it wouldnt get annoying.

 

another benifit is blind people could use this gps for geocaching or even to go to? the store maybe or something... how would a blind person get to the park, i dont know but its an idea....

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Guest laurie

Guest laurie

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by Geoffrey:

How about a rechargable GPS. Just plug in the GPS into a 12 volt source to power/Recharge the GPS.

 

This would be great especially if the GPS could use regular COTS batteries like either AA or AAA so you could bring spares with you on your hunt.

 

Laurie

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Guest Mopar

Guest Mopar

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by dakboy:

I'd like to have the LCD turn off after 2 minutes of me not touching the controls. Save on battery quite a bit.

Great idea, I didnt even KNOW how bad I wanted this until you mentioned it.

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Guest dakboy

Guest dakboy

Posted
Posted

I got another one. I'd like a GPS that can take CompactFlash cards (my MeriGold takes SD) so that I can use the cards interchangably with my digital camera and GPS.

 

Taking it one step further, let me take a picture with the camera, then put the card in the GPS and associate a waypoint with one or more photographs.

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Guest stevesim

Guest stevesim

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by dakboy:

Maybe my MeriGold has it and I just haven't found it, but I'd like to have the LCD turn off after 2 minutes of me not touching the controls. Save on battery quite a bit.

 

Actually, the LCD display does not consume very much power in a GPS receiver. Most of the power is used by the receiver circuitry and the CPU in computing the present location. Most Garmin units have a "Battery Saver" feature which reduces the frequency of position updates to use less power.

 

Steve Simpkin

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Guest ptv99jgc

Guest ptv99jgc

Posted
Posted

I would like all the features of the Vista, but always more memory and faster uploads. The ability to plug in an external antenna. Have it double as a cell phone, the size of my current phone so that I always have my phone and GPS with me in one unit. Extended battery life and the charging systems mentioned previously. Had wondered why the charging system was not part of Garmin's units already, seemed like an logical feature.

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JeepCachr

+JeepCachr

Posted
Posted
I got another one. I'd like a GPS that can take CompactFlash cards (my MeriGold takes SD) so that I can use the cards interchangably with my digital camera and GPS.<BR><BR>Taking it one step further, let me take a picture with the camera, then put the card in the GPS and associate a waypoint with one or more photographs.

Get a digital camera that takes SD cards and you can have this dream today. There is also software that will stamp the location on the picture today taking data from the picture and your GPS.

 

Just think you could have your dreams today.

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Ish-n-Isha

+Ish-n-Isha

Posted
Posted

With the problems with the control sticks on the etrex series and not being able to please everyone with button placement on other GPSr's, The next logical revolution in personal GPS is touch screen technology (like a PDA) No more cycleing through screens to get to the one you want.

 

A Garmin 60CS with 128 meg memory and a touch screen would do nicely.

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Team VCR

+Team VCR

Posted
Posted

All the stuff mentioned above sounds good, but my dream GPSr would also have a bluetooth heads-up display incorporated into a set of sunglasses to allow discrete urban caching without having to resort to the old cellphone trick. The other benefit is unit that would probably be safer to use while driving.

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lego_guy

lego_guy

Posted
Posted

RF sensors at intersections on roads throught the US. will not be connected to any main server (so no worry about big brother watching) but about a 5 mile radius on each. they will simply brodcast the speed and density of traffic . the GPSr will then collect the data and give you the fastest or most fuel efficient route to your destination. that or a web-based system that taps into city's automated traffic control systems (yes they have them, look for cameras above and around traffic lights the next time you are sitting in traffic at a major intersection) in this case the GPSr would have wireless internet capabilities and could just pull the data from the web instead. though this seems a little to big-brother-esk since the gov would control the data on their servers and would thus be able to track you as you went from one place to the next

 

or a memory card for my GPS V would be nice also.

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Renegade Knight

+Renegade Knight

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hand held, big screen, tons of Memory 256mb or more. 10,000 waypoints. Better tracklog ability. Bluetooth that can be switched on and off. A Tri Axis compass that can be switched on and off. Tons of battery life on AA's and As small as practical given the batteries, the screen and antanea.

 

Edit: Add a proximity alarm so you know when you are a set distace from a waypoint type. That way you get notice while you are cruzing down the intersate that a cache is coming up.

Edited by Renegade Knight
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Taxman003

Taxman003

Posted
Posted

When planning a route on the GPS, I would like to see it know better than to think I travel in straight lines.

 

For example, when I say I want to go from Toronto to Windsor, it should ask, or know, that I will be taking the 401 and give the true linear distances. This is especially helpful when there are major directional changes to go through. (ie north for four hours, west for four hours, north for three hours and west for three more).

 

Mike

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Varta

Varta

Posted
Posted
RF sensors at intersections on roads throught the US. will not be connected to any main server (so no worry about big brother watching) but about a 5 mile radius on each. they will simply brodcast the speed and density of traffic . the GPSr will then collect the data and give you the fastest or most fuel efficient route to your destination

 

In principle this is available in Europe and called TMC. The traffic data is simply broadcasted by FM radio stations. You can buy GPS navaids using TMC for dynamic route calculation, though no portable ones.

 

though this seems a little to big-brother-esk since the gov would control the data on their servers and would thus be able to track you as you went from one place to the next

 

In Germany, government has installed cameras on the highways which automatically read license plates of the bypassing vehicles. But they say it would only be used to detect trucks that didn't pay the toll. Well, I guess they meant to say that they won't use it for other purposes until some terrorist acts justify it.

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BeatonNo1

BeatonNo1

Posted
Posted

I liked the weather idea, have the GPS be able to use GSM so it can access real time radar/satelite weather images and overlay them onto your screen. I have heard of this being done with PDAs on small private aircraft.

 

Instead of just using flash cards why not just use a small hardrive like that in the Ipod. have a firewire connection for data and then you could just upload topo maps the entire western hemisphere onto your 40gig harddrive. with this much space you could just download maps off of the terraserver like with expertgps. that way you could have USGS topo maps and satellite photo maps at your disposal.

 

Also I would like to see the distress beacon capabilities built into future GPSs. I dont know if you've ever seen those distress beacons that basically work in the reverse of GPS. but integrating capabilities like that in a GPS would be easy and useful.

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RoosterBoy

RoosterBoy

Posted
Posted

id like the 60cs

1)with memory cards that you can change.

2)voice prompts instead of beep or make it optional

3)a nice case with see though screen

4)a personal locator bacon

5)it would be nice to have a satellite weather channel on it

basically a free subscription to xm radio

and why not a have it play MP3

but if garmin made this who would ever need a new gps

:-)

 

thanks

Jason

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Mythos

Mythos

Posted
Posted

I am quite happy with my Garmin 60C, but if I should make a wish for my future GPS I would like to have a HUD display on my sunglasses with all the relevant information.

I will not be surprised if that will be the normal way to watch the GPS in a few years?

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Couparangus

+Couparangus

Posted
Posted

- Ability to real-time synch with mapping software. That is to say, when I delete a waypoint or route on my computer, the GPS does the same right away.

 

- Ability to create my own waypoint icons

 

- Have GPS show what street you are on (I think some do this already, but neither of my Garmins)

 

- Ability to hold more than 500 waypoints (once again, I think some do this already)

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RockyRiver

+RockyRiver

Posted
Posted (edited)

I think the Garmin iQue 3600 is the basis for my ultimate GPS, but with a few improvements. Having the PDA functions is great along with the SD card expandibility, and I think the iQue has the best color display and largest on the market right now for a handheld. However heres what the iQue 3600 needs to be a king cat daddy when they come out with the new improved model. Ladies and Gentlemen I introduce the iQue 5000, it will have a bigger processor, a lot better battery life (wow the 3600 is horrible on battery run time), more built in features like the high end PDA's have offered by Palm or HP, water proof, shock proof, rubberized surrounding body, user replaceable built in rechargeable battery, user replaceable screen, more built in memory, more optional accessories avalible (just like Palm or HP offers for their PDA's), wouldnt it be cool to have a cell phone built in that you could dial in from the woods and get the waypoint for more caches? Maybe even view Ground speaks web page? And why not throw in a MP3 player that is good sounding, so if I want to listen to tunes on trail. Also a removeable digital camera option would be nice. :P

I think that it would be a costly GPS, but Im sure they would sale like hot cakes.

Edited by RockyRiver
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wickedsprint

+wickedsprint

Posted
Posted

I think a GPS with a portable inverter inside so you could use it to power everything at the campsite would be nice, as well as a tiny microwave dish so you could cook your food, let us not forget a small cooling fan to blow air on your face while you run..that could be handy too, I also figured out a way to use a tiny butane tank running through the speaker hole which is the perfect size as a torch orfice so I can make on the fly repairs to my truck if I need to weld something.

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Geofool

+Geofool

Posted
Posted

I didn't read through all the post in this tread, so sorry if this was posted already. I think the 60c/cs series is close. If it had just a little bigger display, and the ability to take external memory (like an SD card) it would be darn near perfect. Of course, lowering the price 50% would be great too.

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bons

+bons

Posted
Posted

What I really want is some nice cheap form of gps locator. We have them for cars, children, and from what I hear pets (but I can't find gps trackers for pets anywhere).

 

If I could build my own, I would. I know some people here have. It would certainly make for a fun local geocaching event. (anyone up for a game of GOS capture the flag or tag?)

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