Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Guided by voices

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 23:24:00 -0400

Guided by voices
Matthew Miller,
Special Projects Editor
EDN
      7/30/2003

      Early GPS navigation systems had a reputation for clunky operation and
inaccurate directions. But if you believe those criticisms are still valid,
you haven't tried GPS lately. I recently had the chance to use a
state-of-the-art vehicle-navigation system, and I'm giving it just about the
best recommendation a reviewer can give: I'm going to have a hard time
sending it back to the company when the review period ends.

      I live near Boston, a metro area where the map contains few right
angles, where road names conform to no discernible logic, and where street
signs are either nonexistent or-in the rare cases that they are
present-invariably skewed in the wrong direction by pranksters. My wife and
I often say that we were lost pretty much nonstop for the first six months
that we lived here. And we're not joking.

      If only we had owned a device like Navman's iCN 630 back then. A bit
smaller than a paperback book, the receiver is accurate, easy to use, and
even fun. Following its verbal instructions and the moving maps on its
bright color screen, we found it virtually impossible to lose our way.

      After it arrived in the mail, the iCN 630 required minimal setup
before it was ready to hit the road. A painless installation placed onto my
PC an application that I then used to load the maps of my choice into the
unit. The package contained two CDs from Navman's chosen map provider,
Navigation Technologies. The two discs covered the entire US, but I chose to
install only New England (Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire,
Vermont, and Maine). The loading process, via USB, took exactly the 16
minutes the application promised.

      The New England maps consumed a bit less than two thirds of the unit's
64 Mbytes of onboard flash memory. If I had filled the onboard memory but
still needed more maps, I could have loaded them onto SD or MMC cards,
carried them along, and placed them into the unit's slot as needed.

      Next I took the unit and its cigarette-lighter adapter to the car and
mounted the suction cup bracket on my windshield just above the dash (the
package also includes adhesive and bolt-on hardware). I started the car,
plugged the unit in, and fired it up.

      The folks at Navman are proud of the GPS hardware in their device,
boasting that it reduces the "time to first fix"-the number of seconds it
takes the unit to acquire GPS satellites and determine your position. Navman
claims a typical cold-start time of 120 seconds, and my experience was right
in line with that. In warm-start situations, such as after a short stop, the
unit acquired the satellites so quickly that it was ready to go by the time
I buckled my seatbelt.

      Entering a destination address proved surprisingly easy and rapid
thanks to a drill-down approach that keeps keystrokes to a minimum. Using
directional keys and an onscreen keypad, you first select a state, then a
town, then a road, then a house or building number. At each stage, each
keystroke narrows a list of choices that the unit displays along the bottom
of the screen. For example, if you enter "B" you might see Boston,
Brookline, and a number of other towns. But once you enter an "r," Brookline
pops to the top of the list.

      The unit also allows you to store frequent destinations like your home
into memory to avoid future keystrokes. Alternatively, you can pinpoint your
intended destination on a map. Needless to say, all these operations are
best performed with the vehicle at a standstill; the user interface may be
elegant, but interfacing and driving don't mix.

      To give us a chance to get used to the device, my wife and I decided
to start with a destination to which we already knew the way-a favorite
Japanese restaurant. The unit quickly charted a course and we set off.

      As first-time users of GPS, we were wowed. The bright, rich, 3.8-inch
QVGA screen showed our location and highlighted our designated route in red.
The image revolved as we made turns, keeping our direction of travel at the
top. We soon discovered that a button on the device cycled the display
through various views, including one where north was always at the top and
text-only views that simply listed upcoming maneuvers.

      Meanwhile, the unit called out, in a firm female voice, simple
instructions such as, "In 900 feet, turn right" and then, just before the
intersection, "Right turn." The unit even directed us through a legal U-turn
near Fenway Park, which put us on the same side of the boulevard-type street
as the restaurant.

      Later in the weekend, we both came down with severe cravings for a
particular snack food, so we used the system to guide us to a new
destination in an unfamiliar area-the only Kripsy Kreme outlet in the state.
Arriving effortlessly and biting into our fresh donuts, we reflected on how
difficult the trip might have been with an old-fashioned map and/or
directions printed from the Internet.

      Our only hiccup occurred at a traffic rotary. Such roundabouts can be
cutthroat places, so I wanted to keep my eyes on the idiots around me, and I
was counting on the voice to direct me. But after the receiver told me to
turn into the rotary, I realized that I didn't know which of the multiple
exits I was supposed to take, and the voice seemed to be taking forever to
get around to telling me. When it finally spoke, I was able to take the
second right in time and without incident. But I would have preferred to go
into the circle already knowing which exit I'd be taking. I soon realized
that a quick glance at the map on the display-before arriving at the
rotary-would have been more effective than waiting for the voice. In the
end, I can't even call this a complaint about the system; it was more of a
man-machine-interface issue.

      We next decided to see how the unit would react if we deviated from
its chosen route. We half expected to hear stern reprimands. Instead, the
device quietly displayed a question mark and then invoked a feature called
"back on track." Within 20 or 30 seconds, the machine calculated a new route
and started issuing new instructions.

      As we experimented, we found that the back-on-track suggestions were
quite clever. Sometimes the unit tried to take us around the block to rejoin
our original route. Other times, the system charted entirely new courses
down different roads. If we continued to ignore the suggestions, the machine
simply kept on recalculating new routes.

      After a time, my wife and I found this feature incredibly liberating.
In essence, it eliminated the cost-measured in stress-of wandering off the
beaten track. See something interesting? By all means, turn and check it
out. Don't worry about finding your way back-the machine will do it for you.
On the way home, we actually found ourselves exploring neighborhoods that
we'd never wandered into before.

      The receiver let us down only once during the entire trial, when we
tried to see how it would direct us to the EDN office. The building is
admittedly difficult to access because it's in a chaotic location near a
rotary where several roads converge, an interchange with I-90, and multiple
one-way streets. The Navman system got us within visual range of the office,
but then sent us right past it because it didn't seem to have the exact
address pinpointed.

      Overall however, the only real drawback to the iCN 630 is its price: A
cool $1000. Actually, I can't argue that that's an unfair price for such an
impressive product. I can say, however, that it will price a lot of people
out of the market (including yours truly). Let's hope that costs come down
substantially as volume increases.

      Navman also offers GPS systems that attach to notebook and handheld
computers. Those units are more affordable because they leverage the
computing horsepower and displays of the host devices. For example, the
company's GPS 3450, which snaps onto an iPAQ Pocket PC, goes for $300. In
the near future, the company plans to offer a Bluetooth model for wireless
use with Bluetooth-enabled iPAQs.

      Having finally experienced GPS navigation firsthand, I now have no
doubt that all these different products will succeed. In retrospect, I think
I underestimated the power of the technology. Intellectually, I understood
its capabilities and benefits. But understanding and experiencing turned out
to be two very different things

http://www.reed-electronics.com/electronicnews/index.asp?layout=article&articleId=CA314028&text=guided+by+voices

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