Garmin Rino-GPS Show and Tell

jspectre writes: "Garmin, makers of fine GPS products, has a sneak peek of their upcoming Rino (Radios Integrated with Navigation for the Outdoors). A new handheld combination of GPS and 2-way Radio using the common FRS spectrum. In addition to downloadable maps, trip planning, weighing 8.5oz and being waterproof you can "beam" your location to other Rino users while you talk to them. Your location will show up on their GPS display allowing you to navigate to each other. Expected availability, June 2002. Great fun for geocaching parties I'd think."

Comments

eParka and GPS Maps

[smoondog]

eParka.com's digital maps are a cool way to visualize GPS mapping technology for free. Supports the entire country (sans alaska) and will support the Garmin GPS...

-Sean

Where are the sonars?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have long longed for a combined GPS/echo sonar. That way I can map my fishing lake in high precision. And, eventually produce ray-traced maps of the lake.

However I have not been able to find any GPS/Sonar combos capable of output to a harddisk.

Any suggestions?

Re:Where are the sonars?

[RevRigel]

Garmin used to (make still) make a GPS with a fishfinder on it, with the various data integrated into one display, and exportable to computer. A few years ago, a student at the lab where I work mapped a portion of Lake Travis here in Austin, TX, for use by the projects doing sonar research out there. I'd tell you what model it was, but the lake is a 45 minute drive away. It's still on the boat in question, and still works, though.

OpenSource GPS Mapping (Topographical)?

[Anonymous Coward]

So are there any open source G.P.S. mapping software packages (topographical mapping)?

Can you turn off the FRS feture?

[zulux]

For week long hiking trips - it would be nesessary to turn off the FRS feture in order to save battery life. Anybody know if you can?

Kudo's for Garmin for using AA batteries - there are readbly available back country solar chargers out there, and it would be useless if they used YAPBP (Yet Another Propriatary Battery Pack)

How this REALLY works Re:How This Works

[mikewas]

The sats do not determine your position. They are accurately positioned and have synchronized clocks. Your reciever gets a signal from several satelites. From data in the signals, the reciever knows the satelites' locations & the times that the signals were sent. The reciever does all of the calculations to determine position, the satelites don't know where you are, or even that you have recieved their signal.

Re:frosty paost

[Anonymous Coward]

It's my understanding that FRS is governed by _voice-only_ comms (see http://wireless.fcc.gov/prs/famrad.html). MURS and GPRS are allowed to transmit data.

According to my interpretation, what Garmin is trying to do is illegal. That is, unless they get the regs changed for them :)

What about this?

[jhines0042]

What I want to know is when is a GPS company going to release a GPS for the car that does traffic analysis and automatically can route you around bad traffic spots?

Lets say that (eventually) there is a significant installed base of GPS enabled cars. They each register their location anonymously with a central DB (anonymity could be turned off by the owner remotely for the low-jack, car recovery, option perhaps) and since the central DB would know what the speed limit on your road is (and the presence of stop lights etc...) if could monitor how traffic is flowing all across a local region.

It could then do load balancing of traffic by telling others with the same network where to go and where to not go. If you have a specific destination programmed in it could tell you the quickest way to get there and actually be right because it would tell everyone a different way to get there to avoid congestion.

Re:Euro GPS

[bleuchat]

AFAIK, Galileo (the EU version of GPS) will be compatable with the existing GPS system.

There are a few articles on the BBC about it.
"It will be a rival to the existing Global Positioning System (GPS) run by the United States, although the EU says the two networks will be compatible." -BBC "Green Light for Galileo project"

What about privacy...

[QuantumRiff]

will this beam your location to only the person you want, or to anyone on that freq? I've used FRS radios for caravaning on long trips, and in big cities, or big events, there is a good chance of other people on the frequency. Does this specify who gets your location, or can anyone on that freq see that quantumRiff is standing in the bathroom??

One More Thing

[4of12]

To make the functionality complete would be if each device could serve as a relay in a wireless network.

[Assuming relay usage isn't going to chew up your batteries too much] you could relay messages further than the limited range that these devices have for direct point to point contact.

Better, a few "wormholes" with stationary TX/RX that allow you to connect to land lines would be icing on the cake.

Re:Neat technology, but what's the patent?

[jenkin sear]

They probably haven't got a blanket patent- there's a VHF spec out there for transmitting GPS coordinates along with the VHF signal- it's intended for marine use, when calling friends or the coast guard for help. Models are already out on the market now, with support incrementally being phased in at all the coast guard monitoring stations- IIRC, they should be available across the US coastal waters by 2004.