A Better Breed of GPS Software?

willo asks: "I recently built an on board computer for my Grand Cherokee. The initial uses for it include music, gps navigation, on board diagnostics and a baby cam so I can see how my kid is in that rear facing seat. After lots of research and testing, I'm really disappointed with the mapping software out there for Linux. Gpsdrive provides the basic functionality I need, but the street names are built into the image and are difficult to read at a glance while driving. Not to mention that it has to download the maps it needs ahead of time. Xastir can handle almost any map out there, but it reads through every map for each redraw! It also seems to lack the ability to zoom intelligently based on location. Note that it's not really designed to be a navigation aid, but rather a ham radio APRS tool. (I am a ham). Delorme Street Atlas USA does what I really want, but it's been a pain to make run properly under wine. Is anyone else out there working on a decent navigation application?"

"To be really usable navigation software should do the following:

• handle maps efficiently and draw them quickly
• have intelligently organized map sets for countries/states. (You can't download a friggin map in the middle of Montana!)
• include serial gps/gpsd support. (just about everyone has this)

I've found a few references to mapping projects that seem to just be vaporware.

Map Sources do exist for this! Bruce Perens made TIGER/line data availible. NAVTECH is the map source for pretty much all the vehicle navigation systems out there, and high resolution maps are availible from the Geographical Information Survey."

Comments

Re:Windows

[Technician]

I'll probably get bashed for this, but here goes. When shopping for a computer, find the killer gotta have program and purchase whatever hardware is needed to run it. For Web servers, that is Apache. For in vehicle nav and Ham Radio, (especialy moving ADF work) the aps are mostly Windows. :-(
Now on to the informative stuff... There are two kinds of maps. Vector and Raster. Vector maps are smaller. The text and roads are just data, so road names can remain the same size at various zoom levels. Raster Maps are photos of maps. These are great for off road treks as they are detailed. The road names can be hard to read on vector maps. I use both kinds of maps. (I'm also a dedicated geocacher). I use the National Geographic TOPO maps with the GPS most of the time (great detail helps find best route to difficult location) TOPO maps are about 6 CD's per state for about $100 per state. They have full GPS waypoint management ability. Building a route is as simple as dropping waypoints on the map, connecting the dots and uploading it to your GPS. The other software I like for highway cruising is Streetfinder. It does not have upload/download abilities, but it does do a great job showing where you are. You can record your adventure and play it back later. Use it to fight that radar ticker. It plays back just like a saved race game including the time, speed and location. It makes a great package to check on your teen's driving. Find out where and when they went after or during the prom! The Vector software was much cheaper at $17 for the entire US on 3 CD's and included 1 CD of trip planning software. I have found no Linux replacements for either package. Since one of my older laptops came with Windows 95, it has become the mobile map unit. Hackability of the OS is of no concern, it has no net connectivity, so the security holes are not important for this application. No Office, No VBS, No TCP/IP, No hackers.
I forgot the name of the package, but there is a nice APRS feature being built into one of the map packages that supports RDF showing not only your location but the direction of your DF target. Great for getting a running fix on a fox if you also have auto DF with RS232 output. A Google search should show the DF version of APRS. It only works with a static map so far. Moving maps are not yet supported.

What happened to Gnomad?

[Anonymous Coward]

The screenshots for Gnomad made me think we'd have a good solution someday soon, but it still doesn't appear to even be available for download.

Use sound?

[Anonymous Coward]

I would think that an application like that could use sound/voice so the driver doesn't need to be staring at the screen. Why not use a text to speech program to read the road names and also set up sounds to go off at certain key points. If you get really fancy you can have it say "Make the next left onto main street in one quarter mile." You could also hack the code of gpsdrive to make a large text window on the bottom of the screen. In there you could display vital information like road names/directions in very large font.

Upon rereading I've notice gpsdrive doesn't actually know the road names, it's "built into the image." That's huge problem for systems that do things like direct you. I think it's about time that some dedicated people figure out ways to get around that because the software will not be fully functional til it reaches that point..

Open Location based Services (OLS)

[jmacgill]

The OpenGIS Consortium is a standards body which has been thinking a lot about the technologies, protocols and infrastructure needed to support the kind of tasks you want to perform. (Acualy, so far a lot of it has been behind closed doors as the Open in OpenGIS tends to come into effect once they think they have the standards right)

You can find out a bit more about one initative that they are involved in here:
http://www.openls.org/about.htm
And a google on OpenLS will bring you back more.

Now, all that tells you is about the standards, but doesn't give you any tools you actualy need.

[big self plug]
I am one of the lead developers of GeoTools2 an open source Java project which is aiming to implement as many of the OGC standards as make sense (and those of other standards groups if they seem appropriate). So far the toolkit will give you the parts you need to read a number of datasources, filter them to show what you want to see and render them using a detailed styling descriptor aimed at geographic information.

It dosn't hook to GPS yet, though the ChaeronGPS library mentioned in other posts may merge well with what we have alrady.

I'm not a mobile map expert, though I would be happy to combine the map rendering expertese I have with someone who is activly developing GPS solutions.

GeoTools2 is available under the LGPL (www.geotools.org), the OGC can be found at www.opengis.org

--
Spell checker (c) Creative Spelling inc. (aka my dyslexic brain)

Re:My onboard navigation solution...

[FreeLinux]

Sure!

I'm at a customer site. I get a call that I am needed, immediately, at another site in the next city. I jump into the trusty Batmobile and type in the address on the touch sensitive, in dash screen. As I back out of the parking space, a progress bar is displayed for about fifteen seconds, "Calculating route".

As I start out of the parking lot, a map of the best route to this new location is displayed on the screen and the route is drawn on the map. In a side bar, information such as trip time and distance is clearly displayed as well as an indicator of the distance to the next turn, its street name and which direction I need to turn.

Just then the stereo system's volume drops to a whisper and a soothing lady's voice announces, "Proceed straight for two miles. Then turn left on Oak Street.". And the music volume is returned to normal.

Two minutes later, the stereo volume drops again. There is a gentle "bong" and the now familiar voice says, "Left turn ahead, half mile."

This is repeated continuously throughout the trip. The whole time the map is being updated, showing my present position in the middle of the screen. The map rotates as I change directions and I can, at the touch of a single button zoom the map in or out to get my preferred view.

Finally, the lady's voice comes on again, "Destination just ahead on left.". I swing left into the parking lot and go to work.

After completing my work, it's time for lunch. I'm not familiar with this particular city and I have no idea where the restaurants are. I slide into the Batmobile again and start navigating the menu on the touch sensitive screen. I select Destination -> Places -> Restaurants and I am given a menu listing 10 or more types of restaurants. I select Chinese -> Sort by Distance and I am presented with a list of Chinese restaurants and their distance from my position. I don't like the sound of the first two in the list and I press the third selection for the Golden Dragon @ 1.2 miles. The lady's voice returns and guides me directly to to Golden Dragon.

After lunch, I want to get my oil changed. A friend told me to try a new repair shop not far from my home. I don't have an address, just the phone number that my friend gave me. Once again, the Batmobile is there. I select from my destination menu, "By Phone Number" and punch in the phone number. The screen changes and lists, "Speedy's Honest Lube Parlor 1653 Blue St". I hit enter and I'm again presented with a guide map to the destination. As I start to drive the familiar voice returns, "Left turn one mile ahead on 22nd Ave".

Sweet!!!!

Re:No they aren't...

[Lumpy]

Actually I did not know your project existed! Thanks and I will be checking it out soon.. One problem though you also base your system on bitmaps and not vector data. Which is great and very useful but has the inherent problem of not allowing the use of datasets or having multiple levels of zoom without manually creating each zoom level bitmap.

using vector data and then making the program DRAW the map with just simple lines and fills and then just attach text labels to points of interest or line drawing the street names. it eliminates edge of map error, map calibration error and gives you the ability to ask the program "I am here, I want to go there... tell me how." as the vector data will allow the program to follow roads and give turn directions, road names, and distances to the next turn. This is a VERY important feature of a GPS navigation program... and unfortunatley there is absolutely nothing that has this ability in linux.Part of it is a lack of datasets... I have 2 that I am willing to offer for use to whoever waht to try and use them.. one that is 100% free to give away to anyone and the other that is horribly overpriced, low quality, and overall nasty (NavTech) but is fully documented with C code examples in the documentation book. The one I will freely give away a copy of... the other I can only loan it to someone but illegally as the EULA states that i am not to let any other person use the data.. (Funny Eula.. I basically have to remove the dataset CD from the car if I loan the car to someone.)