A Car Navigation System That Takes Pictures

Brandon Miniman writes "Navman has brought to market the first in-car navigation system with a built in camera, the iCN 750. The camera lets you take pictures of places you've been. Geographical coordinates are then assigned to each picture, so that you can bring up a gallery, and choose your destination by clicking on a picture." Add to this an always-on, all-sides video camera to document that it was the minivan that strayed into your lane, and it'll be even better.

Comments

Just what I need...

[wesley96]

...except that the camera itself isn't impressive.
Somehow, I feel I need a 'real' digital camera that has the GPS and the map built-in instead.

Re:Just what I need...

[O.W.M]

Not built in, but the Nikon D200 can be hooked up to a GPS reciever and let the images be tagged with GPS data.

snaps!

[MrSquirrel]

We could use this to take pictures of women and associate the women with their locations - a kind of new-age black book! ...now, if only us /.ers could get women.

Re:snaps!

[bitt3n]

We could use this to take pictures of women and associate the women with their locations - a kind of new-age black book!

I've tried that.. the problem is that their location keeps changing, and the faster you take the pictures, the faster their location changes in some random new direction.

I'd explain why this happens, but it involves a lot of math.

finally, more than a gimmick

[yagu]

Why haven't more vendors of mapping technology done this sooner? This has long been a feature I've wanted... I don't know how long I've waited, from the first Microsoft and DeLorme mapping software and mapping software -- and having been fooled a couple of times into thinking one could associate pictures with map locations.

Until now, the closest I've found to doing something like this was Google maps -- and even that felt a little clunky in the interface (talking about Google Earth, the Windows application). And of course, with Google Map API many things are possible.

Congratulations to Navman for integrating in a clever and useful way pictures. (It'd be nice to be able to take your own pictures, and associate via some menu -- I'm wondering if they've provided that capability.) I'm in the market to replace a car GPS -- Navman has placed themselves high on the short list.

Any readers have feedback on the navigational ergonomics of Navman? (Very important, as I've become quite fond of TomTom's excellent ergonomics.)

Re:finally, more than a gimmick

[winnabago]

Do you know about Amazon's city imaging project? I use this all the time to find businesses on major streets. It's a work in progress, but seems to be easily scalable.

And for cool factor, I can find my house.

Re:finally, more than a gimmick

[jamoser]

Check out this cool site (Panorama Explorer) which is based on Google Map API. It's a photo sharing site which allows you to tag your photos on a Google Map. It also can place photos on the correct location if GPS track data (GPX format) is provided. At the moment there are few digital cameras w. built in GPS receivers that offer the ability to store GPS data in the EXIF header. But there is a workaround - just synchronize the GPS receiver time w. your digital camera clock. Or you can calculate the time offset and get the appropriate track record to retrieve the coordinates (long/lat). Exactly that does Panorama Explorer !

a topic also for YRO?

[sTeF]

what about my rights to privacy? where i live we still have at least the illusion of privacy >:)
what about restricted areas (numbers sadly increasing again nowadays), where photos are not allowed?
what about my medication battling my paranoia?

Re:a topic also for YRO?

[john82]

What about your insurance company?

I would think the major insurers would love to have an "always on" camera to monitor outside activity and inside activity. It would make such a nice complement to the acceleration, speed, distance and braking data they can get from your car's on-board computer.

Customer: This other car came out of nowhere and ran me off the road!
Insurer: Well we don't find any evidence of another vehicle, Sir, but according to the on-board video surveill... er, protection system, you were drinking a beer and having an animated conversation on your cell phone when you went off the road.

Re:a topic also for YRO?

[Skidge]

I'm no fan of insurance companies, but couldn't something like this be a good thing? They could penalize the bad drivers more to the benefit of the good drivers, saving those of us who don't drink a beer and have animated conversations on our cell phones.

Re:a topic also for YRO?

[Gulthek]

Sounds good to me. Just tie that into the car's black box so that only the last five (or whatever) minutes of video are stored and only accessible by non-trivial means.

Hmm, if this could somehow track good driving (stopping fully at every stop sign, before a right turn on red, properly signaling, etc) and reduce your insurance rates for a significant good driving track record (and vice versa) that would be pretty awesome.

Other Uses

[SomeoneGotMyNick]

Does it have a "Non Perspective" or classic GPS view?

It would be great for Geocaching to have a pic of your destination.

Scenic views.

[tygerstripes]

So, you get some great shots of the view as you plummet off the top of a cliff or into a river. Fab.
(May not make sense to non-UK residents)

Next step

[www.sorehands.com]

The next step is to have a built in system. You have the GPS data fed into the 4 images (from each side of the car), that is stored in ram for about 10 minutes while the car is moving. Then when the other car runs the red light, claims the light was green, then claims that you were speeding, you can then save that set of images to prove them wrong. Or, when you get pulled over when the cop says that you were speeding, but you have a record that says you were follong the speed limit.

Insurance discount

[ewg]

Seriously, could you imagine the insurance discount you'd get if they knew every incidient would be photographed?

Re:Insurance discount

[mabu]

Seriously.

Could you imagine an insurance company giving you a discount?

Rental cars

[bano]

This would be really handy for rental cars, no need for them to give a map of hotels/sights/restraunts any longer.
Just scroll thru the pics and select the hotel, restraunt, tourist trap, etc... of your liking, then follow the arrows/automated voice.

Minivan

[KlomDark]

Yah, but if it was YOU who swerved over in front of the minivan, you're going to want a way to destroy that evidence, quick!

First it was cell phones. . .

[smooth wombat]

now it's cars and minivans. What next, cameras in refrigerators? Never mind.

What is this constant desire to add more fluff, more crap, more ways for things to go wrong, onto items? If I want a picture of something, I'll use a camera. That's what it's designed for. If I want to get back to a place, I'll use a map. That's what it's designed for.

Every new gadget that gets added to something is one more point of failure. You know why slr cameras of 20 and 30 years ago are still around and working? Because they were designed with one function: to take pictures. They didn't tell you the time, remind you of your appointment or give you directions.

If you can't find your way around using a map, having a GPS system in your car, now with new and flashy pictures!, isn't going to help.

Re:First it was cell phones. . .

[FatAlb3rt]

Let's be glad you weren't the one making the decisions when the gasoline engine was invented. Unless, of course you prefer to walk or ride a horse everywhere you go.

Re:First it was cell phones. . .

[maggard]

I call BS.

"If I want to get back to a place, I'll use scratchings in dirt. That's what it's designed for.

I use a GPS all of the time. I don't know about "smooth wombat" but I find myself in places I don't know well all of the time, trying to get to other places I don't know well. Plugging the address into my GPS and getting turn-by-turn directions gets me where I need to be quickly, effortlessly, and safely.

Furthermore I often find I'm not sure where I am at all, and in Massachusetts it's customary to label only side-streets, not the big street you're driving down for miles trying to figure out what it's name is. Oh, and lets not forget after dark, when finding much less reading a street name signs is almost impossible. Maps are great if you know where you are on them, not if you don't.

Then lets consider what what my GPS also offers. Nearby services, want a restaurant, there's a list a sorted by distance. Need a gas-station? Last evening when I was running late I could see on my GPS display the gas station 'so helpfully' listed on the highway sign was in truth several miles off the exit, while at the exit after that one there were two much closer. Later I needed a book to bring a friend suddenly in the ER - Look, there's a Barnes & Nobles a half mile away, never had any idea it was there. Need directions to Beth Israel Hospital? 49.5 miles, and even though I used to contract there I was well away from any route I would have thought to use.

Sneer and say how in the old days you'd pull out maps & flashlights & ask strangers by the roadside who don't even know what road they're _on_ much less how to get to Main Street for directions, I'll be buzzing by listening to "Next Left in 600 yards" and changing lanes well in advance.

TomTom's "Jane" voice is my muse, and call her the "bitch in a box" if you will she gets me where I'm going with no huhu. Sure she often prefers the direct route over the better route, insists that I can use the emergency-vehicles-exit off of the Mass. Turnpike, and that Weybosset St. in Providence RI is 2-way, but with a bit of common sense she's a great companion. Oh, and the conference last year with the highway accident in front? Everyone else was in traffic for up to 4 hours, I sat for 5 minutes in it, tapped out a request for an alternate route, and after going through the back of an industrial park, through a very nice neighborhood, and over (what appeared in the dark to be) a mountain, I pulled up to the back door of my hotel 20 minutes later. Way to go Jane TomTom!

Oh, and cellphone? How do you think I found out my best friend was in the ER, and what he needed?

Re:First it was cell phones. . .

[drinkypoo]

If you can't find your way around using a map, having a GPS system in your car, now with new and flashy pictures!, isn't going to help.

Maps are large, unwieldy pieces of paper. GPS systems can tell you "turn left here". The map won't do that. You don't have to refold the GPS if you drive off the page.

Re:First it was cell phones. . .

[boingo82]

If you can't find your way around using a map, having a GPS system in your car, now with new and flashy pictures!, isn't going to help.

Um, no. You can program the GPS, and have it actually talk you through directions while you're driving. If you're a single person on a trip by yourself, you have to stop the car everytime you need to reference the map.

Also, a GPS unit will tell you when you've gotten off course. Last time my husband and I went map-traveling, we ended up over 80 miles in the opposite direction of our destination because we missed a turn. A GPS would have informed us of the missed turn less than 10 seconds later.

1 more camera needed

[dbc001]

Add to this an always-on, all-sides video camera to document that it was the minivan that strayed into your lane, and it'll be even better.

I want a camera pointing out the driver side window so I can record all the inapproproate behavior that cops exhibit. Like the Picture of Eyes from yesterday, a little red light on a camera would probably go a long way towards making cops do the right thing (and say the right thing too!).

If you're wondering how I can be so anti-police, I recently got assaulted because some nutcase thought that I cut in line in front of him (I didn't - in fact I offered to let him go ahead of me). When the cops arrived, I explained what happened and the cop's reply was "Well, if you fuck somebody, you're gonna get fucked". American police are incredibly unprofessional, rude, racist, sexist, and of course there's the occasional beating too - the more cameras we have pointing at them (not us!) the better off we'll be.

At least it doesn't have Onstar.

[dreethal]

In Soviet Russia, CAR watches you. In America... car watches you too. :-/

Perfect for TripTracker.net

[zigam]

These guys could definitely use such a navigation system: http://triptracker.net/trip/727/map/ They're traveling all across America in an old Volvo, using the TripTracker.net web service for geo-locating their photos. TripTracker can read GPS EXIF headers in JPEG photos so it would work perfectly with Navman.

Let me line my car up to get a better photo....

[King_TJ]

I can see it already.... Idiots are going to be seen with one of these things backing up and turning their car a little bit, moving forward a few feet again, etc. etc. - trying to make sure they've got exactly what they want in the camera's view to snap a "perfect" photo for the location they're at.

I agree with the other person who posted a complaint that too many devices are adding useless "fluff", trying too hard to be "unique" instead of incorporating truly useful featurea in their products. Sure, it may not be as "sexy" to sell durability or reliability, but frankly, I'd much rather pay for an appliance that'll last 5-10 more years, or a laptop computer that won't die the first time I accidently drop it on a concrete floor than for some gee-whiz, unneeded gadget merged into it.

With all the cameras being put in cellphones, you'd think practically everyone would be able to capture a photo of anyplace they happen to go already. Does a GPS system need to do it too??

Could it Be?

[drooling-dog]

Could this finally be the gadget through which I find True Happiness?

All of the others have been disappointments in that regard...

You'll be amazed how useless the pictures are...

[dpbsmith]

...It's not that the camera won't have enough pixels. It's not that you need an Ansel Adams-quality photograph.

It's that to get a nice, clear, useful, _recognizable_ thumbnail-sized picture of your destination requires a lot of intelligent thought, good framing of the picture, thirty seconds to walk around and pick a good angle, and a time of day when the light is reasonable.

Three-quarters of the pictures people take with this thing will be

a) unrecognizable due to reflections on the car window they're trying to shoot through, or

b) unrecognizable because of lighting issues (dark, muddy, illegible storefront against a nice bright sky), or

c) unrecognizable because the camera was pointed at the wrong thing, or

d) unrecognizable because a lot of buildings look pretty much like each other, or

e) unrecognizable because the store name is too small to read in the finished picture when displayed thumbnail size on the navigation screen, or

f) unrecognizable because important recognition features were hidden behind a parked car, or

g) unrecognizable because you don't have a view of the front of the building from the only place where you could stop the car, which happens to be the parking lot in back of the building, or

h) unrecognizable because it's night-time and the camera isn't sensitive enough to make a good picture by streetlight (and the streetlighting isn't even enough even if it were, and the flash isn't bright enough to light up a building thirty feet away, and even if it were all you'd get are the flash reflections off the windows...

Re:Insurance discount.. until

[BytePusher]

Until everyone got it.. then imagine the penalties for not having it.

Re:You'll be amazed how useless the pictures are..

[Control Group]

Yes, yes, and again, yes.

It turns out that taking quality pictures - and I don't even mean "hang them in an art gallery" quality, just "easily recognizable and/or pleasant to look at" - is a non-trivial task. Trying to do it with an inferior device (mostly due to crappy lenses) only makes the job harder. Trying to do it quickly or, worse, while moving is yet another difficulty.

Add to all the technical difficulties you've already covered the fact that most people only have the vaguest notion how to effectively frame a shot, and this gadget only gets more useless.

(Note that when I say "useless," I don't mean "incapable of being used," I mean "making it easy for the user to perform uselessly")

Coming soon to FOX network.

[Stavr0]

America's Funniest Fender Benders.

Re:Insurance discount.. until

[ewg]

Good point. I'm going to buy insurance company stock immediately in order to benefit no matter who realizes the savings from this.

Why a camera?

[GroeFaZ]

A blackbox like those in planes would be a lot better, cheaper, more accurate, reliable, standardizable, and would raise less privacy concerns than installing a bunch of cameras for visually recording all driver's actions and the surrounding traffic. A blackbox would just have to record the last, say, 10 minutes before an accident, parameters like the value of the speed indicator, actual speed of the individual tires, motor RPM, G-forces, steering angle, state of the electric system (blinkers, headlights, fog light,...) etc. pp.. Modern cars have so much electronics in them already: your basic Antilock Braking System, Electronic Stability Program, and whatnot.

There are so many data already available, but they're just discarded (after being processed by the various systems) or can be easily wiped by an accident. Instead they should be written on some cheap and durable storage medium. Even at 100 recorded parameters, 1 MB (times three drives for redundancy) should be more than sufficient for 10 minutes worth of recording at 2 or 3 data points per second. The drives themselves can be encased in a light, small, near-indestructible box (carbon fibers, special plastics, or just plain steel) which would then provide objective, highly valuable evidence (for a technical expert) in case of an accident.

Sounds like something my brother could use...

[ChePibe]

Add to this an always-on, all-sides video camera to document that it was the minivan that strayed into your lane, and it'll be even better.

My brother wanted something like that after getting hit 4 times in a one month period, though he was luckily not to blame for any of the accidents and neither he nor his car sustained serious damage and everyone who hit him could walk away as well. His implementation, however, was a bit different.

Figuring his huge mid-90's reflective gold-colored Lincoln (like I said, 4 hits in one month, little damage) was somehow difficult for motorists to see (we always figured it had lawyer-installed magnets in it), he planned to replace it with a safety vest-orange Hummer with a boat horn, construction truck/tow truck flashing lights, a rifle rack in the back with an old drill rifle (just for fun), and a video system similar to this one.

As we had this conversation, we drove past a wrecker - possibly the closest vehicle in appearance to the one we had devised - that had been rear-ended by some idiot who was likely on his cell phone and didn't appear to have moved it from his ear since the accident.

No vehicle is safe these days from those with a room temperature IQ and a cell phone... at least with a Lincoln, you can be sure that whoever hits you will be off the road for quite a while while their car sits in the shop... ;-)

more links + article from March 2006...

[Lord Satri]

Anyone intereted in the geomatics of car navigation will probably find (shameless plug) slashgeo.org very useful. There's a Transportation topic. Using this story (slashdot's dupe ;-), will get more links regarding geocoding photos. And you can read this interesting story about Navigating using photos.

But I know /. readers are sometimes lazy.. (I am! ;-) here's a part of the article (from last March! slashdot's late ;-): "Navman's latest wheeze is this GPS in-car Sat Nav device that will take you to your destination using only the power of photos. Snap a photo of - say - your mum's house on your next visit using the in-built camera, and the unit will record the co-ordinates."

Check out Fugawi

[Mister Transistor]

There's a PC/Win prog called "Fugawi Global Navigator" that can associate images and/or sounds with waypoints or GPS fixes. I know it interfaces with PDA/Smartphones too, so it may use them as a camera for input instead of just using a regular pre-existing image or sound file.

Some cool features; it can use nearly any map source, standard USGS maps, NOAA marine charts, GeoTIFF's and aerial/satellite imagery. It has 3-D elevation views and GPS driving assist.

No, I don't work for them :)

I'm not as sure, but I think the latest offerings from DeLorme may finally have the photo association feature too.