CarNavi - Car Navigation by Sattelite
Japanese companies have combined the Global Positioning Satellite System with incredibly detailed maps, to produce "CarNavi," a system to plan your route and display live updated maps. Now you can never get lost. Here's a typical car navi setup in use. The man obviously knows where he is going, but the woman still insists on getting directions. Hey, she's hogging the remote control!
The small color LCD display is connected to the main computer, which uses the cellular telephone to connect to the Internet, or a CarNavi service provider. Some systems allow you to read e-mail and surf the web while driving, or locate restaurants, convenience stores, etc.
This is a 3D map showing my route, marked in green. My location and heading is the red arrow, and there's a little checkered flag at my destination (in the upper left). Road directions are in the right hand window. Looks like a right turn coming up in 210 meters!
The "Monet" system has a network of web-cams. Your live map may show the availablility of webcams in the route ahead, marked with little icons. Select the icon, and live pictures are transmitted to the car through the cellular phone.
Looks like clear sailing in my lane ahead. Put the pedal to the metal!
Some people go crazy for portable stuff in their car. This real estate agent uses his CarNavi to scout for locations, videotapes them, and sends images to his office from his portable computer. I wonder how many devices he has in his car?
Going from left to right, he has a CarNavi, a cassette recorder for taking dictation, a portable video player, dashboard cassette player (what, no CD player?) laptop computer, and a handheld videocamera. I especially love the retro touch of an analog clock above his steering wheel. This guy only needs one more accessory: a chauffeur.