Tag: NAVIGATION

Despite stern warnings from flight attendants and pilots, we've always wondered if our iPods or cell phones could really cause an airplane's electronics to go haywire. According to a recent article in The New York Times, personal electronic devices don't always interfere with a plane's electronics -- but sometimes they do, or can, cause problems. Clear as mud, right? Bill Strauss, an engineer ...

Yesterday, Google unveiled the latest edition of its Google Earth digital atlas, which the company heralds as "the next generation of realism." The new Google Earth 6 sports a more highly integrated Street View feature, which allows users to zoom in from outer space directly to specific street corners or addresses. Taking a virtual stroll around a particular location is also substantially ...

When using a GPS, you generally have two choices for getting your directions: looking at the screen, and listening to audio cues. The problem is that taking your eyes off the road, even momentarily, can be dangerous, and the polite British woman (or Darth Vader, depending on your level of geekiness) is not always audible over your blaring stereo and the din of traffic. A new system being ...

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never move from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over their creations, nevertheless. This ...

Share How far will travelers blindly follow a GPS device? According to The Sydney Morning Herald, an Australian family of four (and their poor pup) followed directions given by their GPS onto a road closed by heavy rainfall and became stranded for three nights in a pickup truck. The family, believe it or not, ignored posted warning signs and turned onto the Darling River Road while traveling ...

GPS sheeple have blindly followed their navigation gadgets 400 miles away from their intended destination, to impassible avenues, and even through closed gates and stacks of rocks. But could the devices actually kill their owners? Well, maybe if that owner attempts to listen to 25 of them at once. To investigate the "influence of others onto one's own path of life in an abstract way," artist ...

At first glance this seems like a terrible idea: putting an iPad front and center in an airplane cockpit. You wouldn't put one at the fingertips of a driver, so it would make sense to keep the app-running, Web-browsing device out of view when careening several thousand feet above ground. But, surprise, that's one of the key features of the Zlin iCub, a new recreational aircraft being shown off at ...

Online maps are a lifesaver when you're navigating an unfamiliar city, an absolute lifeline to the lost or touristy. That's why Microsoft wants to simplify Bing Destination Maps and bring a little aesthetic flair to the service, too. According to Information Aesthetics, Bing Destination Maps sketches a driver's route and removes any streets, avenues or roads that aren't necessary to get where he ...

An ongoing, multi-billion dollar satellite upgrade will vastly improve the accuracy of the 38-year-old Global Positioning System (GPS), according to the Los Angeles Times. Scientists and engineers from Boeing Lockheed Martin are currently working on an $8 billion project that would make GPS accurate to within an arm's length, constituting a significant improvement over its current 20-foot margin ...

Share As navigation technology has become more sophisticated, and more easily accessible, people have become increasingly dependent upon GPS and online maps in finding their ways around town. But according to some, your GPS may be doing a lot more long-term harm than short-term good. As former American Demographics editor Brad Edmonson tells NPR, "Getting directions from a computer is like ...

When we finally do put humans on Mars, they'll face a major challenge: navigation. When we first poke around on the Moon, the astronauts never let the lander leave their sight. Considering the time and cost of a manned mission to Mars, however, our explorers will be expected to push further out from the landing zone. But, due to the Red Planet's lack of a strong magnetosphere, a compass would be ...

Share You might not realize it, but satellite navigation has become widely used in everyday life. Not only do drivers use it to get from point A to point B, but large ships use it to safely dock, the military employs it for a variety of purposes, and emergency vehicles depend on it to save lives. That makes a recent report from BBC News troublesome. A number of U.K. researchers say that solar ...

If you have the cash to drop on a brand-new Audi, you're probably not going to choose one with baseline features. Leather seats, a first-class sound system, a navigation system -- all luxury must-haves. But if you purchase the 2011 Audi A8, according to Engadget, you'll be one of the first drivers on the streets with a built-in navigation system that's equipped with Google Earth. So while you're ...

Ever wish your GPS system could be something more than just a bodiless voice? Ever wished you had a pretty face to associate with that mellifluous, alluring car voice? Thanks to scientists at MIT, you might soon be able to entertain all your wildest robot fantasies. AIDA, short for Affective Intelligent Driving Agent, is like a GPS-fueled Wall-E-meets-personal-assistant, a nifty little robot ...

If Bigfoot walks in the forest, but there's no GPS device around to track him, does he make a sound? Dissatisfied with grainy, exigent evidence of his existence, a team of "Sasquatch enthusiasts" have set out to find Bigfoot once and for all. And this time, they're armed with GPS. Members of the lovably titled Sasquatch Watch of Virginia recently camped out in West Virginia's Allegheny ...