Posts tagged as:

TomTom

TomTom and VodaFone Traffic Reports

by Matthew on July 12, 2007

Traffic_Congestion

Using TomTom along with Vodafone, you could avoid traffic congestion

TomTom has been in the sat nav business for a number of years, and Vodafone has been in the mobile phone market for even longer. Both have developed a unique service which enables a driver to estimate congestion on a certain road or route. It works by counting the number of mobile phones in a given area. If there are too many mobile phones on a particular stretch of motorway then this would indicate congestion. TomTom would then route around this. Also using triangulation, the system can detect how fast traffic is moving and also work on patterns to see what traffic builds up where and when. By using all this a more effective route can be planned.

Currently the information you can get on TomTom when planning a route is about road works and accidents I believe. Throwing this system in to the equation will allow for more accurate planning of routes which will get you to your destination quicker if it works as well as they say it will. The service is expected to start early next year in the UK and spread out across Europe also.

I look forwards to this as traveling these days gets boring when stuck in a jam somewhere.

Via: GPSWorld



TomTom the SatNav Gurus file Cool Patent

by Matthew on July 3, 2007

TomTom PatentTomTom Patent Drawing

SatNav with real time video of the street ahead

TomTom have been in the SatNav industry for a while now. I owned one of their first navigation pieces of software a few years back for my Cassiopeia EM500 Pocket PC. I was amazed at the 3D maps and how they could rotate as you changed direction. However, thats all old school now as TomTom have filed a cool new patent which allows for actual video footage to be displayed on the screen of the SatNav and then the line of the route you take is superimposed on top of the live video. This is an excellent way to go as you actually will see what you are supposed to rather then a guess at what exit you should be taking when the regular maps are not quite clear.

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