Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Just got one of these. And for someone used to working with ocntext and location-aware systems, it is quite remarkable.
And why? The obvious reasons, but mainly it has very good intuitive usability, critical for in-car on the move systems. But it raises oske very interesting cognitive and social issues. For example, withi a few hours I was trusting its directions completely, so that I stopped thinking about where I was. I think it could ruin people's spatial awareness and their understandings about the interrelationships between locations. Also, the pointsof interest become critical - we navigated off the motorway to a local petrol station rather than wait for a service station, because it was easy to do - the POIs make off route stuff much closer. And it may be that if you're not in a POI, then you don't exist. So, for example, there are POI databases for Sainsbury's and Tesco's, so it's easy to find the nearest to wherever I happen to be. But there isn't one for Asda, or Waitrose. So guess which supermarkets I'll visit more often? It may be that POI inclusion becomes a key marketing tool for any new business - and then choosing POI databases becomes important, and so a whole new commerical area is born.....
It's also useful for overtaking. Road looks clear, no cars coming, but is there a hidden junction? A quick glance at the screen shows you that there is indeed on ahead, so you back off and do not go. Planning an overtake, but the road bends to the right - will it straighten out soon? A quick glance - yes it will, get ready.....
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(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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