Automotive navigation system
An automotive avigation system is a satellite navigation system designed for use in automobiles. It typically uses a GPS navigation device to acquire position data to locate the user on a road in the unit's map database. Using the road database, the unit can give directions to other locations along roads also in its database. Dead reckoning using distance data from sensors attached to the drivetrain, a gyroscope and an accelerometer can be used for greater reliability, as GPS signal loss and/or multipath can occur due to urban canyons or tunnels.
Some sorts can be taken out of the car and used hand-held while walking. History
Automotive navigation systems were the subject of extensive experimentation, including some efforts to reach mass markets, prior to the availability of commercialGPS.
Most major technologies required for modern automobile navigation were already established when the microprocessor emerged in the 1970s to support their integration and enhancement by computer software. These technologies subsequently underwent extensive refinement, and a variety of system architectures had been explored by the time practical systems reached the market in the late 1980s. Among the other enhancements of the 1980s was the development of color displays for digital maps and of CD-ROMs for digital map storage.
However, there is some question about who made the first commercially available automotive navigation system. There seems to be little room for doubt that Etak was first to make available a digital system that used
map-matching to improve on dead reckoning instrumentation. Etak's systems, which accessed digital map information stored on standard cassette tapes, arguably made car navigation systems practical for the first time.[2] However, Japanese efforts on both digital and analog systems predate Etak's founding.
Steven Lobbezoo developed the first commercially available satellite navigation system for cars. It was produced in Berlin from start 1984 to January 1986. Publicly presented first at the Hannover fair in 1985 in Germany, the system was shown in operation on the evening news from the first German television channel in that year. It used a modified IBM PC, a large disc for map data and a flat screen, built into the glove compartment. It was called Homer Alpine claims to have created the first automotive navigation system in 1981.
However, according to the company's own historical timeline,[3] the company claims to have co-developed an analog automotive navigation product called the Electro Gyrocator, working with Honda. This engineering effort was abandoned in 1985. Although there are reports of the Electro Gyrocator being offered as a dealer option on the Honda Accord in 1981, it's not clear whether an actual product was released, whether any customers took delivery of an Electro Gyrocator-equipped Accord, or even whether the unit appeared in any dealer showrooms; Honda's own official history appears to pronounce the Electro Gyrocator as not practical.
Honda claims[4] to have created the first navigation system starting in 1983, and culminating with general availability in the 1990 Acura Legend. The original analogElectro Gyrocator system used an accelerometer to navigate using inertial navigation, as the GPS system was not yet generally available. However, it appears from Honda's concessions in their own account of the Electro Gyrocator project that Etak actually trumped Honda's analog effort with a truly practical digital system, albeit one whose effective range of operation was limited by the availability of appropriately digitized street map data.
Technology
Visualization
Navigation systems may (or may not) use a combination of any of the following:
▪top view for the map
▪top view for the map with the map rotating with the automobile (so that "up" on the map always corresponds to "forward" in the vehicle)
▪bird's-eye view for the map or the next curve
▪linear gauge for distance, which is redundant if a rotating map is used ▪numbers for distance
▪schematic pictograms
▪voice prompts
