Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/99375
Anup Jindal: GPS-enabled devices will invoke more spatial intelligence in the decisions we make in our daily lives. The onset of consumer-centric devices in the GIS industry as well as the availability of mapping and Web applications Anup Jindal, chief operating on TVs, mobiles, smartphones and officer, RMSI iPads have dramatically changed our relationship with geography. These devices are stimulating a greater interest and use of geography in society. In comparison to earlier days, we are much more location-aware and dependent on these devices to plan trips, meet friends, find good local restaurants and so on. Navigation devices serve maps in an easy-to-consume format. This has made maps more convenient to a larger section of society, including those who earlier weren���t comfortable with using maps at all. It can be argued that, in a way, these devices are leading to an overall increase in spatial literacy and helping people relate more to geography by seeing it in action. To reinforce spatial literacy, we should focus on nurturing students at an early age by creating awareness about spatial logic and its use in everyday life. Ron Lake: Being in the middle of a large traffic circle in Shanghai or Cairo can be unnerving at the best of times, and being told to take the ���third street on your right��� may not always sound like useful information. It���s far better to have the feel Ron Lake, CEO, Galdos of the circle before entering and Systems Inc. be guided by suitable landmarks. Such problems are even more pronounced when using navigation devices on foot. The solution to these problems, however, isn���t to return to the age of paper maps. It���s rather to put more intelligence about the environment into the device and have it relate to users more in the way we think when navigating in the real world (the origin, after all, of maps and map reading). This means increased use of imagery, animation and 3-D models as well as explicit references to easily identified landmarks. If you���re lost in a big city and someone gives you directions, they don���t say ���go south for 400 meters and turn right onto Phillip Street.��� They will talk about landmarks and spatial relationships (���turn right just past the Shell Station on your left���). Navigation devices could do well to behave more like we think. David S. Linden: This question really hits home. I���m totally addicted to my navigation devices. I���ve had an in-dash nav system in my Chevy Suburban for seven years now, and I also have an in-dash (really an on-handlebar) David S. Linden, chief scientist, nav system for my bicycle as SAIC Inc. well. I race bicycles and ride more than 10,000 miles a year. Much of that riding is done while I���m on business travel, often in unfamiliar surroundings. I used to fumble around with paper maps on rides, but then I bought a Garmin Edge 705. This little beauty mounts on my handlebars and provides all the functionality of my in-dash system as well as allowing me to upload training routes that I create on my laptop. It also displays a plethora of bicycle-specific information such as speed and distance as well as monitoring a third-party power sensor in my rear wheel using the open ANT+ protocol. As a result, I���m reading maps for many hours every day, while driving my Suburban, while renting cars or even while riding my bicycle. This is actually a drastic increase in map usage on my part, not a decrease. If anything, I have become more adept at reading maps than I was before I started using nav devices. What has changed is that it���s now second nature to use an interactive digital map instead of using a preprinted paper map. I now instinctively zoom and pan using my mouse or my fingers, thereby customizing my map display to match whatever my immediate information needs are. It really doesn���t matter whether I���m driving a car, riding my bike, or sitting at a PC using Google Earth or ArcMap. The paradigm is all the same. Although my map-reading skills have improved, my ability to navigate without a nav system has eroded significantly. I can still look at a paper map, find my location and destination, and select an appropriate route. However, my ability to execute that route has been severely compromised, especially regarding my sense of direction. Xavier Lopez: Today���s electronic maps are much richer, more powerful and, in many cases, more useful than previous paper maps. Depending on which service is used, electronic maps contain more detail, currency and precision. They also can be fun to use. With the rapid adoption of tablet devices and their improved Xavier Lopez, director of product management, Oracle Spatial and Graph Technologies D E C E M B E R 2 O 1 2 / W W W . G E O P L A C E . C O M 17