route and map comparisons
Hi
I need your suggestions regarding my project "Intelligent route navigation system using gps".
Basically its a pocket pc pda application .
1)When user enters a destination address ,the application should display a map with the current route the user is travelling ,estimated time and distance[from his current location] to reach his destination, turn by turn routes,points of interest and so on.
2) Also most importantly the application should guide and warn the user intelligently the route to take if the user is not travelling right directions to reach his destination.
I am planning to develop this application using visual studio.net compact framework [pocket pc environment] 2003. and also gps.net sdk. ,map point webservice 3.5
I am not getting how to do map and route comparisons to guide the user intelligently...
Any ideas/suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
While you can use the Mappoint Web Service to retrieve a route map between a known start and end point, it's not designed to provide dynamic updating instructions as you progress (you'll also need network coverage). You might find that using an existing navigation application such as TomTom Navigator and their SDK would give you a lot more functionality and allow you to control the application as required.
Peter
Keep in mind that companies spend years of man-hours to develop a mapping GPS aware software with optimal routing, so Peter's suggestion to use a 3rd party products is the most feasable in your situation.
--
Alex Yakhnin, .NET CF MVP
www.intelliprog.com
My CF Blog: http://blog.opennetcf.org/ayakhnin
Hi,
we do a lot of navigation with PPCs (and for a short time smartphones).
We built our own wrapper http://ttncf.pp-p.com to interact with an existing product.
Of course you can use MapPoint WS for your challenge - but this means a lot of work for you to only come close to one of the existing products.
First challenge (to competit) is "navigation instructions" - since the user is driving you have to implement something like "voice instructions".
So this means you have to track the current position to the instructions got from MapPoint WS.
Next is "recalculation" - you must decide when the user is "far enogh away" from the route so that you have to recalc it.
"A little away" is quite normal due GPS "errors". If you could find a significant "route leaving" you have to call MapPoint WS to get a new route from the current point.
Be aware that at that very moment it could be impossible to get a connection. So you have to await the next point of good GSM/GPRS to obtain a new route.
Of course there are such "route on demand" systems out in the field - but there is not much interrest on it since actual systems with maps on the device are not so expensive and they provide much more flexibility and power.
By the way - I think GPS.NET is a good toolset and we would have bought it if we wouldn't have made the things ourselfs years ago (not that rich - but enough for us).
But only to ensure that you are on the right road needs much more than just GPS things. MapPoint does not offer you a "route object with elements" as a result.
It gives you pictures - so you have to calibrate them and track (in some graphical way) the route made.
So maybe it is better to instrument (expand) an existing app.
Or if you want to do something yourself it seems easyer to get "map data" from some provider and work with this.
Years ago we were at this point - but due to the price of maps and the affort to implement such a system we decided to use an existing product.
Regards
Manfred
