Navigation and Mapping Tool

[julievojo]

Not sure if this is really a tweak or mod to the RV since we can move this unit to any vehicle. However, if anyone is interested in a short demonstration of Chino's work, here is your chance.

It's now 10:50 on Wednesday. We'll be leaving in about 1/2 hour for a quick trip up to Minneapolis to do some errands and check on our other house. We use these short trips sometimes to test upgrades to some navigation and tracking software that Chino wrote. You can follow along with us if you wish, by going to http://nav.chino.com

You can see where we are on a map, and see live video shots from our webcam mounted on the dashboard. THis is kind of a boring trip, but it can be lots of fun when we're driving over a mountain pass, or through a nice National Park - anywhere that we can get a broadband connection through Verizon. Chino and Nick (our son) just made a few little changes to the program, so we're going to test them out on this run to the city.

Please tune in soon after 11:00 AM , and feel free to post a message on the Nav message board. Normally one of us drives (probably me) while Chino mans the computer and keyboard.

[julievojo]

Thanks to all who followed along this afternoon, and who offered their comments. Unfortunately, our laptop suffered a meltdown on the way home. We really need to purchase a laptop with more memory. We've put as much memory as possible in our current unit but we're still running more data through it than it can really handle.

Once we get the hardware issues under control, we'll be adding more features to the NAV site. We want to be able to store archives so people can look at past trip routes, then click on some type of marker on the map and see photos from that location. However, that may be a while because it involves some significant updates to our laptop and cameras and of course, that cost money!

Thanks for checking in with us, and have a great evening!

[markopolo]

That was fun Julie. We had a 'window in your world'.

I can see commercial applications for it as well. Fleet management etc.

[Jardinier]

This modification is really something. It would be interesting if Chino's technique could be shared among members of the forum.

[markopolo]

From his website, Chino is a freelance new media developer. I don't know if he's doing this for a customer or as a project.

Pizza delivery, taxi companies etc. could all use this.

[julievojo]

Chino is a programmer and media developer. (chino.com) He did this project for us and our families. My mom always freaks out when we're on the road (since we normally travel without any plans or destination) This way everyone can tell where we are.

It does, however, backfire with Mom. She'll call at 6 AM and ask, "what happened, are you stranded?, it looks like you're right next to I40 and you haven't moved in almost an hour" . We try to explain that sometimes we pull over at at rest stop and sleep!

We hope that someday there will be a commercial application for this and it'll make us some money. There are still kinks to be worked out of it. The next phase will be to add an archives link so you can see where we have been on past trips. There will be little "markers" on the road so you can click on the marker and see photos taken at that location. We already have that partially working.

Most of our issues have been with hardware. This program pretty much maxes out the capabilities of our tablet PC . We need to invest a bunch of money to buy one with enough memory to handle this application. We're also having issues with our webcam and will probably try to run this with our digital video recorder as soon as we find a decent way to mount it on the dash. Our final issue - and the hardest to solve - will be the our broadband connection. While the broadband connection that we get from Verizon is pretty good and getting better every time we make a road trip - there are still plenty of areas where there is no connection or areas where the connection is too thin to run this program.

Still, we're having fun with it. When we're on the road we have folks all over the world watching. We did hit the limit on this last trip and maxed out our server at home when about 30 people tried to look in at once.
We'll let you know next time we head out so you can follow along. Hopefully it'll be somewhere more fun than errands in Minnetonka!

[markopolo]

Originally Posted by julievojo

We did hit the limit on this last trip and maxed out our server at home when about 30 people tried to look in at once.......................

Oops! My fault I posted the link on two other forums - one sends out email notifications of new posts to a lot of members.

In major urban centers in Canada we can get 400-700 kilobits per second mobile internet connections now. In outer lying areas and when roaming (in the US for instance) the connection speed will be 40-60 kilobits per second for us.

[julievojo]

Oops! My fault I posted the link on two other forums - one sends out email notifications of new posts to a lot of members.

No big deal! We knew it would happen sooner or later - we just were not sure where the threshold was. Now we do. When we add the archive capability we'll have to upgrade to a bigger server anyway.

The Verizon connections are getting better all the time. Ideally we would love to have in-motion satellite internet but that requires a lot more money than we have to spend on toys!

I know that some folks have asked if Chino would share his technique. I'm not sure that's possible however. He does want to keep working on this for it's commercial value.

I should also give some credit here to our son, Nick. He's been helping alot with this and did alot of the database work. He hangs out and tweaks the program from home while we're on the road testing. Nick is going to school to be a software developer and network engineer, he'll be graduating next spring. This has been good practice for him. His website - in case anyone is interested in giving him a job , is oshkoshgeek.com