Brain Training for your Navigation System!

With its Future Mobile Navigation Toolkit, Fraunhofer FIRST shows from February 16th until 19th 2009 components for a new generation of navigation devices at GSMA Barcelona (booth G-49, hall 1).

In future, these will supply you with seamless, up-to-date information, provide reliable forecasts and feature a number of additional technologies such as improved search and compression algorithms.

Would your navigation device pass an IQ test? Is it familiar with every detail of the route? Can it tell the future? Can it come up with the correct route in a matter of seconds? Is it your constant reliable companion both indoors and out? Or is its memory rather patchy and are its reactions a bit on the slow side? Does it leave you in the lurch whenever you enter a building? Then you should prescribe it a dose of brain training!

With its Future Mobile Navigation Toolkit, Fraunhofer FIRST shows from February 16th until 19th 2009 components for a new generation of navigation devices at GSMA Barcelona (booth G-49, hall 1). In future, these will supply you with seamless, up-to-date information, provide reliable forecasts and feature a number of additional technologies such as improved search and compression algorithms.

· TPEG Service Centre
To transmit traffic information, FIRST uses the TPEG (Transport Protocol Expert Group) broadcasting standard. Existing navigation devices receive traffic information on congestion and roadworks via the Traffic Message Channel (TMC). But this system is patchy, being confined to 35,000 points across Germany. Another draw-back is the limited transmission capacity of the analogue radio signal. While TMC enabled some 10 to 20 messages per minute to be broadcast via analogue FM radio, TPEG allows the transmission of approx. 3,000 messages per minute. And there's another difference: when broadcasting via TMC, a maximum of 300 messages can be fed into the system at any one time, while with TPEG there are no limits. This makes it possible to provide comprehensive, up-to-date information on the traffic situation. Fraunhofer FIRST has its own TPEG Service Centre, where traffic data from various sources is received, decoded and checked for its traffic relevance. Relevant data is sampled to TPEG services and digitally broadcast via a transmitter. To implement the TPEG services, FIRST is developing Java-based components in accordance with CEN ISO/ TS 18234.
· Prognostic Routing
For prognostic routing, Fraunhofer FIRST uses external traffic simulations. The prognoses are taken into account in planning the route and ensure smooth navigation to the destination. The routing algorithms are based on a multilevel concept and are implemented in Java or C++ on different mobile clients. Main memory requirements for the routing data for the whole of Europe are between six and 20 MB.
· Map Compression
FIRST offers its own technologies for processing geodata (NAVTEQ, Tele Atlas), which allow a customized rendering of maps on the client, the data for both the routing and the visualization being optimized. Efficient compression algorithms reduce the data for the whole of Europe to two GB, at the same time ensuring high map quality. An inspection tool developed by FIRST checks that the data that is output on the client matches the original data.
· Search
The toolkit is complemented by efficient search algorithms, which make it possible to rapidly reduce the size of the search space and are thus able to output search results a great deal faster than conventional devices. A special feature here is the fact that the methods are not based on a hierarchical search using structured search paths (country, city, street or POIs). Instead, they can search simultaneously in a large number of possible datasets and even process incomplete queries.
· Seamless Navigation
In future, FIRST's navigation toolkit will be extended by components allowing seamless indoor/ outdoor navigation or seamless navigation between different means of transport. These include the use of Differential GPS (DGPS) and Galileo data as well as sensor fusion technologies. Fraunhofer FIRST has its own DGPS test bed, where server applications with a precision of less than a metre can be developed and the seamless integration of different receiving devices can be tested. In addition, a Galileo Lab is currently being installed at FIRST that will enable interested customers to test the new standard.
· Standardization
The TPEG Toolkit is described by a collection of ISO/ TS Standards covering initial applications and is now under continuous develop-ment by the Traveller Information Services Association (TISA), a non-profit organization comprising over 90 commercial and public service/ authority members. Already many TPEG applications, such as Road Traffic Messages, Traffic Event Compact and Public Transport Information are standardized through ISO/CEN and can be delivered to end-user devices with DAB or other transparent bearer capability feeding a TPEG decoder for the appropriate application(s). Fraunhofer FIRST is a member of the TISA TPEG Applications Working Group (TAWG).
Further Information is available from
Mirjam Kaplow, Head Corporate Communications
Phone: +49 (0)30- 63 92-18 23
E-mail: mirjam.kaplow@first.fraunhofer.de

Media Contact

Mirjam Kaplow Fraunhofer Gesellschaft

More Information:

http://www.first.fraunhofer.de

All latest news from the category: Information Technology

Here you can find a summary of innovations in the fields of information and data processing and up-to-date developments on IT equipment and hardware.

This area covers topics such as IT services, IT architectures, IT management and telecommunications.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors