VolksNav - Google's Next Quantum Jump?

Google Tech Talk
April 8, 2009

ABSTRACT

Looking for a way to reform house numbering in Japan I've discovered fundamental weak points on actual orientation tools. The main gap is - a simple answer to the simple question "whereto?"

The answer is mostly complex because there is no simple answer to the simple question "where?", e. g. where is Mountain View? Where is WTC tower 2 (dilemma on 9/11)?

Names require maps, maps force to memorize a long chain of left-right commands.

I've developed a natural orientation system which will simplify and harmonize indoor and outdoor signage, cartography, postal codes, navigation devices etc. This system was inspired by the orientation around the Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro and by the division of the horizon into 12 directions.

The basic proposal is to quantify this "where", simplifying the answer to "whereto". Finally, Google maps/earth could embed this new and much more natural orientation system and offer zoomable search grids and logical addresses.

Speaker: Henrique Köhler

- born 1946 near Deggendorf, south east Germany
- raised in S. Paulo / Brazil, also within the japanese colony Liberdade
- Dipl.-Ing. TU Munich, telematics and cybernetic
- worked for Siemens, Telenorma and Rohde & Schwarz
- projects on data transmission over broadcast transmitters, e.g. Radio Data System RDS, black lists, positioning etc.
http://www.volksnav.de/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• google
• tech
• talk
• navigation
• search

[VolksNav]

Very easy, rawrthestar,: you guide yourself ( VolksNav(c) ) using the time-space convention with cities as imaginary clocks:

- if you look outwards, right hand will be "to later"

The division of the horizon in 12 directions divide the city like a cake into 12 sectors. If you're on sector 5 and your target is sector 2, so you'll go "to earlier".

This method is used by soldier, boy scouts, pilots, blind people etc. for more than 120 years.

[rawrthestar]

someone tell me how to time travel?

[VolksNav]

Another detail for your case: reading a clock, we see angles and associate numbers to them. I'm proposing to read numbers and associate directions with the same capability. Signage, mobile phones etc. show digits and you have the possibility to make a mayor/minor comparison as you make today with house numbers.

Google "mns m6:2 r8", there you'll find logical addresses in Manaus. Try to imagine their location without maps. This exercise could help you to read clocks faster.

[maeghith]

Well, I understood that the system linked the finding of targets with reading a clock but now that you say it, I think I missed the point of the target group at some point.

Hmm, a 360h digital clock no, but a round one... Didn't the french try that on 1789, or was it just the months? sorry just kidding :D

Thankyou for your answers.

[VolksNav]

Concerning the awareness about the direction of "downtown", this was a problem which took me 10 years to solve. With another invention, the Vertical Pointing(c), the signage and the electronics let you know the directions north and urban pole in any situation outdoor AND INDOOR.

Another possibility: instead of asking "where is the Oktoberfest?", you could ask "where is downtown?"

[VolksNav]

Hi maeghith,

thank you for your comment, it gives me the chance to clarify some relevant points.

The target group (2 billion people) is/are people who have difficulties to imagine the division of the horizon into 360 parts. The finding of targets has nothing to do with the time you need to read a clock. Would you prefer a digital clock with 360 hours 60 minutes and 60 seconds?

[maeghith]

And the last observation I want to make is: If you take the Munich system, and place the origin in the north pole, and point m12 to Greenwich; haven't you replicated the coordinate system we have today (where m's are meridians and r's are paralels)?

[maeghith]

I know I'm a minority here, but the talk starts with the assumption that everybody can do it, and I'm sure that, there are other people like me.

Other point is the emphasis done in the orientation in Rio. Well, my opinion on that is that the statue is a milestone that can be seen from everywhere on the city, and that's what makes it easy, so to replicate that easiness every city should have some milestone that can bee seen from everywhere.

[maeghith]

What about people who doesn't know (or have difficulty) to read a round clock?

I've problems with that and that's why I've always used digital clocks instead of the round ones. I've seen people used to round clocks reading them in under a second, but it takes me 15 to 20 seconds to just read the time, a little less to orient myself in an f- style, but the Munich system makes me dizzy.

[dagod79]

a "quantum leap" is an event in which a quantum particle (not an atom or bigger) passes a "wall" which's resistance shouldn't allow it to.

in the macro-world, that would be a person going through a wall, without actually passing the barrier.

in the macro world, that would be equivalent to a "wormhole", which connects two areas of spacetime, without an actual, measurable distance.

for an analogous event, see the "Tunneleffekt".

Würde mich über einen Email-Kontakt freuen!Tolle Idee, Henrique