Introducing kapten
- The technology used
3
kap
ten
User Guide
1.2
The technology used
Despite its small size - barely bigger than a credit card -
kap
ten
contains an
impressive range of advanced technologies:
• a GPS navigation system with a map of France;
• a speech synthesis system;
• a voice-recognition system;
• an MP3 player;
• an FM radio receiver;
• a Bluetooth interface;
• a USB connection.
The paragraphs below provide a brief description of this technology and how it
is applied in
kap
ten
.
GPS
The GPS system (Global Positioning System) is the first satellite geolocation
system in the world. The system's 24 satellites orbit the Earth at an altitude of
20 200km. Originally developed by the U.S. Department of Defense, it enables
anyone with access to a GPS receiver
to find out their position
on Earth and
is accurate to within 10 metres.
In order for the user to be able to effectively "
navigate
" using a navigation
system, the satellite data must be associated to map-based data and
processed by a navigation engine.
Map-based data provides typological information for a given area of the Earth's
surface (a country, city etc.) to which various attributes are associated: name,
speed limits, height and weight limits etc. This information also covers various
points of interest
: restaurants, cinemas, museums, garages etc.
The navigation engine is a software system based on GPS satellite data and
map-based data which guides the user from point A to point B on the surface
of the planet.
kap
ten
's navigation engine applies a certain number of
navigation rules, depending on the user's navigation mode (See
«Navigating
with the GPS function»
, page 38)
