Nov/Dec 2005

Navigation systems built round Drill Down Server technology from Telcontar will soon offer users the ability to "personalise" their own routes, and be sent information proactively about them. You might for instance be sent alerts about traffic conditions on a regular journey, or details of special prices available at filling stations on your way home.

Telcontar's DDS platform and Traffic Manager are components of the geospatial engine already that powers leading Internet portal mapping services such as those of Google Local, Yahoo! Maps and Ask Jeeves.

The company says that through the combination of DDS version 4.0 and a standard Internet notification system, drivers can be given advice such as to depart twenty minutes earlier, and told what exits to take and whether A-roads should be used instead of motorways.

Until now, says Telcontar, this has not been practical because of the complexity of correlating time-sensitive data across potentially millions of personalised routes. DDS 4.0 offers a unique method of quickly and efficiently searching across stored routes, and is therefore able to scale to the volumes needed for the Internet, it says.

 

Traffic Manager 4.0 further enhances the personalised routes by integrating data from traffic providers with advanced detour routing to get drivers to their destinations as quickly as possible. This feature will not be available until the first quarter of 2006.