Digital mapping on mobile phones

Here at Stanfords we use all types of mapping, and recently, we’ve become rather taken with digital mapping. Here, digital mapping specialist Craig Wareham makes the case for one of the latest developments for walkers – digital mapping on mobile phones.

Maps have leapt from the page and onto websites such as the AA’s route planner, Google Maps and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth, to name but three. These have made digital maps widely available and often at no cost. However, while these services are of undoubted value for road-users, they lack the rich layers of information required by walkers, mountain-bikers, horse-riders and other ‘off-road’ users, who are used to relying on Ordnance Survey (OS) maps in all their glorious detail.

PC mapping software addresses this to some extent. But because you don’t take your PC with you when you leave the house, maps prepared using this software must be printed in advance of a trip, so despite its high-tech ambitions, you are often left with simply a paper map. This makes it hard to change your plans, or be spontaneous in the field, because the area you want may be just off the page. When footpaths were closed due to foot and mouth, the importance of being able to change routes at a moment’s notice was highlighted.

Away from the computer, portable units have become widely available. Sat navs have become a common sight on the dashboards of vehicles up and down the country, but this offers little functionality to non-road-users, as areas away from the road network simply appear as a featureless void. Attempts to use these devices for off-road mapping have to-date been clumsy, not just because of the large pocket needed to carry one of these units.

One solution that has been hyped for gadget-savvy outdoors enthusiasts is a dedicated GPS device, such as those offered by Garmin, Magellan and others. However, I believe the answer lies in the mobile phones that we already have in our pockets. Independent companies have stepped in to maximise on the possibilities a GPS-enabled phone handset can offer. My company, Augmentra, has developed a software package called ViewRanger , which puts interactive OS maps in your phone and tells you exactly where you are, as well as taking full advantage of the other capabilities of your phone.

I believe the mobile phone is an ideal piece of equipment for portable digital mapping. Most of us keep a phone on hand all the time. So if you have the weight in your pack or pocket, why not put it to use? Especially if it means you can leave another gadget behind altogether, with the capability to offer both on-road and off-road navigation on the same device.

The ViewRanger software uses the familiar OS maps, and can put 1:50,000 scale Landranger maps of the whole of Great Britain into your phone, plus more detailed 1:25,000 Explorer maps of your favourite walking locations across the country. The software can be used without a computer, but it is compatible with other PC and web-based mapping services so that you can import or share routes.

As well as displaying zoomable maps, ViewRanger can also interpret topographic information and map symbols to create a ‘virtual panoramic view’ which gives an image of the landscape with labelled features. For those of us who find identifying peaks, lakes and towns from distance daunting, it simplifies the task and helps to build confidence in map skills.

Since most phones now include a good digital camera and sound recorder, it is possible to take a photo (or record audio or video) and have that tagged to your location on the map – perhaps marking the position of a particular wildflower or bird sighting. These ‘digital memories’ can be shared, via the web or immediately over-the-air to other handsets, with friends, family or club-members. Users can easily create multimedia TravelLogs that record their trips, and can publish these through our online exchange or even via social networking sites.

An organisation that guides charity bike rides around the UK uses ViewRanger as their mapping and navigation tool, and has started to use another of its features – BuddyBeacon – to keep tabs on participating cyclists. BuddyBeacon uses the phone’s internet connection to track users’ ‘live’ positions on one another’s phones. The organisation can also offer live tracking of the ride through its website, so that supporters can follow progress along the way. I’m told that riders even get text messages from family members cheering them on or telling them to “pedal faster” as progress is monitored!

Similarly, search and rescue team members and field-survey professionals are benefiting from these connected services that a mobile phone platform makes possible.

For the novice walker, ViewRanger provides points of interest (POI) information with explanatory text and photographs, to help you get the most out of an unfamiliar area. We’re now working with major publishers to provide audio and video ‘multimedia’ leisure guides, which will include prepared routes to help steer walkers around Britain’s most popular scenery.

Mobile phones, in all their many shapes and sizes, are now ubiquitous, and it makes sense to use them to their maximum ability. ViewRanger is just one way in which we can all – quickly and simply - get more from our devices, and easily bring the digital mapping revolution out of our computers and into the real world.

Author: Craig Wareham
Date: 21 July 2008
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