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Think of how annoying it is to have various sheets of paper (such as notes, maps, used or unused napkins) lying on the dashboard below the windshield. In practically any weather and in any light (except for direct sunlight, which is an annoyance in itself) the driver is constantly distracted and sometimes
irritated by the reflection of such sheets of paper on the interior surface of the windshield.
The purpose of the GPS For The Poor (GFTP) is device is to turn this annoyance into an advantage. Imagine a mirror image of a country map. Placed in the middle of the dashboard, it is reflected the right way around by the windshield surface thus allowing the driver to look at the map while still keeping his/her eye on the road. In this manner, the GFTP also acts as a ultramodern jet-fighter HUD (Head-Up Display).
Now imagine mass producing the mirror-copied maps mounted on a pair of rolls, like the "Dead-Sea Scrolls". Once arranged under the windshield, the GFTP rolls are gently scrolled back and forth (or left and right) by the driver or by a fellow passenger/navigator, providing the driver with the vehicle positioning information. The data necessary for actuating the rolls in the right direction can be obtained visually (by looking at mileposts, road signs or the mileage counter) or verbally (the driver says "We're just entering city X", and the passenger / navigator adjusts the scrolling map accordingly).
On some Luxury For The Poor Vehicles (LFTPV) the GFTP can be combined with the Airbag For The Poor (AFTP) devices. (See link for Car, Airbag)
Airbag For The Poor
Airbag_20For_20The_20Poor
Airbag For The Poor [gagarin, Nov 30 2005]
[link]
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You can't scroll your map in both orientations; if the rollers are at the top and bottom, your map won't scroll left - right. |
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you're right. still: just add two rolls & two handles :) |
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Which is fine so long as you only want to
travel in one very narrow East-West and
one very narrow North-South corridor...
and don't mind the two maps overlaying
each other... and don't mind that this idea
seems to be about map projection and
nothing to do with GPS as per the title... [-] |
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"map, map on the dashboard, who's the poorest of them all?" |
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hmm, i'd like to see some sort of a gadget that used scrolling maps and gear based distance counters and compass |
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I'd use one of these (while waiting for my mates to return from the "land of the poor"). |
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I like the idea of using the property of windshield reflection. |
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How would it work at night? |
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I think some jet fighers in the '60s had some kind of scrolling map like this. Maybe they were French. I'm not sure. |
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If you did make a purely mechanical GPS unit, would it really be any cheaper than an electronic model? |
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I think that you could probably make a small microfilm projector built into the dash, like the kind they have at libraries, to serve this function. |
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If the map were printed on cloth, and mounted in a circular device similar to an embroidery hoop, and then given a range of motions (pulling the cloth n/s/e/w over the hoop or rotating the hoop [DID ANYONE GET THE MECHANISM FOR THE R-THETA ETCH-A-SKETCH?] er, sorry about the ears there) you should be able to pretty well track anywhere on the map with the caveats that on the way back, all the writing's upside down and out at the hem of the map it says 'Welcome to Saskatchewan' or 'Here there be dragons' or some such. |
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I look at this and wonder what being poor has to do with being able to navigate yourself around the area. Being that most poor people dont have cars, I am not so sure that a GPS (or GFTP) would be their greatest concern. |
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So GPS for the poor is, a map? |
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DrBob, in other countries, the poor build cars -- in ours, they have them :) |
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True tc, but you'd have to spend a long time explaining to them what a map was ;o) |
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I thought GPS for the poor was pulling over and asking someone for directions. |
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/GPS for women/ - I was navigating for my girlfriend on a trip recently and got out to check (ask) directions. The local bloke with the funny accent (not like mine) said to turn back the way we'd come. I glanced back at her in the driving seat then back at the bloke and said "Look, she'll kill me if I tell her that, can you just point up that way and I'll double back on a different road". We both giggled and he pointed forward. I thanked him and returned to the car. After a minute or so she said "You think I don't know what happened back there do you?" God knows what else she knows. |
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Get a life you rich bugger. |
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Hmm, dash-mounted microfiche
reader, now that I like... there
should be plenty of free/cheap
microfiche readers out there
nowadays, and a good laser or
inkjet printer can probably print
fine enough. |
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