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UPDATED - GPS - the missing BLUE button

Early warning for 'blue light' activity in the vicinity of your GPS unit...
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People, lets press TomTom, Garmin, Magellan, Medion, etc etc to add a big blue button to the automotive gps mapping products that they manuafcture.

BUT WHAT'S IT FOR...?

Well, every time you see a police car, ambulance, unmarked motorway police car, speed camera, etc etc you simply press the button. This will trigger a simple, small, wireless broadcast to the processing centre which will then analyse the signal and repeat it to to all surrounding GPS units.

With everyone pressing the button when they see a blue light (or related roadside 'inconvenience') they press the button... the more presses reported in an area - the better the validity the processing centre can place on the report - and by way of triangulation, the current location of the 'Blue item' is plotted (even if the item is mobile).

All pressers of the button (or contributers as we may call them) recieve Blue Button data updates free of charge every 10 minutes for each and every verified press that they log. However the system is paid for by those who won't contribute by pressing, or those wish to have up to the second road safety information at their fingertips (this will replace the curent safety camera system databases - to which people subscribe).

BunFight101, Oct 23 2008

Real-time traffic info via network of GPS-enabled phones. http://www.techgadg...and-uc-researchers/
[coprocephalous, Oct 28 2008]

snooper stole the idea!!! http://www.snooperu...per_lynx/index.html
Arrrrrrrrrgh - i knew i should hve applied for a patent [BunFight101, May 14 2009]

[link]






       you miss my point - the ten minutes is just for free (subscription free) access to the system... not the refresh rate - that could be like 20 - 30 seconds...
BunFight101, Oct 24 2008
  

       How do the updates get
a) out of the GPS
b) into other GPS
without access to something like the mobile phone network?
Or do you propose that GPS units require a SIM card?
coprocephalous, Oct 24 2008
  

       No, GPS is magic. It sees all and knows all.   

       Assuming there was some kind of widely compatible network connection between all in-car navigation systems, which there isn't, or if you published it as an application for GPS enabled phones, this would work. Empowering people to avoid law enforcement is pretty low on my invention priority scale though.
BunsenHoneydew, Oct 24 2008
  

       Ah --- i too am a tytn II user - i forget that tom tom actually does nothing more than recieve... obviously this idea is a future umm... invention... not a retrofit option the units would have to be mobile signal friendly.   

       Ohh and the other thing is that this is not intended to allow you to avoid the fuzz but to notify users of potential issues - like police activity, speed cameras etc, it would tie in with existing known black spots etc...
BunFight101, Oct 28 2008
  

       //Not so much fun in other devices, I would guess.//
Not so sure about that - most new Symbian smartphones will have GPS fitted, as will many high-end Nokia S40 phones.
In fact, Nokia has trialed a collaborative traffic sensing application using N95 phones. [linky]
coprocephalous, Oct 28 2008
  

       How would you distinguish two sightings of the same issue from two distinct sightings? Without this, you can't plot the location, you just slowly fill up the screen with blue dots.
wuj3888, Oct 29 2008
  

       //How do the updates get a) out of the GPS b) into other GPS// [coprocephalous]   

       [co] ( I resisted the urge to call you [cop] ) makes a really good point. If you have a GPS that can broadcast the button pushes, why not have a GPS in the emergency vehicle that broadcasts it's position to other GPSs which receive it and put a blue blip on their map.
theGem, Oct 29 2008
  

       someone (snooper) thinks it makes commercial sense...   

       can i make a claim against them for nicking the idea???
BunFight101, May 14 2009
  

       No, not even if you could prove they did, which is unlikely to begin with. (Great minds think alike and all that.) The one legal effect you might have is invalidate *their* patent (if they have one; I don't know) because of prior art - and even that's hard.   

       Administrative request: please don't change your idea title when you add text to it. ("UPDATE:..") People may link to an idea; if they do that, they do it by name. If you change the name, you break all those links.
jutta, May 14 2009
  
      
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