Is the communicator ready to replace the navigator?
Every year, communicators in the market win new positions, displacing obsolete devices. Rarely in everyday life you can see calculators, alarm clocks, phone books. Did the queue come and GPS-navigators? We will reflect on this in this article.
Almost all communicators, regardless of the platform, are built with built-in GPS receivers. Any owner of a communicator can get his position coordinates by launching the appropriate application. Why then do we need navigators? And what is the functional difference between a communicator and a navigator?
The first differences can be identified at the level of signal reception. Manufacturers of telephone communicators are very limited in space, which is why most often they use miniature antennas located in the upper end of the device. Manufacturers of GPS-navigators have more opportunities for mounting the antenna, they often take it out of the case, thereby improving the reception of the GPS signal.
The signal reception conditions will affect the purity and intensity of the signal, and therefore the quality of the data. You can talk a lot about the "mathematics", which allows to improve the solution, but in fact the positioning of GPS navigators is more accurate and more stable than the hybrid devices.
Navigators, as separate devices, are passive from the point of view of electromagnetic radiation, communicators, like hybrid ones, are not. It is impossible to say that navigation is impossible with a phone that is in talk mode or data exchange, but the spatial solution will be worse than if the device were used without the ability to transfer data.
An important difference is the size of the screens. Communicators in this regard are quite limited - on the one hand, the screen should be large, and on the other, the device should fit in the hand. Thus, the navigation takes place on the screen no more than 4.5 inches.
For navigators, the screen size is determined by the destination — a small screen is enough for a tourist, and the athlete may not need it — for example, there are pedometers with GPS — for a navigator on a ship where visibility is necessary, special chartplotters are needed — large screens for drawing electronic nautical charts.
Communicator battery rarely designed for more than 3-4 hours in navigation mode. Navigators in this regard are less whimsical - most of them are powered by AA batteries, or from high-capacity batteries. The exceptions are car navigators and devices operating on other types of transport, designed for frequent charging from the “cigarette lighter”, but more than compensating for this disadvantage with the size and brightness of the screens.
IPX7-abbreviation means that the device can be briefly immersed in water. For navigators, this is a common standard that guarantees the operation of the device in the most difficult conditions. Even in the city, watching the raindrops falling on the screen of the communicator, my first thought was to remove it somewhere, where it was drier, what to say about going on a route in the pouring rain. Among the navigators, there are even models capable of swimming (for example, Garmin GPSMAP 78s ).
GPRS - is it a good, as is commonly believed? Indeed - what could be more convenient? - You are in an unfamiliar place, turn on the phone, and it loads maps, descriptions, photos from the network. This is convenient, but there is also a reverse circumstance - if suddenly you do not have the ability to connect to the Internet, you risk not only being left without maps, but also without navigation at all.
Many communicators, compensating for the design flaws of antennas, download ephemeris (data on where the satellites are currently) from the network, and if there is no network, positioning takes as long as enough to find a newspaper kiosk and buy a card cities.
It is better to plan trips with navigators. Define the purpose of the trip in advance, buy cards, download them. In this case, the user can be 100% sure that at the destination he will receive the spatial information with exactly the detail that was offered to him.
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Managing spatial information is a very resource-intensive process, so when navigating in communicators, such phenomena as “map freezes” are often encountered. This is due to the fact that the communicator processor does not cope with all the tasks that are running at the moment. In this regard, the processors of navigators are in a more advantageous position, since they have the only role assigned to them - navigation, and all the resources of the device are aimed at its solution.
Developing GPS receivers for a specific target audience, manufacturers can take into account its wishes, such as an altimeter, a pedometer, a pulse sensor, and a fuel consumption sensor. Communicators, designed for the mass consumer, can not boast of such.
The conclusions can be drawn as follows:
Communicator with navigation function is useful where -
1. Do not need accurate positioning of more than 10 m.
2. Where the signal reception conditions are not disturbed by the environment.
3. Where you do not need an instant big map review.
4. Where do not need a miniature GPS sensor.
5. Where there is always at hand the power grid and there is the possibility of recharging.
6. Where is dry, warm and clean.
7. Where there is a permanent GPRS-coverage.
8. Where the user is not annoyed by the hang of the screen.
It can be concluded that communicators are ideal for summer walks around the city, excursions, search for attractions. Communicators today are capable of replacing a pocket atlas, a guidebook and a notebook in a tourist's backpack.
Navigators are becoming a niche product, acquiring more and more modifications to support the tasks of sports, tourism, car navigation, navigation, mapping. The navigator becomes an attribute of a professional, finally discarding the already disappearing prefix "consumer", and the queue at the museum before them will not be suitable soon.
Almost all communicators, regardless of the platform, are built with built-in GPS receivers. Any owner of a communicator can get his position coordinates by launching the appropriate application. Why then do we need navigators? And what is the functional difference between a communicator and a navigator?
Signal reception and position calculation
The first differences can be identified at the level of signal reception. Manufacturers of telephone communicators are very limited in space, which is why most often they use miniature antennas located in the upper end of the device. Manufacturers of GPS-navigators have more opportunities for mounting the antenna, they often take it out of the case, thereby improving the reception of the GPS signal.
The signal reception conditions will affect the purity and intensity of the signal, and therefore the quality of the data. You can talk a lot about the "mathematics", which allows to improve the solution, but in fact the positioning of GPS navigators is more accurate and more stable than the hybrid devices.
Navigators, as separate devices, are passive from the point of view of electromagnetic radiation, communicators, like hybrid ones, are not. It is impossible to say that navigation is impossible with a phone that is in talk mode or data exchange, but the spatial solution will be worse than if the device were used without the ability to transfer data.
Ergonomics and efficiency
An important difference is the size of the screens. Communicators in this regard are quite limited - on the one hand, the screen should be large, and on the other, the device should fit in the hand. Thus, the navigation takes place on the screen no more than 4.5 inches.
For navigators, the screen size is determined by the destination — a small screen is enough for a tourist, and the athlete may not need it — for example, there are pedometers with GPS — for a navigator on a ship where visibility is necessary, special chartplotters are needed — large screens for drawing electronic nautical charts.
Communicator battery rarely designed for more than 3-4 hours in navigation mode. Navigators in this regard are less whimsical - most of them are powered by AA batteries, or from high-capacity batteries. The exceptions are car navigators and devices operating on other types of transport, designed for frequent charging from the “cigarette lighter”, but more than compensating for this disadvantage with the size and brightness of the screens.
IPX7-abbreviation means that the device can be briefly immersed in water. For navigators, this is a common standard that guarantees the operation of the device in the most difficult conditions. Even in the city, watching the raindrops falling on the screen of the communicator, my first thought was to remove it somewhere, where it was drier, what to say about going on a route in the pouring rain. Among the navigators, there are even models capable of swimming (for example, Garmin GPSMAP 78s ).
Maps, data and internet
GPRS - is it a good, as is commonly believed? Indeed - what could be more convenient? - You are in an unfamiliar place, turn on the phone, and it loads maps, descriptions, photos from the network. This is convenient, but there is also a reverse circumstance - if suddenly you do not have the ability to connect to the Internet, you risk not only being left without maps, but also without navigation at all.
Many communicators, compensating for the design flaws of antennas, download ephemeris (data on where the satellites are currently) from the network, and if there is no network, positioning takes as long as enough to find a newspaper kiosk and buy a card cities.
It is better to plan trips with navigators. Define the purpose of the trip in advance, buy cards, download them. In this case, the user can be 100% sure that at the destination he will receive the spatial information with exactly the detail that was offered to him.
')
Software and instrument resources
Managing spatial information is a very resource-intensive process, so when navigating in communicators, such phenomena as “map freezes” are often encountered. This is due to the fact that the communicator processor does not cope with all the tasks that are running at the moment. In this regard, the processors of navigators are in a more advantageous position, since they have the only role assigned to them - navigation, and all the resources of the device are aimed at its solution.
Developing GPS receivers for a specific target audience, manufacturers can take into account its wishes, such as an altimeter, a pedometer, a pulse sensor, and a fuel consumption sensor. Communicators, designed for the mass consumer, can not boast of such.
Conclusions and conclusions
The conclusions can be drawn as follows:
Communicator with navigation function is useful where -
1. Do not need accurate positioning of more than 10 m.
2. Where the signal reception conditions are not disturbed by the environment.
3. Where you do not need an instant big map review.
4. Where do not need a miniature GPS sensor.
5. Where there is always at hand the power grid and there is the possibility of recharging.
6. Where is dry, warm and clean.
7. Where there is a permanent GPRS-coverage.
8. Where the user is not annoyed by the hang of the screen.
It can be concluded that communicators are ideal for summer walks around the city, excursions, search for attractions. Communicators today are capable of replacing a pocket atlas, a guidebook and a notebook in a tourist's backpack.
Navigators are becoming a niche product, acquiring more and more modifications to support the tasks of sports, tourism, car navigation, navigation, mapping. The navigator becomes an attribute of a professional, finally discarding the already disappearing prefix "consumer", and the queue at the museum before them will not be suitable soon.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/117089/
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