Paper Trails: Auto-Scrolling 1930s In-Car Analog GPS

The strange wrist-mounted scrolling map system of 1927 wasn’t the world’s last foray into analog GPS. This in-car navigation system sported a similar scrolling map setup, but with one notable difference: the map was actually wired to the car so that the map would scroll at a speed that matched the speed of the car’s movement.


Far from today’s GPS gadgets that track your movements from space, this 1932 invention required the driver to pull over and reload the map if he changed routes or turned. Still, it was a novel invention in a time when a huge map unfolded on the dashboard was the previously highest-tech navigation method available. LINK

Make Your Own Real Time Kinematic GPS Receiver That's Accurate To One Centimeter

Researchers Tomoji Takasu and Akio Yasuda of Tokyo University have developed an open source, inexpensive, Real Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS receiver than runs on a beagle board. They've also left instructions on how you can build one yourself.

Unlike traditional GPS, RTK-GPS doesn't measure the delay between its signal and the the signal received by a satellite—instead it measures the shorter wavelengths in the satellite's carrier signal. This can mean accuracies within one centimeter, but there are difficulties with aligning signals with RTK, and the need for multiple receivers makes the technology impractical for navigation. This is why the technology is most widely used in land surveying. If you would like to tinker around with one yourself, full instructions are available on the project page. [Project Page, Via: Make, Via: Gizmodo]

The GPS Beatmap

“In 2006, Face Removal Services created the Beatmap, a GPS-based music instrument that transforms the face of the planet into an enormous DJ booth. Looping musical phrases are represented on a map as overlapping circular territories. As the vehicle approaches the center of a circle, the volume increases. In areas of the map where territories overlap the vehicle generates dynamic mixes of the overlapping musical phrases. By exploring a very large map of many overlapping territories the Beatmap creates complex, dynamic mash-ups. The map can be explored on foot, by plane, boat, train, or automobile. In this footage the map is explored by car on the Bonneville Salt Flats, allowing the user to freely accelerate, swerve, and slam to a stop for optimum musical control of the instrument.” LINK