Confused motorists and permanently lost drivers rejoice! Do you find yourself squinting at a street sign which is turned juuust enough by a vandal for you to not be able to see it from the stoplights? Or perhaps you’re one of thousands who get lost after getting diverted to unfamiliar roads by the MMDA/PLDT/Meralco/Flooding/Fiesta/People Power Presentation. In whichever case, many solutions exist, most of which I doubt will be of any assistance in our tortuous network of roads and alleyways.

                                              Hopefully, this is just a representation of where to drive, instead of a recommendation of driving on the middle of the road...

I speak of GPS navigators, maps and laptop or handheld – residing locator software, represented here by one with some of the latest innovations in this field. The Thinkware iNAVI K2 boasts of all the normal GPS functions like voice prompts, directional on-screen prompts, lucid on-screen directions complete with moving indicator for your current position. However, it boasts of one refinement that may change the way we use our GPS navigator units forever – that and our driving habits too.

                                             The "standard" GPS navigation system.

The iNAVI directs you to your destination through the most literal way possible short of virtual reality – it presents to the user a moving tapestry of your traveling in glorious 3D graphics, complete with the corner 7-11 store at Bond and Cardinal (fictional), or perhaps the small convenience store specializing in Japanese foodstuffs right in the middle of a hospital and an empty lot. In other words, it gives the user a virtual representation of the street and the area you’re driving through right at that moment. So instead of having directions for the driver like “stay in the left lane after 250meters and follow the curve to the next intersection”, the iNAVI can give instructions in the manner of a friendly passerby you chanced upon on your wanderings. It would sound much like: “Go straight ahead and turn right when you see Mang Gimo’s Hardware store, then keep a lookout for a 3-storey building with a large Sunsilk billboard on the second floor. Beside that is the building you say you have to get to for your interview an hour ago. Good luck”.

                                             Admittedly, not all Manila streets are like this, but this is a fair representation.

Ok, so perhaps not as verbose as that, but the general meaning is there. With specific buildings and landmarks at your fingertips, it will prove very hard to get lost or stay lost, and very hard to be late for your interview on account of getting lost (no guarantee on flooding of course). The unit boasts of a 4.8” screen in 800 x 480 resolution, not at all bad for this type of device. 256MB of RAM and expanded memory through SDHC of 8GB, plus the requisite GPS software/hardware and a “geomagnetic 3-axis sensor” (I’m guessing some kid of inertial sensor) leave nothing to chance and make this a great buy (for the permanently lost that is) for the princely sum of roughly P22000.

The unit is not without its problems though, as firstly, it is reliant on good data in the form of updated maps and area information (especially important here in the Philippines), and I know of only one local company well-equipped enough to even think of attempting to map both the street and the buildings/landmarks in any particular area – Asiatype – and before doing that, some hefty investment and planning would be needed. Secondly, an electronic device of such sophistication might as well be able to guide a driver to his destination, but not prevent dividing his or her attention between road and the oh-so colorful 3D graphics. Lastly, this GPS unit isn’t headed to local shores anytime soon – it is currently Korea-only, before even considering how long it would take to map out the warren of roadways we call “streets” in even just the main Manila area. Still, one can hope.