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GPS For The Poor

GPS For The Poor: Driving The Right Way (Almost) For Free
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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)

gagarin, Nov 30 2005

Airbag For The Poor Airbag_20For_20The_20Poor
Airbag For The Poor [gagarin, Nov 30 2005]

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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.
angel, Nov 30 2005
  

       you're right. still: just add two rolls & two handles :)
gagarin, Nov 30 2005
  

       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... [-]
st3f, Nov 30 2005
  

       "map, map on the dashboard, who's the poorest of them all?"
skinflaps, Nov 30 2005
  

       hmm, i'd like to see some sort of a gadget that used scrolling maps and gear based distance counters and compass
theircompetitor, Nov 30 2005
  

       So would I.   

       I'd use one of these (while waiting for my mates to return from the "land of the poor").
reensure, Nov 30 2005
  

       I like the idea of using the property of windshield reflection.
bungston, Nov 30 2005
  

       How would it work at night?
Ling, Dec 01 2005
  

       I think some jet fighers in the '60s had some kind of scrolling map like this. Maybe they were French. I'm not sure.   

       If you did make a purely mechanical GPS unit, would it really be any cheaper than an electronic model?   

       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.
discontinuuity, Dec 01 2005
  

       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.
lurch, Dec 01 2005
  

       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.
Jscotty, Dec 01 2005
  

       What JScotty said.
DrBob, Dec 01 2005
  

       So GPS for the poor is, a map?
zen_tom, Dec 01 2005
  

       DrBob, in other countries, the poor build cars -- in ours, they have them :)
theircompetitor, Dec 01 2005
  

       True tc, but you'd have to spend a long time explaining to them what a map was ;o)
DrBob, Dec 01 2005
  

       I thought GPS for the poor was pulling over and asking someone for directions.
oneoffdave, Dec 02 2005
  

       no, that's GPS for women
theircompetitor, Dec 02 2005
  

       /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.
weedy, Dec 04 2005
  

       Get a life you rich bugger.
gnomethang, Dec 04 2005
  

       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.
BunsenHoneydew, Dec 04 2005
  


 

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