Personal navigation methods have evolved over recent years. Previously, if a person was trying to find a location in an area in they did not know, they could use a map, if there was one available, or they could ask someone for directions. When giving directions, people often refer to obvious landmarks to help to describe the route and to help the person finding their way to recognise if they are on the right track.
Electronic navigation systems have developed using reference to the Global Positioning System (GPS) of coordinates. Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based system providing worldwide continuous position data. It has a widespread use in navigation systems as it provides very accurate location data in the form of longitude and latitude for a receiver. Known personal navigation systems are based on GPS correlating the latitude and longitude with road maps in order to help a user to navigate in an unknown location.
The data a user receives from known navigation systems is usually in the form of maps or plan views. The maps can be very precise or simplified schematic maps.
Known forms of navigation systems have been provided in a dedicated device, often including a GPS receiver. For example, navigation systems for vehicles are known in which a device with a screen is attachable to the dashboard and maps of the location of the vehicle are displayed on the screen. Route planners can show a route between two locations on the map allowing the operator to follow the route. Additional traffic information can also be provided showing areas to be avoided due to congestion.
With the development of mobile technology in the form of laptop computers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and mobile (or cell) telephones, individuals often habitually carry an electronic device on their person. Additional numbers of individuals habitually have an electronic device in their vehicle. The term mobile electronic device is used to include any form of electronic device which can be carried in a car or on a person outside an office or home environment.
Many mobile electronic devices have a network connection facility for receiving and sending data. More recently there has been an increase in multimedia applications available on mobile devices.
A recent development in mobile telephone technology is multimedia messaging service (MMS) in which the short messaging service (SMS) has been extended to allow messages to be sent between mobile telephones and from telephone to email and vice versa incorporating sound, images and other rich content. The MMS message is a multimedia presentation in a single entry, not a text file with attachments, making it simple and user friendly. The MMS standard lists JPEG, GIF, text, AMR voice and other formats as supported media types. MMS is an open industry standard and messages can be delivered using existing networks and protocols.
The speed of MMS transmission is dependent on the message size and on the bearer being used. However, since the receiver is not aware of the ongoing transmission before the message has been delivered, any delay is not noticeable. If a telephone is switched off, has an empty battery or poor network coverage, a network element, the multimedia messaging service centre (MMSC) stores undelivered MMS messages until the receiving telephone can be reached.
Mobile telephone technology has also developed in that the volume of data that can be transmitted has increased Third generation (3G) mobile telephones will provide a large increase in volume capacity as they move from circuit-switched communications to wireless broadband, high-speed, packet-based networks. Until such 3G telephones are available and their use widespread, there are volume restrictions on the amount of data which can be sent to a telephone.
Mobile telephones are also becoming widespread with built in digital cameras enabling individuals to take photographs using their mobile telephones and send the photographs via the MMS service to other enabled telephones or to an email address.