Advanced Features

map2hand contains a number of advanced features beyond the standard GPS location functionality.  These features are described in this section.

• Coordinate display
• "On the move" recalibration
• Speed camera warning
• Distance measuring
• Route planning (under construction)

Coordinate Display This feature permits the display of the coordinates of any location on a calibrated map.  To enable this feature, view the map and select the icon.  When the stylus is dragged across the map, the location directly beneath the stylus will be shown in the coordinate system under which calibration took place.  See right for an example   "On the Move" Recalibration "On the move" recalibration allows minor calibration changes to be made to a map without the need to go back through the manual calibration process.  To use this feature, you will need to be using a calibrated map, with the GPS device active and displaying the location. If you know your exact location on the map, and this does not correspond to the position indicated by the GPS indicator in map2hand, then you can quickly add a new calibration point to improve the accuracy.  To activate this feature, tap the icon.  Next move the stylus across the map (red crosshairs will be displayed) until you reach your current physical location (i.e. the point on the map where you know you are currently located).  Lift the stylus.  map2hand will now add a new calibration point at that location, using the coordinates supplied by the GPS device.   Speed Camera Warning map2hand is able to warn of the proximity of speed cameras using a pre-loaded camera database.  Geographic locations of UK speed cameras can be downloaded from sites such as PocketGPSWorld. In order to create a camera database to load into map2hand, you will need to create a file with the following format (one line per camera): Clongitude,latitude,speed where: C is a literal "start of line" indicator longitude is the longitude of the camera location (negative means west, positive east) latitude is the latitude of the camera location (negative means south, positive north) speed is the speed limit for the camera, if known (otherwise use a suitable default, such as 30) A sample file extract would be: C-2.1157,53.07313,30 C-2.11317,53.3753,30 C-2.11314,53.37012,30 C0.14532,52.65216,30 C0.12522,52.77531,30 C0.14435,52.7731,30 C0.50239,52.9103,30   Save this file to your expansion card in the following location: /PALM/programs/map2hand/cameras/cameras.txt To load this database into map2hand, start the application and from the initial page choose the map2hand>Import Cameras menu option.  The camera import dialog will be displayed (see right). For the "Import" option, select whether you want the new camera database file to replace or append to the existing speed camera database in map2hand. For the "Projection" option, select the map projection that was used to calibrate the set of maps on which you wish to show the speed camera locations.  If this is a UTM projection, select the appropriate zone in the "UTM Zone" option. Select "Done", and the cameras will be added to the application.  The progress of the import will be shown on the screen. The speed cameras can now be shown on the display, and you can receive warnings on their proximity by selecting the appropriate options on the "View/GPS" screen (accessed via the button on the main map display screen). In the "Speed Cameras" section, select whether to display the camera locations on the map.  Options are "Yes" to always display, "No" to never display, and "Res > x" to display only on maps with a sufficiently high resolution.  This option is useful because the positions can be shown on high resolution maps, but suppressed from lower resolution ones, where the display would become cluttered. You can also select whether to receive a warning sound when a camera is close by.  At present, this feature does not work in PalmOS version 5.0 and above. Select "Done", and the camera locations will be indicated on the map with this symbol , provided you have selected to show the locations (and the map is of a high enough resolution if the "Res > x" option was chosen) .  When you get close to a camera, a warning will be displayed. Distance Measuring map2hand can be used to measure distances on calibrated maps.  To activate this feature, select the "Distance Measure" option from the screen.  Select the units to use, then "Done". To place a point on the map, select the icon and drag the stylus to the location from which the measurement should begin.  Lift the stylus to add a point at that location.  Repeat tapping with the stylus to add further points.  The display will show the distance between the last two points, and the total distance from the start.  To remove a point, tap the icon. Cancel the functionality by tapping on it again (stylus action will now revert to dragging the map again).  Reselecting will revert back to adding points on the distance line.  You can zoom in and out to other maps while measuring distances if necessary. Route Planning This feature is under construction and will be included in a future release.

Map images produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service.
Image  reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland