The Growing Market for Hands-Free Navigation
Talking gadgets for use in cars and other settings are getting cheaper and promising new location-based services.
CIO — GPS systems "talk" to us to give us directions. Now it's getting cheaper to talk to them.
Navstar Technologies, a startup in Overland Park, Kan., recently announced the Voice Navigator, an inexpensive GPS system.
N. Douglas Pritt, Navstar's CEO and president, says that it will sell for less than $200—he's hoping for $149—when it comes to the market late in the second quarter. "I wanted to provide a low-cost navigation unit that could be used by anybody," he says.
One reason the Voice Navigator is cheap: It lacks a screen. Pritt thinks voice navigation will be all that's needed. It also does not include weather or traffic features, though Pritt says those can be added if there is demand.
About the size of a deck of cards (2 by 4 by 0.75 inches), the Navstar connects to your cell phone via Bluetooth. You tell it where you want to go by spelling out your destination (it will ask for confirmation). It will then use the cell phone connection to download map information from servers that Navstar hosts. The cell phone is only used for one to three minutes as it downloads directions. Otherwise, your phone is available for calls.
The device also includes three buttons: a bell for emergency services, a point-of-interest button with various presets (for instance, the recreational vehicle crowd might search for the nearest campground) and an itinerary button that users can preset (Navstar will then walk them through the directions based on how far they've come).
David Chamberlain, a principal analyst at In-Stat Research, says that voice navigation solves a significant problem with GPS systems—using them while in motion. "The screen says don't do it when you're driving, and we do. Being able to handle voice recognition is a terrific safety improvement," he says.
Chamberlain notes that high-end GPS systems do use voice recognition—a case in point would be the Garmin Nüvi 880, announced at the Consumer Electronics Show. It will cost around $1,000. That device is more sophisticated than Navstar's Voice Navigator—you can ask it to find a restaurant or a gas station without having to spell out the words.
Meanwhile, voice navigation is also coming to cell phones. Carriers like Verizon and Sprint have developed voice-driven navigation services, and Vlingo, a startup in Cambridge, Mass., that offers voice-recognition services such as Web search for cell phones, says it will add a voice-driven speech service in the second quarter.
