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SpatialNews.com Press Release
ViewRanger Gives New Perspective to National Park Mapping
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Cambridge, UK – 3rd October 2005 – Mobile phone users visiting UK National Parks, such as the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, can now access local information and share their experiences of the landscape via a new map tool from UK software company Augmentra.
Augmentra has announced ViewRanger, an innovative digital mapping tool for rural tourists, walkers, cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts that delivers a fresh view on mapping. Running on mobile phone handsets, ViewRanger provides a multimedia enhanced go-anywhere “viewpoint pillar” that delivers information on a user’s immediate surroundings through a simple 3D panoramic display. ViewRanger is being launched with data licensed from Ordnance Survey to provide map coverage for the UK National Park regions.
ViewRanger simplifies the identification of features and landmarks in a vista, one of the most common activities undertaken when exploring a rural area. It shows a 3D panorama of the user’s location and labels the key points-of-interest - features such as hills, lakes, woodland, towns and villages – in the landscape. Immediately a user can match ViewRanger’s display to the real world terrain around them and identify what they are seeing. ViewRanger makes it easy for users to quickly answer questions such as "Which hill is that over there?" or "What town is that in the valley?"
However, ViewRanger is more than a static map. With ViewRanger a user can interact with the features identified, using the mobile phone network to view photographs and comments associated with the points-of-interest. Plus, users can add their own photographs and comments to any point-of-interest thereby sharing information with friends, colleagues and other ViewRanger users. This makes ViewRanger great for holiday photos, recording sightings of flora or wildlife, and for sharing information on favourite places. Adding a web link (URL) allows ViewRanger to connect that point-of-interest to the internet, opening the possibility of accessing extended information on features – for example, visitor information and opening times for a national trust property.
“We set out to create a new kind of mapping tool that was intuitive and simple enough not to require map reading expertise, and that took advantage of the amazing mobile technology available today,” commented Craig Wareham, co-founder and Director at Augmentra. “Placing the user at the heart of the map within the 3D panorama allows ViewRanger to deliver information in a straightforward and easily understandable way.”
Paula Langford-Smith, Ordnance Survey’s Partnership Marketing Manager, said: “We are delighted to see Augmentra's new venture into the commercial use of mapping. Their data is being used in an innovative way to enable ViewRanger, an exciting new application allowing smartphone users to identify and understand the real world features surrounding them by interrogating a GPS enabled 3D representation of the landscape on their phone.”
ViewRanger helps users rapidly identify landscape features and landmarks. It's simple to use and doesn't require any map reading skills - making ViewRanger perfect for the occasional tourist as well as the regular outdoors enthusiast. Through ViewRanger’s ability to upload and share photos and information on the landscape, Augmentra is also hoping that ViewRanger will tap into the growing appetite for mobile blogging, photo sharing, and location-aware social networking.
Availability and Pricing
ViewRanger works on Series60 mobile handsets, such as popular Nokia models including Nokia 6630 and 6680.
ViewRanger is available for purchase now at www.viewranger.com, priced at £24.99 incl. VAT for ViewRanger with mapping data for a UK National Park. Mapping data ‘MapPaks’ for additional geographic regions are available, priced from £7.50. A free trial version is also available.
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