The Japanese tourist industry has found a use for the GPS. A Tokyo-based
company, Technical Services Information, has devised a system which uses
CD-ROMs and GPS receivers mounted in a tour bus. Replacing the traditional
guide鈥檚 microphone and white gloves, the 鈥楽ight Navi鈥� system calculates the
bus鈥檚 position and interrogates the CD-ROM for data about the area.
Then, when the GPS receiver indicates that the bus is close to, say, a
building or landmark, a TV monitor automatically plays a voice-over and
video pictures from the CD. Passing a building, it can show the interior;
near a mountain, it can give different seasonal views. If there is nothing
on the CD about the area, the monitor just shows the bus鈥檚 progress on a
map. TSI has divided Japan into seven regions, each with six CD-ROMs of
audiovisual information; each CD has 16 hours鈥� worth of information, enough
for 800 tourist sites.
The principal saving should be on training tour guides, which usually takes
three years. From next year TSI hopes to sell 80 000 units, at 2.3 million
yen ( 拢14 000) each with a monthly rental of 12 000 yen. It
says tour operators could save about 1.5 million yen each year.
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