Welcome to the world of location literacy, the power to know your location and surroundings when you are finding your way. Before we get into the details of how the many features work, we will take a moment to describe the big picture, offering you access to information about your environment never before available. GPS satellites and massive location databases combine to create the potential for every square meter on earth to have a label. Add the BrailleNote to this equation and every location label can be accessible. The GPS satellites can be picked up anywhere in the world. Commercial maps and databases are being created with millions of points in most developed countries. Increasing consumer demand for these technologies is driving improvements for more accurate location information. Here is how the BrailleNote brings this Location Information to you. Once you are tracking satellites with the GPS receiver, the latitude and longitude for your position is communicated by the receiver to the BrailleNote. That position can then be compared with the database of maps and points of interest in the BrailleNote. There are various commands that will give you directions and distances to specific points, streets or waypoints along an automatically created route. This communication between the receiver and the BrailleNote is transparent other than telling you how many satellites are being tracked. 1.1 Scenarios So, now that you have the Global Positioning System and a database of streets and landmarks, what kinds of things can you do with it? Here is where the fun begins! For example: I am a blind person in a car or bus, with minimal knowledge about the environmental information whizzing by my vehicle. I turn on my BrailleNote GPS and the Point of Interest “look-around” mode automatically announces points of interest within 500 feet when I am traveling between 5 and 40 miles per hour and within a mile when traveling faster than 40 miles per hour. When I want to look further away, I use the Find command (F) to see where to stop for lunch. I want to find a restaurant called Café Italia and to be routed to it. I know it is roughly 30 to 50 miles away. I press the Advance Find (SPACE with F) command; enter 30 miles for the starting distance, 50 miles for the ending distance, enter restaurant for the category, and Café Italia when it asks me for the search string. I now press SPACE with D to set it as my destination and R then V to create a vehicular route from my current position to Café Italia, complete with waypoints, turns and distances. I am now literally the blind back-seat navigator informing the driver of upcoming turns and exits. We have friends visiting and once we finish lunch, we want to do a little sight seeing. So I know what of interest is in the vicinity of Cafe Italia, I switch to the BrailleNote’s Virtual mode with the V (Virtual) command and my virtual position is set to Café Italia. I now use the simple Find command (F) to hear what points of interest are near the Café. Everything from museums to recreational horseback riding facilities may show up as I scroll through the database of nearby points with the SPACE with dot 4. Once we settle on a place to visit, I toggle back to the GPS Mode with the V and create a pedestrian route with R then P to get us to our destination. Today, I am riding through San Francisco on a bus and want to learn more about the route the bus is taking and the points we pass by. The Look- Around mode is already turned on and will announce the nearby points of interest and intersections within 500 feet. I now hear the street I am traveling on plus the next intersecting street. For good measure, I set my destination to the street address so I have some advance warning to pack up my things to get off the bus. If I verbalized to the other passengers what I was reading on my Braille display or hearing from my earphone, I could be a city tour-guide. My friend is an avid blind sailor and is independently sailing around the world. Along with all his high-tech sailing equipment, he is plotting his course on his VoiceNote GPS. He has worked out a route with latitude/longitudes for each key turning point in his route. He enters each of these in a new User Point of Interest file and names the respective points, Dead Man’s Cove, Ship Wreck Alley and so forth. He changes the repeat interval from 12 seconds to 300 seconds so he can automatically receive updates to adjust his course every 5 minutes. Now, all he has to do is hope for fair weather. I am traveling to Chicago and want to familiarize myself with the street layout and restaurants near my intended hotel so that I can set a meeting. To speed up setting my virtual position, I do a search on the Internet for the city or hotel’s lat/lon and set my virtual position accordingly. I can use the Virtual Explore mode to wander around the streets before I even leave on the trip. Once I feel comfortable navigating the streets, I then use the Find command (SPACE with F) to search for nearby restaurants. I will then send the directions and the name of the restaurant to my colleagues. My friend, who is blind, likes to get out and about but she has a terrible sense of direction. She seldom explores on her own because it is so frustrating and embarrassing to be lost. We set a new destination in an area with which she is familiar and then set out in a car with her acting as the navigator, telling the driver which way to turn in order to reach the destination. In this way with the BrailleNote on her lap, she can concentrate on the information and directions without worrying about her mobility. She presses M for Multiple repeat and D for destination and hears the heading and direction repeated every twelve seconds. This is the only piece of information she is dealing with, using the “getting warmer” method to get to the destination. After we arrive at the destination, we go back to where we started and ask the BrailleNote for an automatic route and make a similar trip with instructions from point to point. The BrailleNote provides the directions and reassurance my friend needs to travel independently on her own. She isn’t actually on her own after all, she has Sendero's GPS. As you can see from reading these scenarios, there are two general ways to use the BrailleNote GPS. The first and probably most popular use of the GPS information is simply to be aware of one’s environment with the “look-around” options. Traditionally, a blind person might get one percent of location information through a “sighted filter.” With Sendero GPS, a blind user can independently “look around” and hear what businesses, addresses and intersections are nearby. The second general use of the BrailleNote GPS is to navigate to a specific destination along an automatically planned route. One can also create manual routes or edit automatic routes either in pedestrian oriented or vehicular routes. These routes can of course be used in conjunction with the Look-Around information. Sendero GPS provides the opportunity for users to get information beyond the reach of their 4 good senses. Even visually impaired users will see how valuable it is to know the names on signs they can see but not read. Information can be discerned far beyond the reach of the visual sense if the user chooses. The BrailleNote and the continually evolving vast quantity of electronic location information gives the blind user entertaining and valuable access to the environment through which he or she can more independently travel.