Local landmarks as new type of geographical data have attracted plenty of interest among GPS vehicle tracker manufacturers in recent years. Also, GPS tracker users are noticing how powerful and useful instant textual location sharing could be in practise.
It is more and more evident that the fast paced nature of GPS vehicle tracking requires new type of geo information that provide instant understanding of the location in mobile usage.
It is once again time to review the basics; What are the local landmarks?
Local landmarks are well-defined point data (name, regional hierarchy & coordinate) that give local people instant understanding of the location. Local landmarks can be used to determine the location and share it textually or in voice format.
Local landmarks are very different from POI data. Local landmarks cannot be assessed or compared to other geographical data because they convey the location textually, not visually on a map, and are determined by this feature from a large amount of traditional geographical data.
POI data determines where something locates (name and coordinates) and what information it includes (attribute information). POI data provides only seldom the name/text that instantly provide idea of the location for local people, thus POI data is not suitable for textual location determination as well as local landmarks.
Why other geographical data producers do not have as extensive local landmark database?
Production of the local landmarks data is more complicated than the production of other geographical data types and elements. The determination and identification of the applicable local landmarks require a lot of specialized knowledge, experience and background work.
During the last 15 years Geckram, together our Finnish partner company Gecko Landmarks Inc., has developed our own specialised in-house methods and technologies that focus solely on industrial production of the local landmarks. Other geographical data producers do not have such specialized expertise and technology yet.
Our local landmark database covers the whole Philippines: more than 200,000 accurately defined local landmarks from every city and major villages. We update our Philippine local landmark database continuously. Each day we add hundreds of local landmarks into our database and regularly check that all landmarks correspond to reality.
What local landmarks do?
All over the world, people navigate and determine locations by means of local landmarks. Our local landmarks enable the same principle used in mobile phone and internet services and applications. For local people, the name of the local landmark instantly evokes the idea of the location in relation to their own location.
In addition, the local landmarks can complete maps and addresses, or substitute in some application and services. Local landmarks provide substantial value, especially in areas where the map literacy is not widespread, addresses and maps are incomplete or missing altogether.
Where local landmarks provide best possible value?
Our local landmarks are an ideal alternative or complementary location determiner for various applications and services, in which it is important to share the textual location messages quickly and generally understood format. These include in particular the following services and applications:
- GPS vehicle tracking
- Location notifications and bots (text and voice)
- GPS vehicle tracking
…. plus, in various future mobile applications that takes mobile location for hundreds of millions of new users who are not able to read a maps and do not understand addresses.