Ordnance Survey – Great Britain's national mapping agency
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6.6: Mobile GIS (3)
Personal and vehicle navigation
LBS, as discussed in the previous section, rely on information about the environment around them combined with information about location, to provide users with specific services. One application of LBS is personal navigation, allowing you to find your way around without getting lost. Some personal navigation systems are better than others. The most commonly used navigation devices are a map and a compass; these however, have their limitations. Maps can be inconvenient when unfolded, only provide as much information as can be reasonably fitted onto them and cannot be viewed at different scales. The compass only provides information about direction and then only when the user knows how to use it correctly.
Today technology has all but replaced both of these instruments. Mobile devices allow the user to view maps on screen, and GPS has replaced the compass by providing position, speed and height data as well as direction information. In-vehicle navigation is one area 
these devices have found an immediate niche. Many models on the market now sport in-built satellite navigation systems, meaning that the car has a built-in GPS system and navigation screen on the dashboard. Some systems even speak to you in a friendly voice, telling you when to make a turn, how far you have to go, letting you know that you have taken a wrong turn, and welcoming you to your destination. Only a few years ago such technology was expensive, not very effective and the stuff of research; today it is commonplace, relatively cheap and increasingly usable.
In-vehicle satellite navigation systems usually consist of the hardware – comprising GPS, screen and computer system to drive it – and software – comprising a set of maps and a computer program usually obtained on CD-ROM. As new roads are built, the CD-ROM can be updated to the latest version, or, if going abroad, the CD-ROM for the destination country could be bought. Future systems might be able to use mobile phone technology to download maps of the area the vehicle is in, in real time from a server, eliminating the need for CD-ROMs altogether.