Handheld map guide for tourists

By CHRIS BARTON

Whether they are picking their way through the bustle of Auckland or the wilds of Tongariro National Park, tourists now have the option of high-tech handheld maps as their guide.

The idea - Livingstone Guides - is the brainchild of former Wilson White director Ross Stewart and long-time colleague and software developer Eden Shields.

Mr Stewart was looking for something to do after he sold, a year ago, the IT recruitment company he helped build and Mr Shields was keen to find new outlets for his locally developed "moving map" software.

Both saw handheld computing as the new frontier - and in particular the Microsoft-based Pocket PC.

That was in part because Palm, the market leader in handhelds, was well catered for in city guides and maps, but also because the Pocket PC, with its minimum of 32Mb of memory and colour screen, was just the specification needed for the raster (as opposed to vector) maps developed by Mr Shields.

The handhelds made by companies such as Compaq, Casio and Hewlett-Packard can also take tiny plug-in GPS (global positioning systems) units which integrate with this software.

A more sophisticated version of his moving map software is already in use on notebook computers used by search and rescue Coastguard planes and boats, the WestpacTrust rescue helicopters and the police Eagle helicopter.

The same electronic-age compass will also help trampers with handheld "geo-referenced" to find their way back onto the Milford Track when they lose their bearings. That is assuming they have still got battery power.

Livingstone Guides offers 11 Land Information NZ "mapules" for the main cities and other tourist spots like Rotorua, Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park, and Mt Taranki/ Mt Egmont.

The company is also partnering with Kiwimaps to provide more detailed street scale maps for the cities and with Reed Publishing's travel and tramping guides to provide added tourist information using Microsoft Reader's e-Book format.

The multi-layered full-colour atlas of maps is indexed and searchable by place and street names. It also features user-defined "push pins," allowing users to make their own notes on points of interest or to pinpoint locations of importance. The software engine for the Pocket PCs can be downloaded free from www.livingstoneguides.com with each mapule costing $US11.95.

Mr Stewart says the company sees huge potential for the tourist market - especially in themed maps. It's currently working on a set for trout fishing in New Zealand. He says the aim is to prove the concept in New Zealand and then take the idea to United Kingdom.

Livingstone Guides