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Joined: 14/03/2003 22:46:42 Posts: 953 Location: Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom
Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 2:50 pm Post subject:
Thanks for the link, radavis - I recognise some of my own POI creations in there!!
I downloaded a couple of files to check whether they had left my creation information in the text file, but this is what they have changed it to the text below.
I like the bit in bold that says they developed a complex approach to creating POI's. Yeah, it must have been so difficult scouring our site for them and downloading them off there!!
This file follows the format we have developed called "Collected POI's", to solve the
issue with some versions of TomTom software, which limits the number of POI's you can use.
Some versions of the TomTomGo software only allow you to add an extra 29 POI category files
to your TOmTom. In other words if you have 29 separate POI categories then thats the limit,
and you cannot add any more. Since the very popular POI Road Safety Camera Database files
use 10 different files if you require the seperate speed limit indications, then you can
see that running out of spare file spaces can easily happen.
POI's are very useful for navigation as they give you the capability to easily find places,
nbased on what you remember around. Often you will remember a shop or landmark, rather than
postcode or streetname. So having many POI's on the TomTom to help you navigate is we think
essential.
At Landis We became so frustrated by this limit that we have created a solution to the problem
and "collected POI'S" is our response to this.
We developed a complex approach to compiling the POI's in the first place. Based on some special
logical coding and scripts that we have used in our compilation tool. For instance in the case of
Petrol Stations we collated the freely listed data (without brand names) as well as brand name
related data. We then pulled these files together and then had to de-duplicate them.
we used an algorithm to do this initially based on locations, and then a human operative to remove
the low probability entries. This creates a very high quality set of data, that also makes
for a very good user experince, though a somewhat lengthy and costly process. We now build
on this work every monthly for the updates we release.
Finally we verified all of the garages that had different names, but the same co-ordinates. You
may ask why we did this, the reason is that the co-ordinates are "snapped" to a section of
the road data TomTom use (TeleAtlas). What we do is make sure these remain in the data, because they
are the opposite carriageway service stations e.g. South Carriageway Mimms Services &
North Carriageway Mimms Services.
POI types will then have the telephone number added where applicable. _________________ TomTom 730
HTC Desire - Co Pilot Live Premium (Europe)
Joined: Feb 05, 2005 Posts: 1039 Location: East Sussex
Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 4:33 pm Post subject:
been there as well and tried a few
but to be honest for eg sainsbury whats the point of saying sainsbury for each poi and no address for half of them ..na i went back to my j's which i can almost guarantee has more correct places than them as i have been to almost every store south of the themes _________________ TomTom 5001
Joined: Mar 11, 2004 Posts: 1199 Location: Park Gate
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 3:56 am Post subject:
andy-c1 wrote:
been there as well and tried a few
but to be honest for eg sainsbury whats the point of saying sainsbury for each poi and no address for half of them ..na i went back to my j's which i can almost guarantee has more correct places than them as i have been to almost every store south of the themes
Considering that half their list is just phone numbers, there are only 180 stores listed. I have a POI file for Sainsbury's of all the stores I have to visit and thats over 200 entry's. All mine start with the store/town name, full postal address.
As you point out how you are supposed to find which store you want when they all start with Sainsbury, totally useless. _________________ Graham.
TT Go720, App:9.510(1234792.1) OS:842337
GPS: V1.20, Boot: 5.5279, Home: V2.9.5.3093
Map: Europe V910.4892
Map: Europe_Truck V870.3421, Kingston 8GB SD
Nokia 925 Windows 8
Joined: Jun 20, 2004 Posts: 194 Location: Dorset, UK.
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 10:03 am Post subject:
They've obviously seen the comments here. Their website now features the following comment - alongside a skull and crossbones...
Quote:
We have seen some comments on a website that we have "ripped off" POI data. This has never been our intention, and the reason we have a large number of POI sets awaiting publication is for just this reason.
With any POI data set that we receive , even from people who provide them in "good faith", we have to be very careful.
Firstly there is a quality issue, and we want to maintain best quality possible. Secondly, these POI sets often arrive without attribution, i.e no authors details attached. This is because people copy the files that they see as "relevant" the .OV2 and .BMP but not the licence or copyright notice.
This suggests to me that they think it's ok to rip off others' POIs, just as long as they check them first.
Maybe they should fly the Jolly Roger more prominently on their website! _________________ Geraint
TomTom for iPhone v1.9
App version: 8.300 (777309)
Map: Western Europe v875.3668
Joined: Mar 11, 2004 Posts: 1199 Location: Park Gate
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 3:51 pm Post subject:
andy-c1 wrote:
so do mine xda makes life a lot easier ,but tt5 now makes it harder to see which poi you want unlike tt3
Hence the reason I'm staying with TT V3, with GPSAssist I can have voice announcements for every POI I have. _________________ Graham.
TT Go720, App:9.510(1234792.1) OS:842337
GPS: V1.20, Boot: 5.5279, Home: V2.9.5.3093
Map: Europe V910.4892
Map: Europe_Truck V870.3421, Kingston 8GB SD
Nokia 925 Windows 8
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 4:16 pm Post subject:
geraint wrote:
They've obviously seen the comments here. Their website now features the following comment - alongside a skull and crossbones...
Ah yes, the 'we can't be bothered to find the owner so it's ours now' excuse! I'm in the process of compiling a list of POI overlays that were sourced from here, if anyone has spotted any I'd be grateful if you could email me with details. _________________ Darren Griffin
Joined: 14/09/2002 20:56:18 Posts: 5231 Location: Surrey, United Kingdom
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 6:38 pm Post subject:
Darren,
The CC Zone and Total ones are definitely mine. I loaded my CC Zone data into Autoroute and then loaded theirs as well and, would you believe, the points were identical. Even the names were the same, except that they had added 'Congestion Zone' to the beginning of the Name field. Hell, on the Total one they even used the icon I made! Its unpacked size, creation date and timestamp and CRC checksum are identical to mine. I am not a happy bunny.
I reckon they fleeced them from Ian Cooper's website though, as I'm not sure if they appear on this one. _________________ Tim
Last edited by Tim Buxton on Tue Aug 16, 2005 7:22 am; edited 1 time in total
Joined: Nov 16, 2004 Posts: 2145 Location: Midlands, UK
Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:05 am Post subject:
Well I just downloaded the Motorway_Services.ZIP, there is no copyright to the original author, but the file I downloaded from some web site that I cannot remember a couple of months ago is identical apart from a few locations, but I stopped using it as the locations are quite far of at some places, but I have just compared the files and well what can I say, they are the same for all but a few locations, they have not checked the locations as they would find that the services on some motorways are wrong.
They were recorded by people passing the services then submitting that location, but at 60-80 mph by the time the location was registered by whatever program they where using it was some way off, and the files are identical.
I make several poi files for my own use, and can tell anyone that when the locations are to 4/5 decimal places they have been copied, just try it yourself, if you move just the last digit by 1 eg.
-0.94021 ,52.21030, "a"
change to
-0.94022 ,52.21030 "b"
and see how much it moves on the map, no one could have saved those locations for Motorway_Services.ZIP and got them so close, they are copied, stolen, FULL STOP.
The CC Zone and Total ones are definitely mine. I loaded my CC Zone data into Autoroute and then loaded theirs as well and, would you believe, the points were identical. Even the names were the same, except that they had added 'Congestion Zone' to the beginning of the Name field. Hell, on the Total one they even used the icon I made! Its unpacked size, creation date and timestamp and CRC checksum are identical to mine. I am not a happy bunny.
I reckon they fleeced them from Ian Cooper's website though, as I'm not sure if they appear on this one.
Tim, Can your CC Zone POI be used with TomTom Navigator 5?
Joined: May 18, 2005 Posts: 193 Location: North East
Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 11:34 am Post subject:
Hi
I use the speed camera database but upto now have not used any of the others on your site. No doubt I will download some soon.
One thing, the pois that come with TTN5, where are these stored & can thay be ammended? There is a petrol station near me that is shown on the wrong side of the road & 100 yards too far west. A second one one the opposite side of the road, 300 yards east is not shown. It's not that I need them to be correct but others may if they are new to the area.
Norman _________________ If riding in a plane is flying then riding in a boat is swimming. If you want to experience the feeling
GET OUT OF THE VEHICLE
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