POIs Where have we seen these before??

[radavis]

I wonder where he gets his POIs from??

http://www.tomtomfree.com/index.html

[BoPeep]

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!!

Regards,

Bo Peep.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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)

[radavis]

Glad to be of Help.

Raymond

[andy-c1]

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
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TomTom 5001

[xda]

[geraint]

They've obviously seen the comments here. Their website now features the following comment - alongside a skull and crossbones...

[andy-c1]

so do mine xda makes life a lot easier ,but tt5 now makes it harder to see which poi you want unlike tt3
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TomTom 5001

[xda]

[Darren]

[Tim Buxton]

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

[Pocketgps]

And they are selling them on CD as well.

[Darren]

[Pocketgps]

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.

[Horndean]

[LiveLifeGoJump]

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
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