Awesome. The directions shown in the example are pretty much how an Indian would give directions (minus the hand waving of course :)
I wonder if it lies when it is too embarrassed to reply "sorry I don't know" like a real Indian.
Google Maps India learns to navigate like a local
31–38 of 38 posts
Re: Google Maps India learns to navigate like a local
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes - it strikes me that this is not so much navigating like someone in India , but navigating more like many (most?) people do in practice. I tend to like knowing which way is north, and using that, but I've found explaining things using compass directions often confuses people. Especially in unfamiliar surroundings it's much easier to get your bearings from significant landmarks.
Although this is not still available for India, Bing maps has had this from about a year now. http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2Fcommunity%2Fblogs%2Fmaps%2Farchive%2F2008%2F09%2F24%2Fnew-feature-release-of-live-search-maps.aspx&h=bf3c951bafc03cfbc163700de8e8f595
Not sure what happened to your link.
http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/maps/archive/2008/09/24/...
Re: Google Maps India learns to navigate like a local
#33Awesome. The directions shown in the example are pretty much how an Indian would give directions (minus the hand waving of course :)
I wonder if it lies when it is too embarrassed to reply "sorry I don't know" like a real Indian.
Why the downvotes ? The parent comment may be offensive, but it isn't false.
Re: Google Maps India learns to navigate like a local
#34Re: Google Maps India learns to navigate like a local
#35Outrageously cool. This is a textbook for how to build stuff in the modern way. 1) Start with a design 2) Get feedback 3) Improve design 4) Goto Step 2 This would also be fantastic in other places with roadnames. For example, walking direction around a city like D.C. "walk away from the Washington Monument and Towards the Lincoln Memorial."
Almost but not quite. This is textbook stuff in that it's actually using principals of wayfinding in built spaces. There's a great little research paper that goes into how we locate and orient ourselves in spaces http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~max/wayfinding.pdf These are the same principals that people use when designing signage for environments like airports and hospitals. I started a company (that I recently sold o…
The paper is interesting, but I'm more interested in hearing your startup story. Can you describe what lead you to start it, what were the problems, how did you find first customers etc.
Re: Google Maps India learns to navigate like a local
#36Awesome. The directions shown in the example are pretty much how an Indian would give directions (minus the hand waving of course :)
I wonder if it lies when it is too embarrassed to reply "sorry I don't know" like a real Indian.
I see where you're coming from, but 'lying' implies maliciousness. Somebody making up directions in cultures where not knowing is shameful isn't malicious, it's wanting to not be embarrassed.
The trick is to make sure the person feels they won't be embarrassed if they don't know the answer.
Re: Google Maps India learns to navigate like a local
#37Awesome. The directions shown in the example are pretty much how an Indian would give directions (minus the hand waving of course :)
I wonder if it lies when it is too embarrassed to reply "sorry I don't know" like a real Indian.
There is no "Real Indian". What you have is a collection of anecdotal evidence, personal experiences and consequent prejudices.
This Indian feels no shame in saying "I don't know".
Re: Google Maps India learns to navigate like a local
#38Awesome. The directions shown in the example are pretty much how an Indian would give directions (minus the hand waving of course :)
I wonder if it lies when it is too embarrassed to reply "sorry I don't know" like a real Indian.
This clearly means that a "real Indian" would say "sorry, I don't know," but Google would lie. (Actually it's closer to asking whether it is a lie to be too embarrassed to admit to ignorance.)
If it had meant that a "real Indian" lies about it, it would have had a comma after "know" or "does" at the end.