Hands-on with the Blusens G01 satellite imagery GPS

We were pretty stoked about the Blusens G-series PMPs that overlay guidance information on Google Maps satellite imagery when we first heard about them in October, and now Spanish site Xataka has a hands-on video with the G01, which appears to be just as impressive as we'd hoped. The satellite maps automatically appear when available for the area you're in, and Xataka says the unit itself is quite fast. Sadly, there isn't a ton more detail in the review, but those of you aching for some shaky camera work and cheesy country-rock tunes can check out the vid after the break.

[Jeff @ Dec 19th 2007 1:45PM]

Gah, how much memory do these things have? Or do they use a hard drive to store the imagery?

[Holger @ Dec 19th 2007 1:49PM]

Hm.. doubt they could store all the images, even for just a small area... must be retrieved through wifi? but that sounds kinda stupid too, if there is no wifi coverage...

btw. the image on the device above must be fake, since you can see the sides of the buildings (ie. it's an isometric view or something). but ofc they just photoshop the best picture in there.

[Tony Rayo @ Dec 19th 2007 2:03PM]

The satellite could have been at the angle to the ground at the point that photo was taken. As far as storage, I am betting it has some kind of flash storage and retrieves new data via 3G wireless networking.

[kjb434 @ Dec 19th 2007 4:53PM]

It just mean the aerial was flown from a plane and not satellite.

The majority of detailed aerial photographs only come from airplanes. Satellite provides the more zoomed out photos.

[bigdoggie @ Dec 19th 2007 7:53PM]

Not always, kjb434.
If you look at google maps, you'll see alot of diagonal sattelite images.

[Jay Tabula @ Dec 19th 2007 1:51PM]

Tag Hauer link

[Sacha Fuentes @ Dec 19th 2007 2:03PM]

The Blusens G01 has a 30 GB hard disk where the images are stored.

These images are not from Google Maps, they are taken by another company and yes, they are isometric. Each point has been photographied four times, so the view depends on the direction you are going.

Anything else you wanna know about it just ask ;)

[Kaz @ Dec 19th 2007 2:03PM]

This is a known young spanish company. You can see the specifications of the navigator in its web www.blusens.com, but you will have to use the spanish version to access to full specifications (it doesn't work properly in the english version). It has a 30 GB HDD, and uses 3D Pictometry Navigation
(Real aerial oblique pictures ).

[Wwhat @ Dec 19th 2007 2:22PM]

30GB still would not cut it for some uses though, and if it's private images then it would not be available for all areas in a long time.
Also I'm not sure if the display isn't a bit confusing with real photo's, seems to me that less might be more in use in a car.

It's strange that it uses a HD, I would have expected it to use cellphone data networks, but it doesn't have much info on the site, just says it has a HD and that's it.

[Jon Doe @ Dec 19th 2007 10:11PM]

Do you have any idea how much 30GB can store? Some time download Google Earth if you haven't already. Set the cache to 2000MB. (Max) And browse around your town at 4000 feet which is what this appears to be at. You can cache a shit load with just 2GB. Now add 30GB and you can add at least a state's worth of data if not more. One other thing that people miss is that 90% of that space is taken up by high res metro areas. Crap out in the 'burbs is going to be low res. So Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison are all going to easily fit on 30GB.

[Wwhat @ Dec 20th 2007 3:45AM]

Ah but google earth has images from 1 side not as reported from 4 sides, and yes I have google earth installed.

[Wwhat @ Dec 20th 2007 5:17AM]

But I guess you are right about the storage space being not too bad, but that still needs to be filled with pictures from all countries.

[sven @ Dec 19th 2007 2:09PM]

Yay! I don't know where I am or going, but at least I know what the top of my supposed are area looks like.

[Jonathan Bergeron @ Dec 19th 2007 2:14PM]

I'm not sure how good that overlay is. Last night I looked up, on Google Maps, where I work and it shows the construction site of the area. This place was built 5 years ago; and I work in the Tampa Metro area so it's not out in the sticks.

[Paul @ Dec 19th 2007 2:26PM]

Hey, that "cheesy" country-rock is My Morning Jacket, and that band rocks

[morcheeba @ Dec 19th 2007 4:46PM]

That songs from the CC-licensed Wired CD: http://creativecommons.org/wired

[Gian @ Dec 19th 2007 2:33PM]

Come on. This would only help a smart and savvy person, someone who can discern building locations from an overhead view and translate them into a street-level view. The smart and savvy person, who could make sense of this, wouldn't need it in the first place. They usually know where they're going.

Nice try, but Google (who I have the utmost disdain for) is on the right track with street view.

Gian

[jordan mcNeile @ Dec 19th 2007 7:31PM]

"cheesy country music?"
that's My Morning Jacket. They aren't country and they rock. Hard.

[Dave Barnow @ Dec 19th 2007 10:58PM]

Yeah they do, I whipped out Z last week, weird. Good song

[Bloobie @ Dec 19th 2007 9:12PM]

Since when did we have flying cars to actually make this thing useful? :P

[Griffon @ Dec 19th 2007 10:08PM]

I actually thought that was pretty cool, but I think a 3d navigation view is still more useful rather then that sat imagery for driving but when your looking for somewhere like parking it could be great. Hard to tell elevation though. Cool concept though. I found the perspective to be pretty disorienting. I know one of my requirements is to have my my icon always facing up and have the map rotate around it rather then showing the car icon going off at odd handles (maybe just me though).

[ram @ Dec 20th 2007 10:12AM]

casio