LocaPoint Blog

The Story of Locapoint

I'd like to record how Locapoint was born.

On 25th, October 2004, I was on a train from Nagano. I met a CEO of venture company in GIS (Geographic Information System) industry to ask some advice, because I was about to start up my own company next week.

I was on my way home to Nara from Nagano. That was a long trip. In a train, I was half-sleep, half-awake. I imagined situation like this.


I'm on my way to a bar to attend a party. But I don't know where the bar. I know telephone number, and I call the bar.
"Hi, I want to go there, but I don't know where you are. We,, I've got a latest cell-phone with GPS navigation. Tell me your latitude and longitude, so I can input them to my Navigator"
"Hey....We can tell you a direction but latitude and longitude!"

Who remember latitude and longitude of own home? Maybe no one.
But most people remember their telephone number. Why?

This question is the beginning of Locapoint Stories.


I thought, may be latitude/longitude is too long for human. There must be a limit in brain capacity to remembering, and it must be between telephone number (10 digits) and latitude/longitude (15-16 digits).

I thought about "G-code" that is used for VCR recording. G-Code is a compressed code that contains channel, start time, and end-time(or time length).

I thought I may develop a 'G-code' for location, so latitude/longitude information can be shorter than brain capacity limit. If people can easily use GIS information, so world will be more convenient!

I opened a lap-top, open excel, and start some calculation.

Continues..

posted by Nao @ 11:19