Tag: navigation system

If You Use Mobile Apps for Marine Navigation, Read This

June 15, 2015

Whether for business or pleasure, it’s vitally important to know where you are when you’re out at sea. Modern navigation systems have made this much easier: You now have GPS data to pinpoint your location, making sure you never get lost while out on the water.

These electronic devices can also help you locate fish and tell you the depth of the water, making marine excursions safer and easier.

Unfortunately, being out on the water exposes you—and your expensive equipment—to the harsh and unforgiving natural elements. Sun, wind, and salty spray from the sea can take a serious toll on your electronics, corroding the LCD screens.

Sun glare can make LCD screens nearly impossible to see, putting you in an incredibly dangerous situation. While polarizing sunglasses can help protect your eyes from the damaging UV rays and reflections, they further impede your ability to see your navigational device’s LCD screen.

But what can be done?

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How to Protect Your In-Car GPS Navigation System

February 5, 2015

The experience of driving down unfamiliar roads and highways suddenly became a whole lot simpler in the mid-2000s, which was roughly when in-car GPS navigation devices began catching on en masse. Almost overnight, the days of pulling onto the shoulder to wrestle with an enormous paper map were over.

In fact, thanks to the ever-increasing popularity of navigation consoles, even MapQuest and similar map-based websites have lately begun falling out of favor. Indeed, a vehicle without an LCD display command center today is practically considered suspect.

Your In-Car Navigation System Has a Potentially Expensive and Dangerous Downside
Navigation displays inside the 2014 BMW i3

There is a downside, however, to having GPS navigation displays installed in just about every motor vehicle on the market today: The graphics on the displays can occasionally be very hard to see.

On some screens, excessive glare from the sun can nearly drown out any text or graphics, which can potentially be very dangerous. And there’s definitely nothing safe about squinting at your GPS display while you’re supposed to be concentrating on the road.

That’s not all: Drivers who wear glare-reducing polarized sunglasses while they’re behind the wheel frequently complain about the difficulty of reading their navigation display screens. Polarized sunglasses have become increasing popular over the past few years, and for good reason: they do a great job of reducing the sun’s reflected glare. Still, it’s a known fact that polarized lenses significantly reduce the visibility of images produced by LCD or LED displays. (Your in-car navigation system almost certainly has an LCD display.)

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