Next Generation of Watches

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Next Generation of Watches Incorporating Time
and Space

• Xinhang Shen
• NAC Geographic Products Inc.

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Introduction

• What will be the most significant change of the
  world in the 21st century?
• It will be the use of accurate location as often
  as the use of accurate time because they answer
  the two most important questions WHEN and WHERE.

3
Timekeeping technologies

• Ancient time the position of the sun
• 3500 BC Sundials and Hourglasses
• 1300s Mechanical clocks
• 1656 Pendulum clocks (Christiaan Huygens)
• 1761 Pocket watches (John Harrison)

The timekeeping watch has answered the question
of WHEN accurately and consumer friendly no
matter where you are.
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Positioning technologies

• 3500 BC Observing land marks
• Ancient Greece, Rome Egypt Observing the sun
  and stars, wind, waves and water
• 1100 AD Magnetic compasses appeared
• 1904 Radar invented (Christian Hulsmeyer)
• 1978 GPS satellites launched
• 1990s Handheld GPS receivers available to all
  civilians
• Can a handheld GPS receiver answer the question
  of WHERE really like a watch?

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Problem in GPS Receivers

• Although a GPS receiver can measure the accurate
  location anytime anywhere in the world, the
  geographic coordinates to represent the locations
  are inefficient and far too long for people to
  digest, remember and communicate.
• Therefore, the accurate geographic coordinates
  have never been directly used in the daily lives
  of consumers like accurate time.

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Geographic Coordinates

• To represent a location to the accuracy of one
  meter, a pair of decimal longitude and latitude
  coordinates will have more than 17 characters
• Longitude -112.12453 degrees
• Latitude -43.67321 degrees
• or even longer in UTM coordinates
• UTM Zone 12
• Easting 409348 meters
• Northing -4836192 meters

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Consequences

• Due to the difficulties for people to digest,
  geographic coordinates are nearly useless to
  consumers.
• It becomes necessary for a GPS receiver to
  display a location on a map that makes the GPS
  receiver
• a) LARGE,
• b) EXPENSIVE,
• c) SHORT IN BATTERY LIFE and
• d) DIFFICULT TO USE.

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Consequences Contd

• Up to now, GPS receivers are used in very limited
  applications by very small user groups.
• They cant be compared with timekeeping watches
  that have made accurate time the most important
  part of all the human activities.

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Solution

• As the world is entering the digital era,
  accurate spatial information is becoming as
  important as accurate time in order to benefit
  from the modern technologies.
• To solve the problem of geographic coordinates, a
  solution called the Natural Area Coding System
  has been developed

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What Is the New System

• The Natural Area Coding System is an optimized
  system which has introduced a unified and highly
  efficient representation for both an area and a
  location in the world.
• The system makes the representations of accurate
  areas and locations so simple that all consumers
  can easily digest, remember and communicate for
  their daily activities.

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Represent Locations

• To represent the location of a building
• Decimal longitude and latitude coordinates need
  more than15 characters such as
• Longitude -112.1245 degrees
• Latitude -43.6732 degrees
• A Natural Area Code needs only 8 characters
• NAC 8CNJ Q8ZG

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Represent Areas

• To represent an area like a city
• Using longitude and latitude coordinates requires
  four decimal numbers for its southwest and
  northeast corners.
• Using a Natural Area Code requires only four
  characters. For example, the City of Toronto
• NAC 8C Q8

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Applications of NAC

• An eight or ten character NAC can be used as
• A Universal Address to specify every building or
  house in the world
• A Global Postal Code to sort all mail from the
  world level to the final mail box automatically
• A Universal Property Identifier to represent each
  street light, fire hydrant, sewage exit, parking
  meter, electric wire pole, tree, etc

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Advantages of NAC

• A Natural Area Code is not only highly efficient,
  but can also be directly
• Pinpointed on any map with Universal Map Grids no
  matter its scale and projection
• Measured and navigated with GPS receivers
• Used to quickly estimate the distance and
  direction to any destination

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Pinpoint on All Maps


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Display Universal Address

• Capable to display the Universal Address, a GPS
  receiver will become small, light, affordable and
  easy to use, due to the elimination of maps.
• It will make consumer friendly accurate location
  information like accurate time available anytime
  anywhere in the world.

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Time-Space Watches

• To incorporate the GPS capability into watches
  including wrist watches, cellphones, cameras, etc
  will lead to the birth of the next generation of
  watches, time-space watches.

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Photograph
2004-03-30
8CDJ Q8SF
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Business Card
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Yellow Page Listings
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House Number Plate
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Advertisement
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Street Sign
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Property Listings
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Event Notice
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Location Based Services
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Mail Envelope
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Sewage Exit
NAC 8CHJ1 Q8SGV
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Street Light
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Parking Ticket
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Many other uses

• Tell a fishing spot, a picnic table, a park bench
• Report an emergency location
• Identify a bus stop, a fire hydrant, a tree
• Record the location of anything happened
• Specify a target for missiles

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Conclusion

• The wide use of time-space watches will start a
  new era of using accurate locations for all
  location related events and activities.
• Then you can answer the question of WHERE
  accurately and easily no matter where you are by
  simply telling the Universal Address displayed on
  your time-space watch.

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Thank You!