A new geolocation application : Wherigo

I bought a new GPS from Garmin a few days ago. It's called the Colorado, and for those who know hand-held GPS devices from Garmin, it is an improvement on the famous 60CSX with lots of built-in functions. But the most interesting improvement is the Whereigo game player.

To put it simply, Whereigo is a new application that enables adventures based on geo-location. For example, when you do geocaching or treasure-hunting, you no longer follow the latitude and longitude address printed on a sheet of paper your printed, but the GPS will detect when you arrive at a specific spot, and will trigger messages or uncover clues, or tell you where to go automatically when you are at a specific spot. Here is the new Colorado with the rocker wheel (no more keypad)

In other words, based on the place where you are, the Colorado will tell you where to go, what to do or what to look for. This opens up a lot of possibilities and I am already thinking about several new applications, like an application for tourists : you are somewhere in a city you want to visit, and your GPS will lead you through the most interesting sites in town. Or if you are on long-distance walkways, the WhereIgo could make sure you don't miss the most interesting places to see along the way.

The best thing is that WhereIgo can also run on PDA's or other hand-held computers that contain a GPS. Such as the the new Mac I-phone 3G, maybe ? Let's see how this technology develops.

There are already a few Whereigo adventures, and I did one in Steenokkerzeel near Brussels last weekend. It's fascinating to see that you arrive at a specific place and the GPS flashes the next instructions. Clearly. there is a future in this. Here is a screen layout of the first Whereigo I played in Belgium. By the way, the mapping software of the Colorado is brilliant - just look at the picture below


Watch this space. I'd like to design a Whereigo application (the design of the applications does not look very complicated), so here is a hobby that could turn into a passion, and then a business...

Check the website www.whereigo.com for more details