Review of Captain GPS Navigation System
First generation product Saturday 19th September 2009
Second edition features and review Capten plus page 4
price range from $399 to $499
Overview:
Three blind people and one sighted guide took Kapten for a spin and experienced the
following:
The main benefits are :
Price, size, public transit mode, FM radio and MP3 player. Voice recognition in quiet
environments.
The weaknesses are:
No look around capability, poor GPS tracking ability, insufficient verbal prompting
and incorrect route directions
The Kapten GPS unit is at first glance notably simple in its design, a small and
compact unit with well defined easy to identify buttons. A circular key pad towards
the top of the unit, encompassing up, down, left, right and a centre key referred
to as the `K` key. Below which is a row of three buttons, dedicated to the features
MP3 player, GPS and FM Radio, below the centre GPS button is also a telephone key.
On the left side of the unit near the bottom, is the two mill head phone jack socket
and on the top right hand edge is the micro USB charger and data port. On the right
hand side near the top is the volume control. There is also a keypad lock switch
which is recessed on the top of the unit towards the left hand side.
Kapten comes complete with every wire and connector you could need, so there’s no
need to run out and buy anything else, which is a nice touch.
Kapten has a built-in GPS receiver which is both good and bad. It is good because
the unit is small and self contained. It is bad because the GPS receiver is outdated
soon after the product is released. This may account for some of the poor tracking
we experienced.
Kapten has a built in compass but we were unable to get it to callobrate.
Features:
In addition to GPS, the Kapten has a built in FM Radio and MP3 player, together with
the option to link up your blue tooth enabled handset to the device in order that
you can receive and make calls through it. Note that your handset must also support
this feature.
When calculating a route, the Kapten GPS initially requires users to select a mode
of transit for their journey, this selection can be either made by pressing the `K`
key at the time of hearing the relevant choice, or by verbally indicating a selection
when prompted at the end of the available list. The choices of transport include
four possibilities; Pedestrian, Bicycle, Motorcycle and Car.
When selecting any of these, users must then define where they wish to travel, the
choices include; New address, favourites, last trips, contacts, k tags, Points of
Interest, visits or public transport.
Within each option there are a range of further choices to choose from. One immediate
issue is the lack of possibility to enter a business’s name or simply an area, for
example; When opting to calculate a route to a `New Address` the Kapten asks for
the city name, when choosing London, for example, the unit asks for the street name,
which doesn’t help unless you know the exact address of where you wish to go, like
wise addresses without street names, for example, tower buildings such as Canary
Wharf present issues here.
The POI choices are confusing, as there are only a few obvious choices, such as Transport
and Sports Activities, however restaurants and hotels appear nowhere to be found.
The option for leisure and culture likewise is vague and uninformative as to what
fits within it.
This is where one of the biggest draw backs becomes obvious with the Kapten. There
is no option to back up a step. If you enter the wrong sub-menu and listen to the
list of options. You then have to go right back to the start of the menu.
Kapten’s POI categorizations are confusing to navigate.
The range of choices include:
Transportation: Airport, Ferry embarkation platform, Railway station, Self service
bike, public transportation, Public Service.
Leisure and Culture: Tourist attraction, Amusement park, Casino, Cinema, Museum,
theatre, zoo.
Sports activities include the usual line up of stadiums, ice rinks, golf courses,
swimming pools etc.
Public Services: Embassy, town council, library, police station, exhibition centre,
tourist office, hospital.
Useful: Shopping centre, parking garage, rent a car facility, post office, camping
ground, hotel or motel, pharmacy, ATM, vehicle repair facility, petrol, city centre.
As previously stated, the biggest problem is that unless you know where to look and
the exact name of the type of POI, as defined by Kapten, you have little chance of
finding it without listening to the entire menu at a very slow speed and without
being able to speed up the speech.
During the evaluation period which covered about 2 hours over the 17th and 18th of
September, and an additional 3 hours of walking around London on the 19th, we had
great trouble getting the Kapten to identify when we went off route. We could walk
the opposite direction for several hundred yards and Kapten would keep saying to
continue ahead in spite of the fact that our target turn was now behind us. On the
10 or so times we tried this we could not get Kapten to identify that we had gone
off route and get it to recalculate or to alert us that we were off route. GPS coverage
was good at 5 to 7 satellites according to the unit. This happend in a wide open
area in the Docklands and also near Hyde Park. When moving around London, we had
to find a very open location to gather an initial signal lock, which took well over
ten minutes.
When navigating in pedestrian mode we noted a significant additional problem as the
Kapten GPS offers very little audible feedback either confirming you’re on route
or indeed off it. Every 300 or so yards the unit would repeat the current latest
instruction with a reduced measurement to the next turn.
On several occasions, we found the Kapten GPS to be confused as to what actual street
we were on, giving instructions to turn onto the street we were in fact on at the
time, and at other times informing us to turn onto streets which ran parallel with
our current route, technically impossible.
Kapten is meant to be used with a headset microphone. There is a microphone in the
midst of the cord which you push to talk. The voice recognition was quite good in
medium to quiet locations. On noisy streets, the recognition was poor and the ability
to hear the earphone was nearly impossible. Although the recognition was generally
good, it was still a slow process to verbally prompt the unit with the relevant information
in order to set an address or point of interest, much sloer than could be achieved
with a keypad or keyboard.
This being said, there’s little point in being able to plot a route based on voice
input, if navigating your route makes little to no sense, is easily misleading and
is apparently unaware when you deviate from it.
Note: an external speaker is provided with Kapten and the built-in microphone is
not as reliable as the wired microphone. It can be unsafe for a blind person to wear
headphones when walking.
Another significant draw back to the Kapten GPS was the lack of vicinity mode or
look about function. Without these features, users are unable to adequately understand
their environment and location choices.
This missing Look Around feature is one of Kapten’s major drawbacks for a person
who is blind or visually impaired, not a capability that a product designed for the
sighted would require. All accessible GPS products designed for blind users have
some sort of look around capability.
Another major weakness, Kapten does not possess the ability to hear the current location.
It will announce the distance and direction to your next turn in a route but it will
not announce the name of the street your on or the one you are crossing.
Kapten offers no precise turn instruction. While Kapten told us to turn on x street,
there was no mention as to whether it meant now or in a mile.
Conclusion:
Although the low price and small size of Kapten makes it appear attractive, Kapten
offers none of the features that blind and low vision users have come to know and
require from their GPS devices such as a look around mode and reassurance of streets
and directions along a route.
Kapten’s voice prompts are clear during configuration, if not a little tedious and
slow, but those who wish to be guided through the choices, may enjoy this simple
user interface in the beginning but perhaps not after the novelty wears off.
We have heard so many comments about how well Kapten works, we were quite astounded
at its poor tracking and lack of correct instructions. We kept thinking there must
be something we were doing wrong but we were all experienced GPS and technology users.
We could only surmise that Kapten assumes the user can see landmarks and signs to
augment its minimal amount of verbal announcements. Without access to visual information
in one’s environment, Kapten is best used as an MP3 player and FM radio and not as
a reliable GPS guidance product.
Second generation capten plus gps device 2011
Kapten Plus Talking Pocket GPS w/Kit: U.S. Map
"100% Voice Interactive GPS - Great for the Blind!"
Kapten Plus Talking Pocket PS w/Kit: U.S. Map - click to view larger image
Your Price : $499.95
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Product Description
Features
Get voice guidance while walking, on a bus or in a car
“Where Am I?” mode determines your current location
Voice-controlled MP3 player and FM receiver
Includes mini speaker, earphone & USB charging cable
Mobility Kit: 10-hr. spare battery, car/wall chargers & carry case
Unlike other GPS systems, the tiny Kapten Plus Talking Pocket GPS Navigational System
from Kapsys has no screen. This palm-sized unit uses voice recognition technology
that allows it to accept verbal input. You make navigation requests by talking to
the Kapten Plus and are in turn given spoken directions. It gives the blind or visually
impaired pedestrian a tool to help them get where they need to go. This version adds
a mobility kit with a spare battery, car/wall chargers and a carry case for maximum
functionality and flexibility.
Kapten Plus voice-controlled mobility assistant is a new generation of voice-controlled
navigator for the blind and visually impaired. It offers the main features of the
1st generation Kapten and adds innovative features to ease mobility of those with
limited vision.
NEW KAPTEN PLUS FEATURES:
- A free navigation mode, which provides in real time a voice description of what's
around during your pedestrian trips: street names, crossroads, your K-tags nearby,
etc. A dedicated button allows you to launch and to stop the feature.
- A map discovery mode, which allows you to browse the embedded digital map to explore
an area. This mode announces the road segments available from the departure point.
- Kapten Plus also offers an improved voice destination entry with the digit to digit
address number entry.
- Kapten Plus integrates a complete vocalized user guide. This guide is accessible
on the product via the MP3 player function.
- In order to provide an optimal navigation experience, Kapten Plus integrates a
high-performance GPS which offers a faster time to first reception as well as an
enhanced accuracy. The product also integrates the latest map data from TeleAtlas
(version 06 2010), as well as an enriched points of interest database (more categories
and points are now available).
- The "where am I?" function which allows you to estimate your position is now accessible
in a click.
- In order to protect your Kapten Plus and facilitate GPS reception, the product
is provided with a silicon transport cover, with a clip attached to it. The Kapten
Plus pack also includes a mini-speaker kit, an earset with microphone and a USB cable.
FEATURES CARRIED OVER FROM THE 1ST GENERATION:
- Speaker-independent automatic speech recognition from Nuance.
- Multi-transport navigation, offering several navigation modes: pedestrian, bike,
motorbike and car.
- Smart pedestrian navigation combining street navigation with city rail public transport.
- A track mode which allows you to record and replay your best itineraries.
- The A to B itinerary calculation, which calculates the best route between 2 locations.
- The roadbook function, to browse a calculated itinerary in order to prepare your
trips.
- The K-tag recording to save the position of your preferred or your most useful
addresses. You can attach a voice memo to your K-tags, use your K-tags directory
to start a navigation, or, in Free Navigation mode, be notified when passing nearby
your favorite places.
For your comfort and your entertainment, Kapten Plus still integrates:
- A voice-controlled FM radio.
- A voice-controlled MP3 player, with the possibility to leave pause tags when playing
audiobooks or audioguides.
- A voice recorder to save your voice memos.
- Nearly 70 keywords are available to control the product. Thanks to its advanced
voice interface, Kapten Plus can be fully controlled by voice.
NOTE: The Bluetooth hands-free kit feature is no longer available on Kapten Plus.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:
- Size: 74mm x 44mm x 13mm
- Weight: 60 grams (without speaker)
- Memory: 3 GB max. (according to country)
- USB via micro-USB 2.0 FullSpeed
- Battery: 750 mA
- MP3 audio player
- Speech recognition and text-to-speech : Nuance
- Connectivity : PC (Windows XP and higher) and Mac (Mac OS 10.5 and higher)
- Application to download the firmware updates and the database updates (ephemeris,
speed cameras database)
- Charging via USB
- 1 year manufacturer's limited warranty
- Designed and manufactured in France.
YOUR KAPTEN PLUS INCLUDES:
- 1 mini-speaker kit (with audio amplification and built-in battery)
- 1 necklace
- 1 USB and synchronization cable
- 1 quick starting guide
INCLUDED MOBILITY KIT ADDS:
- 1 spare battery
- 1 car charger
- 1 wall charger
- 1 carry case
NOTE: Once you receive your Kapten GPS, you may call for set-up assistance at 1-800-522-6294
ext. 809
‘THE KAPTEN PLUS’
TALKING GPS WITH BUILT-IN MP3 PLAYER, FM RADIO & VOICE RECORDER
Quick Start Guide
The audio instructions for the Kapten plus have been loaded into the unit in the
MP3 player. Please see below for information on how to hear these.
The Kapten Plus can be used in one of several different modes (each mode has it operating
as a different device). These are GPS, MP3, Radio, Free Navigation and Voice Recorder.
These modes can be mixed i.e. you can listen to the radio whilst navigating - the
radio volume will automatically be reduced when a navigation announcement is made.
BUTTON LAYOUT:
Hold the unit with the buttons facing you and the flat circular area towards the
top. In the centre of the circle you will feel a round button.
This is referred to as the K-tag button. Around this central button there is a circular