Today, TomTom launched OpenLR an open standard for dynamic location referencing, such as displaying traffic and weather on a map. TomTom’s creation of this open standard can be construed as a response to the patent litigation that was brought upon them by Microsoft, as they were forced to remove the infringing location technology from their applications. TomTom intends to make OpenLR an open standard and wishes to engage other vendors with an open source code library license under GPLv2 license.
There’s a good discussion on TomTom’s website about why this open dynamic location referencing is important, and several advantages over existing solutions are outlined. The OpenLR offers advantages over the FM-radio based RDS-TMC location referencing because that standard uses pre-coded locations with a limit on the number of locations, whereas OpenLR is open ended on the amount of locations. OpenLR as a universal standard would enable better system integration, but it must first generate wide interest and adoption before it could reach that point.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
TomTom removed some tech as a result of patent dispute? I don’t think so – they settled – and as I read it, everything is as it was. Read: http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/mar09/03-30MSTomTomPR.mspx
Here’s a quote from Dana Blankenhorn on ZDNet: “TomTom settled the suit by agreeing to pay Microsoft based on its claims, which involve FAT file names, and to take the “offending” technology out of its products.”
http://is.gd/3ao8n