Navigate using photos

Navman's latest wheeze is this GPS in-car Sat Nav device that will take you to your destination using only the power of photos. Snap a photo of - say - your mum's house on your next visit using the in-built camera, and the unit will record the co-ordinates. Next time you want to be a good daughter and pay a visit, you can just bring up the pic of the parental abode and the Navman will guide you in (though really you should know where your parents live by now).

I wasn't initially sold on this idea, but at the demo we were given a few interesting case studies ("interesting" and "case studies" are usually mutually exclusive, but this time was different, honest). Say, for example you go to a neat little restaurant out in the middle of nowhere, you can just snap a pic of it to find it again whenever you fancy a nice bite to eat. And you'll soon be able to download points of interest from the Navman website so you can do a spot of sight-seeing without having to worry about mapping out your route.

And you can also email images. For example, instead of sending complex directions of how to get your house you could simply e-mail a NavPix image of it to your friends which would store all the geographical co-ordinates.

The Navman iCN720 and iCN750 devices also offer up to date speed camera warnings which can be downloaded from Navman's website and can be used with an optional extra traffic module (this costs around £100). This uses FM technology so there are no additional dial-up costs and can easily be clipped onto the GPS device.

Costing £549, the Navman iCN750 comes with 17 European maps pre-installed into its hard drive while the iCN720 features maps of the UK and Ireland and costs £399. Both units come with a car suction mount, cigarette lighter, carry case, USB cable and mains power adaptor.

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