IntelliTours project is profiled in E-magazine devoted to engineering “Technology. Creativity. Fun.”
Joining Technology with Old Fashion Story Telling
Alabama Company connects sightseeing with satellite signals to bring landscapes, landmarks and history alive
IntelliTours creates audio and multimedia tours that are guided and triggered by GPS navigation. The tours work outdoors anywhere in the world, and can be packaged for handheld walking tours, auto and RV trips, and fixed-route tourist trolleys, buses and trains.
“We provide the hardware and software, and coordinate content whether created by the user, a thirdparty, or IntelliTours,” says Jim Carrier, IntelliTours Founder (see sidebar). “Tours can be altered or added easily using a standard PC. We map the tour and link the latitudes-longitudes of each site with the content for that site. We also train customer personnel and provide for local maintenance and repair. Then we turn the keys to the system over to the customer.
IntelliTours buys equipment from Alcorn McBride then adds the ‘story’ part: GPS systems linked with audio files. The idea came from a sailing trip Jim took across the Atlantic. Using GPS, Jim knew where he was, within fifty feet, at all times. After the trip, he picked up a standard GPS and explored the idea of tour guides using the device.
Jim created his business as a business-to-business operation, and began to focus primarily on reselling hardware. When Alcorn added a GPS function to their AM4 audio/video player everything came together for IntelliTours.
Tour Coupes have 15 three-wheelers (classified as mopeds). Jim mapped the tour and included history, etc. He created it in English and Spanish. You can go to a spot where there is nothing evident, but can give history as to what happened at that spot anyway. Done in 50 spots of 20 seconds to several minutes each. They even set music to the tour information. The Alcorn equipment is mounted in the trunk and feeds through an FM receiver into the speakers.
GPS builder software (free from the Alcorn McBride website) is a template that operates on a personal computer. You can build up to 300 sites then load it into a CF chip along with the audio files. The user selects a specific point where the historical event took place. It’s easy to then program in how large a circle to place around the point. When a vehicle or person enters the circle, the tour information would begin.
To alert drivers, IntelliTours found that they needed to trigger ahead before each message, announcing that a historical point was coming up on the right, for example. This meant that they also needed to know in which direction the driver was going.
Jim contacted Alcorn McBride with his concern about the directional operation of the device, and the company quickly created a fix for IntelliTours. Even advertising can be placed on the tour, with directions to restaurants, specialty shops, banks, and malls, so that drivers can take side trips or stop for lunch without missing part of the tour.
Tour Coupes
Tour Coupes contracted with IntelliTours to go to San Diego to research the history and create tours for the area. IntelliTours contracted to have the Alcorn McBride Inc. AM-4 Digital Audio Machines installed in the vehicles then created an installation guide for Tour Coupes.
Adventurous drivers can now tour San Diego, guided by their vehicle. Every Tour Coupe has a proprietary system from IntelliTours that blend satellite signals, high-tech touring and old-fashioned storytelling. According to Melissa Mahan, Vice President of Tour Coupes, “As the system senses a place, it delivers narration, music, archival audio, sound effects — even video, photos and maps — that bring the place you are seeing alive. History, landmarks, and stories appear on the very spots where they were created.”
“Think of a Tour Coupe as a native who wants to show you all the best local sights and share with you the rich history that tourists might miss,” Melissa suggests. The coupes provide visitors and locals alike with a fun, new way to explore the cities, beaches, and history of vacation towns along the West Coast. Available in a fun array of five sporty colors –red, orange yellow, blue and green, drivers just sit back and let the coupe do the talking while they enjoy the ride.
According to Jim, “The next generation of tour device is being created now and will be available soon through IntelliTours.”
Entertainment Engineering is an engineering magazine that covers the technologies used in many types of entertainment devices and events such as movies, concerts, theme and amusement parks, electronic games, racing and sporting events, and other forms of entertainment. The magazine is unique because it covers technology and the creative thought processes that help engineers apply technology in fun ways.