[Maybe Egg of Columbus] Navigation by voice with minimal change in app!

Dear orux,

first the really important: I love your program ! I used it together with the openandromaps for my 6 days cycling journey (610km). Everything was awesome except the battery life of my smart phone (HTC Desire S) .

Then I thought about a solution and of course the screen was the eye of a needle! So I created way points for every turning point (i already had a GPX track), activated the way point alarm and switched on the screen only when I heard the "ring".
Then I found your already implemented feature to give each way point a direction in the characteristics of each way point.

Now my idea: What about a little option, to play a special way point alarm when reaching a way point with the direction info in its characteristics -> a direction wave-file with a special ring before (not the standard way point alarm)?

E.g.: <special ringtone> -> 0,5s -> "turn left!")?

I think "turn left", "turn right", "continue" and "see map" might be enough. So everyone can make his own voice routing! I tried it and a track was planned in a few minutes. as I said I use the opencyclemap via openandromaps. So I had the relevant tracks displayed but hidden in the vector map. So I had to scroll through the map and to create way points at the key turning points. combined with "directions" in characteristics and i was ready. only the voice option is needed .

This would save a lot of battery life!

Another two options might be needed to be integrated in the preferences as well: "activate voice direction way point alarm" (i think it should be separated from normal way point alarm which is then needed less.) and "distance when voice direction alarm should be played" (recommended: "10m").

And when you missed a way point the route alarm will warn you before starting an odyssey


PS: You have to excuse my arrogant Egg of Columbus heading but I think this idea might be easy to realize and is veeery useful.

Hello again,

another approach might be the technique of OziExplorerCE. OziExplorerCE calculates the angle of two route segments that meet in a way point and regarding this angle plays the correct voice command where to turn to. But I think this approach is harder to realize?

Automatic Route prompting (voice and symbol)
This is not auto-routing, you must define the route manually using the Route Create toolbar.

• With auto-prompting, OziExplorerCE will automatically tell you to turn right and left and so on as each route waypoint is approached.
  
• OziExplorerCE works out the turn angle and direction itself and selects the appropriate symbol (.bmp) and sound file to play (.wav).
  
• The symbol is automatically displayed (when in "Land" mode) and the wav file is automatically played.
  
• The distance from the approaching route waypoint (when in "Land" mode) or the Course to Steer to the next waypoint (when in "Marine" or "Air" mode) is also played using voice prompts

http://www.oziexplorer3.com/ozice/features/features_ce.html