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 third party, or IntelliTours,” says Jim Carrier, IntelliTours founder. “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 50 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. . . to read the rest of the story, click here.
Websites to visit:
Alcorn McBride AM4
IntelliTours Home
IntelliTours Sample
Tour Coupes Home
