Etak

Etak, Inc. was an independent US-based vendor of automotive navigation system equipment, digital maps, and mapping software. It was founded in 1983 [cite web
last = Gauvin | first = Peter
title = Mapping the future
publisher = Palo Alto Online
date = 19 Oct 1994
url = http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/monthly/1994_Oct_19.ETAK.html
accessdate = 2008-05-23 ] .Its original headquarters were in Sunnyvale but the company later moved to 1430 O'Brien Drive in Menlo Park, California. The company finally ceased to exist under the name "Etak" shortly after its acquisition by Tele Atlas in 2000. In its time, it was a pioneer in commercializing automotive navigation systems and digital mapping, technologies that have since entered the mainstream.

Founding of the Company

Etak's initial start-up funding came from Nolan Bushnell, famous for starting Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater [Citation
last = | first =
title = A Computer for the Driver Who Can't Find Anything
newspaper = San Jose Mercury News
pages =
date = 1 Jul 1985
url = http://docs.newsbank.com/g/GooglePM/SJ/lib00189,0EB724660CFEA75B.html ] .

[Co-founder Stan Honey] was doing military-related research at SRI International in 1983 when he sailed with Pong inventor and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell to victory in a transpacific race. Bushnell was impressed with Honey's navigational electronics and asked whether he had any other ideas. Honey suggested a car navigation system. Bushnell gave him $500,000 in seed money, and digital-mapping firm Etak (named after a Polynesian term for navigation) was born. [Citation
last = Dickson | first = Glenn
title = Charting Sportvision's course
date = 24 July 2000
url = http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA17747.html
accessdate = 2008-05-23 .]

Etak's Navigator was the first ["Global Positioning System: Theory and Applications", Bradford W. Parkinson, James J. Spilker, [http://books.google.com/books?id=t0eGFpSwN0wC&pg=PA294&dq=ETAK+NAVIGATOR&sig=NLJciZnw82D8wyShpC_qsmO1MMc p.294] ] ["Navigation: principles of positioning and guidance", Bernhard Hofmann-Wellenhof, et al., [http://books.google.com/books?id=losWr9UDRasC&pg=PA16&dq=etak+first.commercially&sig=hOzo4_OxAZLbIlvEe11upFG238c#PPA16,M1 p.16] ] commercially available automotive navigation system any practical significance. [The Honda/Alpine Electro Gyrocator was introduced to the Japanese market in 1981. However, whether anyone bought a unit remains in doubt.] Etak initially delivered the hardware system, the maps and dynamic content for its automotive navigation system.

Etak Navigator

Etak's initial product, the Navigator, was introduced in 1985. This system was the precursor to today's GPS-based automotive navigation systems, many of which trace a direct line of descent to Etak's technology.

The original Etak Navigator was a specially-packaged Intel 8088-based system with 256K RAM, 32K EPROM, 2K SRAM, and a cassette tape drive on which digital maps and some of the operating system were stored. The tapes did not hold much information, so for the Los Angeles area, for example, three to four tapes were required. When an edge of the map was reached, the driver needed to change cassette tapes to continue benefitting from the accuracy of map-matching. The system had a tape drive that was designed to be installed within easy reach of the driver, so this could be done while driving. The map moved on the screen as the car was driven, but instead of the color raster graphics display of today's systems it had a green vector display.

The Navigator had address geocoding (the ability to convert a street address to a latitude/longitude point). It worked by using a digital compass mounted somewhere in the car (typically inside the headliner) and two wheel sensors mounted on the non-driven wheels (with magnetic strips installed on the wheel rims themselves). The system used "map-matching augmented dead reckoning" [ [http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=1623458 "Map matching augmented dead reckoning"] ,Zavoli, W.B., Honey, S.K., in "Proceedings of the 36th IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference", May 20-22, 1986] . The user entered the location of the car where it was first installed, and took it on a short calibration drive. From then on, the system self-corrected -- i.e., error accumulated through dead reckoning could usually be reduced by checking to see if the current location and direction of movement corresponded to a street in the map data. These and other techniques developed by Etak would perhaps now be viewed as very high-end features for a car navigation system. At the time, however, because there was no GPS to provide an approximate absolute location, they were critically important.

The Move to Digital Mapping

The Navigator enjoyed a brief vogue, selling a few thousand units in a few years, and even finding its way to the dashboard of pop star Michael Jackson [Citation
last = Elmer-Dewitt
first = Philip
title = Driving by the Glow of a Screen
newspaper = Time magazine
date = 20 Apr 1987
url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964057,00.html ] .However, Etak did not have the financial resources for mass production of improved models of the Navigator. In 1985, Etak had entered into an exclusive agreement with General Motors, under which they would have to continue paying Etak a certain minimum amount regardless of whether GM's Delco Electronics division fielded a car navigation product. Fact|date=April 2008

Etak stopped making its own hardware and focused more on digital mapping technology with its Etak Maps and EtakGuide products. The transition away from automotive navigation engineering activities was gradual. Etak licensed its car navigation technology to other companies, notably Clarion in Japan, Bosch (Blaupunkt) in Germany (as the Travelpilot), as with Delco earlier [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE2DB1038F930A3575AC0A961948260 "Talking Deals; Big Partners In Technology"] , Sep 2, 1987, New York Times] . Etak continued to provide engineering support for the productization efforts of its licensees (except in the case of Delco, from which no product was forthcoming Fact|date=April 2008), and continued to develop and support vertical market fleet vehicle applications that used both the original Navigator and the TravelPilot as in-vehicle platforms.

As early as 1987, Etak was mapping Japanese cities. However, this was in an era of conflict between the U.S. and Japan in the automotive market. Japan had gotten an earlier start in car navigation efforts with Honda's Electro Gyrocator and other projects, but hadn't created a successful product. It's been argued that the Japanese government shielded its own manufacturers, and Etak might have been shut out in its mapping efforts even after having been allowed in. As reported in Fortune magazine in 1992, Etak

... was the first to begin electronic mapping of Japanese cities in 1987, hoping to enable ambulance services and others to find addresses on computer screens. But a year later the government decided that Etak needed a license. By the time it came through, the company's head start was gone and a Japanese competitor had moved in. [Citation
last = Faltermayer | first = Edmund
author-link =
title = Does Japan Play Fair?",
journal = Fortune
date = 7 Sep 1992
url = http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1992/09/07/76836/index.htm
doi =
id = ]

Etak's acquisition (for a reported $25 million) by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation marked a decisive change in emphasis. Murdoch had been persuaded that digital maps would be a major advertising medium, and Etak was arguably the leader in mapping the markets of major nations. [Citation
last = Schrage | first = Michael
title = Making Money With New Kinds of Media
newspaper = Los Angeles Times
date = 13 Sep 1990
url = http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/60130710.html?dids=60130710:60130710&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Sep+13%2C+1990&author=MICHAEL+SCHRAGE&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Making+Money+With+New+Kinds+of+Media&pqatl=google ] .

Sony Corporation in 1995 announced the Sony NVX-F160 system using Etak's digital mapping software [cite press release
title = Sony begins shipping mobile navigation system with Etak digital maps
publisher = Business Wire
date = 13 Jan 1995
url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1995_Jan_13/ai_16031965
accessdate = 2008-05-23 ] .

Acquisitions

Etak went through a number of acquisitions. Etak was acquired in 1989 by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
News Corp then sold Etak to Sony Corporation in May 1996 [Citation
title = Sony to Acquire Software Maker
newspaper = New York Times
year = 1996 | date = 14 May 1996
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE6D81239F937A25756C0A960958260] . In May 2000, Etak, Inc. was acquired from Sony Corporation by Tele Atlas and became Tele Atlas North America. Etak, Inc. ceased to exist as a separate company soon after.

External links

* [http://www.teleatlas.com/ Tele Atlas Official website]
* [http://www.techtransfer.berkeley.edu/humanfactors/navigation.pdf "History of Navigation Research"] – UC Berkeley
* [http://www.wireless.per.nl/reference/chaptr01/roadtrin/positi.htm Car Navigation Systems AUTO-SCOUT] , TravelPilot based on ETAK system
* [http://www.uniforum.org/publications/uninews/961122/Inews2.html "Unix Benefits Digital Mapping"] – UniNews Online Article, undated, describing a presentation on Etak and the GIS market
* [http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5751245-description.html] – Previous Art Reference in Patent by Trimble Inc of ETAK Navigator
* [http://www.directionsmag.com/press.releases/index.php?duty=Show&id=599&trv=1 "Etak Enhances Its Digital Map Databases Nationwide to Extend Functionality"] (Tele Atlas press release), June 7, 1999