Magnetic Tape for an ETAK Navigational System, San Francisco Bay Area
date: label: Date made
content: 1985
label: Date made
content: 1984
name: label: maker
content: ETAK, Inc
notes: label: Description
content: The ETAK Navigator was the first automobile computerized navigation system. The name, Etak, was taken from a Polynesian word for "navigation." Traditionally Polynesian canoeists had navigated by considering the apparent movement of islands against the apparent fixed position of their canoes, an approach that inspired the Stanley K. Honey, who invented the electronic ETAK system.
label: Description
content: Unlike later computer systems, the ETAK did not coordinate the car's position with external reference signals. Instead, it used dead reckoning, or tracking the location of the vehicle by calculating its movement from its starting point. Sensors in the car measured movement by scanning strips of magnetic tape mounted inside each of the non-driven wheels, counted wheel revolutions, and used them to calculate measurements of distance. This is the magnetic tape for the San Francisco Bay area.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Tele Atlas North America, Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2005.0244.08
label: accession number
content: 2005.0244
label: catalog number
content: 2005.0244.08
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Navigational Instrument
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 1/2 in x 4 1/4 in x 2 3/4 in; 1.27 cm x 10.795 cm x 6.985 cm