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Richway Industries, Ltd., offers GPSHave you ever driven on a foggy road that you know very well, only to feel that you don't really know where you are? Of course you have the centerline and usually an outside marking line to follow, so you can stay on the road. You know there is a slight curve in the road, but you have no idea where it is, so you cannot prepare for it. Tension grows with each passing mile and the more curves in the road, the worse it is. Relying completely on a GPS lightbar when operating a sprayer can be just like driving on a foggy road. The short-range tracking is excellent, but there is no real sense of perspective. You can also liken a lightbar to a digital display, such as a clock or thermometer. You get a very precise reading, but if we see a clock (thermometer) with "hands" on it, our mind instantly knows "it is almost 2 o'clock." With a digital display, the human mind has to translate the digital value to obtain a more generalized value. Man's mind is basically "programmed" as an analog device and has to translate digital information into generalities. The child who asks "Daddy, are we there yet?" receives an analog answer of "pretty soon", "almost", or something similar. As the child grows older, they learn to recognize landmarks and form their own generalizations as to how close they are to "being there." An adult driving the same route repeatedly may know that it takes 37 minutes to make the trip. Yet they gauge their progress by observing passing landmarks, rather than watching a digital stopwatch. GPS guidance is very obviously "digital" despite attempts to make it analog by providing an analog display in the form of a lightbar. Thus for many operators, it still has the problems associated with driving on a foggy road; it is very stressful not having a perspective of where you are. That is why may operators report using foam marking in conjunction with GPS guidance. The "more curves in the road," the more operators rely on foam for a sense of perspective. Their mind easily integrates "I am going to make a gradual turn to the left just ahead" by seeing the trail of foam balls. They are prepared and can make the turn by following the light bar, just as they follow lane markings for turns on a road. Large, flat, rectangular fields don't introduce as much uncertainty and may have less need for foam markers, but those "other fields" can be a real problem. Copyright 2005 Richway Industries. Date: 6/21/06
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