Munich Orientation Convention in Athena                    google mapplet

Athena has the option to be world's first city that has realized an international orientation standard, an idea from a Munichian inventor to simplify and harmonize worldwide all orientation means: signage, cartography, postal codes, navigation devices and verbal expressions. 

Within this city, it is (will be) possible to find any target with easy brain work, that means 

Buildings, crossings, stop points, bridges etc. have logical addresses like

             Horologium   StatusQuo© Athena   m12 r3

             Peace and Friendship stadium         m8 r40

             Lycabbetus theatre                         m1:8 r22 

which are easy to understand if you associate the city with a clock as follows:

An outstanding point as e. g. the Panthenon was (will be) defined as a pole m0.  Around this pole, the horizon is divided in 12 "horizon hours"                    m1  to  m12    , whereas m12 points to north.  This divides the city as a cake in 12 imaginary sectors. As an example, the sector m8 was marked.
	The sectors are divided in horizon minutes. These are not angles but DISTANCES to the horizon hour, in steps of approx. one "block of houses" or 100 meters.      Example      m3:5           ( read   "emm 3 point 5"   or   "emm three 5" ).  This is a line situated in a distance of 5 x 100m from the horizon hour m3, which points to sunrise. The convention for horizon minutes is very simple:                  the greater, the later.
Considering the distance to m0 as r = radius also in steps of blocks of houses, logical position codes for targets, buildings, crossings etc. come into existence, e. g. as shown on the picture:       crossing StatusQuo©   m8:10 r23 StatusQuo means "where you are". In simple words: "r" is a numbering starting FROM m0,  "m" is a north-direction-based numbering AROUND m0   and this simple methode covers a gigantic market gap:        l o g i c a l   and easy understandable  p o s i t i o n   codes.

Natural Cartography©: 

a map with such a polar grid has innovative characteritics, see www.volksnav.com/map . Please be aware about the fact that if the target isn't on map, with the help of the logical position code it's possible to imagine where it is situated !! 

Interesting details: 

- the search grid contains quadrangules similar to the conventional ones. The picture above shows a white quadrangule with the dimensions 500m x 500m. The bended sides let know in which direction the urban pole is situated, even if the centre isn't on map. 

- the width of the sector is half the radius !! Example: m8:5 r10, m8:10 r20 etc..

- the middle of the sector is radius/4. Example: m8:5 r20

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Signage: StatusQuo© addresses will be integrated within the existing signage, see www.volksnav.com/lollipop, or be indicated on so-called Orientators©, the signage of the future. Vertical Pointing©: additional to the position information, a round symbol called center or pole pointer will be placed on their periphery to allow to detect the direction m0  according to the following conventions:  if the pointer is placed on top       (f12) m0 will be in front of you  (f12)   on bottom    (f6)   behind      (f6)   right hand    (f3)   right hand  (f3) etc. Acc. to the same convention, a square symbol points to north = m12.  The picture reveils: m12 is behind, the pole is right hand

Orientator©

Navigation / VolksNav©:

The local navigation with the help of such codes is called VolksNav©. As proceeded today with house numbers, VolksNav© is nothing else than the major/minor comparison between "r" and "m" values: 

Simply proceed according to 1 -2 -3 : 

Let's see an example: 

Your target is:    Peace and Friendship stadium    m8 r40       

If you've lost orientation on named crossing      m8:10 r23, 

so you must go

- outwards (radius r40 is more than actual r23 )

and

- to "earlier" (counterclockwise)   ( m8 is "earlier"  than the actual m8:10 )

This may seem to be unfamiliar, but the orientation based on cardinal points is used for some thousand years and imaginary clocks are used by soldiers, boy scouts, pilots, blind people etc. for more than 100 years. 

In a real situation, VolksNav© can be learned within few minutes, that means, faster than the most seeking times. Then you'll be able to navigate everywhere as elegant as around the Christus statue in Rio de Janeiro, where the idea of a quantified polar orientation and an orientation standard was born.

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Vision:

Mobile applications: Very soon also navigation devices and mobile phones will indicate such logical position codes and cardinal points , see www.volksnav.com/mobile You're invited to test the program for pocketPC/smartphone with/without GPS by means of a download from www.volksnav.com

Natural World Co-ordinates: the same addressing methode will soon also be used 

- indoor www.volksnav.com/deutschesmuseum     www.volksnav.com/airportMUC 

and 

- within the whole globe, see  www.watchrose.com. Acc. to this, the international City Code of Athena  is 

          WatchRose© m4:380  r15 00

What is that good for? Just comparing the WatchRoses©, you can imagine distances and directions between 2 locations. 

Example:      Monastery of Daphni  WatchRose© m4:375  r14 90, 

Result of comparison: the Monastery of Daphni is closer and "earlier" to Munich than Athen, more exactly:

-    radius 1500 - r1490 = 10 km closer

-    :380 - :375 = 5 km "earlier" 

The distance between both locations, the hipotenuse, will be between 10 and 10+5 km   

for advanced users only: 

the direction Daphni/Athen (to outside / to later) is QuoVides® 4,   see www.quovides.com