Published: 04th October 2007 | Author: Sara Merchant
When a10-mile journey through central London takes more than two hours, a driver gets desperate.
I'm waiting for the day an inventor manages to make rush hour traffic disappear at the touch of a button.
In the meantime, I welcome any tool that's designed to make a car trip easier.
Satellite navigation devices certainly take the stress out of many journeys and they're simple enough for a technophobe like me to use.
So why complicate things? Well Navman have developed a new feature that allows you to use a picture to reach your destination.
Using software called NavPix, you use your satnav to take a photograph of a place; a landmark, a station, a restaurant for example.
The image and location will be stored and next time you need to find that place, you click the picture and get directions back.
It doesn't need to be a place you've been to before - you can download an image from the Navpix website and then let your satnav be your guide.
Charles Smith, from Navman, said: "People think visually and if you find somewhere slightly remote or off the beaten track that you want to share with other people it's a great way of doing it.
"Immediately people can see what they're meant to be looking at. So if it's a picture of a tourist attraction in Cornwall people can see it."
When I road tested the device, I did initially programme in a tourist attraction in Cornwall but reconsidered when the satnav calculated the journey would take me six hours.
Instead I took a short trip from Exmouth Market in Clerkenwell to Liverpool Station via St Paul's Cathedral.
The picture of Liverpool Station was already programmed in and I added a photograph of St Paul's on the way.
This was a novel way to use satnav but it wasn't really necessary for my particular journey - a postcode would have sufficed.
It's when you explore a new city, or even better, new country, that the feature could be more exciting.
You could download a series of images from the Navpix website before a trip and then upload your own to share when you get back.
Mr Smith said: "As well as recording the image, the software allows you to add some words beneath it - you could say I had a really nice time here, there's a great picnic area by the carpark.
"People can search by area or by name of picture, so you can plan a whole trip based on other people's experiences."
Getting lost abroad is part of the fun for me but I can't wait for this technology to develop further.
Imagine having a mobile phone with GPS and a camera. If you wanted to meet a friend, all you'd need to do is take a picture and send it to them. I can picture it now.
