EmapSpeak (MapDog) --- Talking Map Directions From Emacspeak Via Google Maps

For Immediate Release

San Jose, CA, (February 18, 2005)
EmapSpeak (MapDog) --- Talking Map Directions From Emacspeak Via Google Maps

Downloads	Reference	Installation	Usage	Tips	Tools	Support
About the author

Emacspeak Inc (NASDOG: ESPK) announces the immediate world-wide availability of EmapSpeak (MapDog) --a powerful audio desktop tool for leveraging the wonderful resource provided by Google Maps.

What Is It?

The DHTML interface to Google Maps is difficult to access for someone using a speech-output interface. This tool uses the embeded XML metadata delivered by the Google Maps application to generate an audio-formatted representation of the content.

Features

1. Obtain location of a specified business near a given address.
2. Obtain step-by-step directions between two given locations.

How To Obtain And Use EmapSpeak

The Emacspeak Google Maps tool (MapDog) is presently available from the Emacspeak CVS repository and will be bundled with the next major Emacspeak release. Here are brief usage instructions:

• Obtain Emacspeak via CVS from SourceForge Emacspeak
• Use smart URL emapspeak via google by invoking command emacspeak-url-template-fetch normally bound to key C-e u. Hit ema followed by the tab key to complete the name of the smart URL.
• Specify the query using plain English, e.g.
  • A complete address
  • source address to destination address.
  • business name near source address
  • Use Emacspeak Websearch C-e ? and hit e for EmapSpeak

You will need a correctly configured installation of Emacs W3, as well as a relatively new installation of xsltproc to be able to use this feature.