Lesson 101 on What3Words Navigation and usage

Addressing systems

Usually we made use of a system comprising of street names and numbers to direct people to different places. But this system has its limitations because where I live here in Uyo, there a places in the undeveloped parts of the Uyo city that do not have street names nor numbers

We could describe the location using GPS coordinates, it could be used to identify locations without street names, the challenge with GPS coordinates is the fact that it uses a string of decimal numbers that is not friendly. An example is 4.9003540, 7.8371400 which if followed correctly will take you to a local market in Etinan Local government Area of AkwaIbom State in Nigeria, where I snapped this picture.
_{Picture of Urwa Nkpafi, Captured at 12:55 on Sat. Dec. 31, 2022.}

What is What3Words

What3Words is one of the newly created ingenious system that makes it possible to refer to any location on the surface of the earth using a unique combination of just 3 words. It was launched in July of the year 2013

So if I am to tell you exactly where I was when I snapped the market above. using What3Words, the location is unburied.godfathers.timeline

History

Sheldrick, one of the founders of the What3Words system was working as an event organizer, he was trying to navigate his way using GPS coordinates so as to locate then transport bands and equipment to a music venues. An error with one digit took him to the wrong location. He latter concluded that replacing the unfriendly numbers with more familiar words would be better.

Advantage of the system

Addessing Systems	Description
Traditional Addressing
Urwa Nkpafi, Etinan Local government Area of AkwaIbom State, Nigeria.	Describes a large an unspecified area in the vicinity of the market but fails to describe the exact spot
GPS Coordinates
4.9003540, 7.8371400	coordinates can be specific about a location but the numbers are really not user friendly, hard to memorized
What3Words
unburied.godfathers.timeline	What3Words is easy to communicate, can be easily recalled and pointes to a specific location

How the What3Words system works

The whole area of the Earth surface is divided in to boxes of 3 square meters each, each of the 3 square meter box is assigned a unique address made up of 3 words.
This covers all the surface of the Earth including vast dessert, forest areas and the open sea and ocean.

^What3Words

On the screenshot above, I stood at point X identified by What3Words as unburied.godfathers.timeline to capture the market shot, but the position is close to a road which makes locating it a lot more simpler compared to position Y located away from the road, it is not close to a road and it's in the middle of a farm land, imagine what It will take you to describe position Y.

With the What3Words address system, position Y is identified as magnetic.valleys.trolling

How to Use the What3Words.

What3Words is available on play store as an Android application and is also available online,

In this post, I will be using the online version available at https://what3words.com/

[a]

This is the address bar of the What3Words site, you can cope the URL from this bar once you have selected the location you are pointing to.

[b]

This is a search area on the site that allows you to enter the name of a location you want to explore. You can also copy out the 3words or input the given 3words to find it's location on the map.

[c]

This feature dose the function of a ton tag, you are expected to zoon in till you can see the grids then tap to drop a What3Words tom tag on the location

[d]

The feature labeled d is a button that allows you share your location with others, sending it through WhatsApp, Email or any available media provided by this button.

[e]

This button automatically finds your current position using the device GPS and points to the location on the map using a blue circle.

[f]

This feature helps toggle between the satellite view and the view that shows the roads. And other stricture

[g]

This save and synchronize your location on your device and other accounts

[h]

The Navigate button connects you to a navigation app like Google Map and uses your current location as a point of origin the navigates to the position of the tom tag

Getting the What3Words of a location

• Load the What3Words site using this link
  https://what3words.com
• Enter a location on the search bar or drag, pan and zoon into the map till you find the location
• zoon into the exact point of interest till you see the grids and select one.
• The 3 Words for the selected location will be displayed on the search bar as shown below

• but if your plan is to place the location as a link on your steemit post, it is best to get the URL on the address bar

Street view of Location

To see a panoramic view of the market click on this link

..... Street view of Urwa Nkpafi, Etinan

Once the picture is live on street view, pan around to have a better view of the surrounding.

Note that the street view picture is older than the pictures I captured. This Street view was captured long before the new road was made.

^{What3Words.... Click here to see the Street view}

^{What3Words.... This location has no Street view}