Make your own map with Insight Genesis

by Estelle Baldry - Navico on 20 Nov 2012 Lowrance, a world-leading brand in marine electronics, has announced a revolutionary personal map generation tool, Insight Genesis™. Insight Genesis is a powerful online service, which empowers boaters to create custom contour maps of their favourite fishing and boating grounds.

Insight Genesis uses sonar recordings taken from Broadband Sounder and StructureScan transducers connected to Lowrance HDS™ Gen2 Touch Multifunction Displays and creates detailed maps. Whether mapping previously uncharted waters or ensuring surveyed water details are accurate and current, Insight Genesis delivers a new level of personal cartography and situational awareness for boaters.

Designed for use in both salt and freshwater environments, Insight Genesis transforms the Lowrance HDS Gen2 Touch charting experience. To create free custom maps, a boater simply activates the standard sonar logging feature of their HDS Gen2 Touch multifunction display to record all subsequent sonar data to an SD card. Once recorded, a PC application is used to upload the sonar log file to the Insight Genesis online cloud-based service, where it is converted into a map.

Once complete, a notification is sent via email that the chart is available for review online. Boaters can then view the chart and related sonar log for free in an embedded web viewer, they are also given the option to purchase a download of the personalised map for use on a compatible multifunction display. Downloads of the Insight Genesis maps are available to boaters individually or through an annual subscription service.

Leif Ottosson, CEO of Lowrance said: 'Insight Genesis brings an exciting new level of functionality to Lowrance HDS Gen2 Touch users. Boaters can create their own charts to complement supported Navionics® cartography options.

'Whether using Insight Genesis to refine existing details due to shifting sand bars, recent dredging, to mark an uncharted rock, or for creating charts of bodies of water that have not previously been surveyed, Insight Genesis is the key to getting the most up-to-date specifics of on water areas, anytime and anywhere.'

The Insight Genesis service offers four options for viewing and downloading personalised maps, the basic service and web viewer are free. Individuals have the option to purchase a download of their free map in any of three ways:

1. A single map download that includes pre-set contours, depth soundings and depth shading which can be used on a single registered device

2. A standard one year subscription that adds the ability to adjust contour intervals, merge multiple uploads into a single map and save maps in an online account for future retrieval. It also increases the length of recording that can be submitted per upload from two to four hours and boosts the number of licensed devices on which the downloaded map can be viewed from two to four units

3. A premium one year subscription that adds the ability to overlay bottom hardness and vegetation outline layers and analyse changes over multiple recordings with trend analysis tools. It also increases the number of registered devices on which the map can be viewed from four to six.

All downloaded Insight Genesis maps can be saved on SD cards for use in the card reader slot on a compatible registered Lowrance chartplotter or multifunction device.

An incredibly powerful tool, the Insight Genesis cloud-based server provides boaters a convenient, secure location to store trips and maps, as well as the ability to merge multiple data files into larger maps, without having to save and manage data on a personal computer. Data can be recorded and saved during multiple boating trips giving the ability to build a map over time to increase the map’s coverage and quality. In addition, the Insight Genesis free web viewer allows individuals to review Broadband Sounder and DownScan sonar logs, to view their trails and corresponding maps overlaid on a satellite map.

The Insight Genesis website will be available in November and will generate maps compatible with the new Lowrance HDS Gen2 Touch multifunction displays.

Support for Lowrance HDS Gen 2 and selected Elite systems is expected in early 2013. One-time map purchase, standard subscription and premium subscription are priced at US$19.95/download, US$99.95/year and US$299.95/year each, respectively.

For information on Insight Genesis please visit http://insightstore.lowrance.com . For more on the complete range of Lowrance marine electronics, please visit www.lowrance.com