The ETAK Navigator was the first automobile computerized navigation system. The name, Etak, was taken from a Polynesian word for "navigation." Traditionally Polynesian canoeists had navigated by considering the apparent movement of islands against the apparent fixed position of their canoes, an approach that inspired the Stanley K. Honey, who invented the electronic ETAK system.
Unlike later computer systems, the ETAK did not coordinate the car's position with external reference signals. Instead, it used dead reckoning, or tracking the location of the vehicle by calculating its movement from its starting point. Sensors in the car measured movement by scanning strips of magnetic tape mounted inside each of the non-driven wheels, counted wheel revolutions, and used them to calculate measurements of distance. This is the defogger unit for an ETAK system.