Getting specific data points depending on XY coordinates I am writing an application that uses GPS coordinates to gather information on nearby places based on which direction the driver is headed. I would post a picture, but being a new poster prevents me from doing so. I will attempt to describe it as best I can.
Situation:
The driver is driving NE. There are possible locations all around him. I want to get the locations that are in front of him in an 80 degree span (this span can change)
Assume:


*

*Standard XY coordinates as I can use latitude and longitude to get their information.

*Driver can be driving in any direction (of course)


I am trying to figure out a formula that will confirm the locations are in the shaded area.
The degree at which it detects the location is not set right now as this will change due to testing and what will work best.
 A: Suppose you are at $x \in \mathbb{R}^2$ headed in a direction $d \in \mathbb{R}^2$ and you wish the figure out the angle towards a point at $y \in \mathbb{R}^2$ (see picture). I am taking anti-clockwise angles to be positive.
One way of determining the angle is to use the 2D cross product which gives
$$ a \times b = a_1 b_2 - a_2 b_1 = \|a\| \|b \| \sin \theta$$
or, in other words, $\theta = \arcsin \frac{a_1 b_2 - a_2 b_1}{\sqrt{a_1^2+a_2^2} \sqrt{b_1^2+b_2^2}}$. In this case here we would take $a = d$, $b = y-x$, and check if $\theta$ lies within appropriate bounds.

However, if there are many objects to be checked and you only care if they lie within some prescribed sector, there is a cheaper way.
The idea is to check if the points lie in the intersection of two half-planes. See the drawing below. The point $y$ lies in the desired sector iff 
$$ \langle n_+, y-x \rangle \leq 0, \ \ \ \langle n_-, y-x \rangle \geq 0$$

So, all that is needed is to compute $n_+, n_-$.
Let $h_\theta = \pmatrix{ \cos \theta & -\sin \theta \\ \sin \theta & \cos \theta} d = \pmatrix{d_1 \cos \theta  - d_2 \sin \theta\\ d_1 \sin \theta + d_2 \cos \theta } $. This is an anti-clockwise rotation of $d$ by the angle $\theta$.
Let $n_+ = h_{\frac{\pi}{2}+\theta_\max}$, $n_- = h_{\frac{\pi}{2}-\theta_\max}$,
where $\theta_\max$ is the sector angle ($80^\circ$ in your example above).
