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GPS is now so widespread that we take it for granted. But it’s not always perfect—so what if a new technology could achieve more than those triangulated military satellites in the sky?
In fact, a team of researchers has been mulling over exactly that, and has come up with a new positioning technology called Locata. New Scientist explains:
Instead of satellites, Locata uses ground-based equipment to project a radio signal over a localized area that is a million times stronger on arrival than GPS. It can work indoors as well as out, and the makers claim the receivers can be shrunk to fit inside a regular cellphone. Even the US military, which invented GPS technology, signed a contract last month agreeing to a large-scale test of Locata at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
You see, GPS often struggles with indoor environments and big cities: towering concrete buildings make it hard to get a signal, and tight road and pedestrian networks mean inaccuracy is problematic. By contrast, Locata already has accuracy of 18 centimetres along any axis, and claims to be able to get that number down to 5. Crazy.
The technology is, however, still in its early days, and it would take some impressive performance and marketing if it’s ever to supersede GPS. Chances are, then, that it would work alongside GPS, creating a hybrid system which combines the best features of both technologies. In fact, such a thing already exists: Leica is trialling a briefcase-size Jigsaw Positioning System which is being used to guide drilling in the gold mines in Western Australia. How quickly that can translate into a consumer product, though, remains to be seen. [New Scientist]
Image by Mukumbura under Creative Commons license
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Cool. Pretty soon, when you’re checking Facebook in the loo (don’t even try to say you haven’t ever done that), they’ll be sending you targeted ads for thicker, more absorbant loo roll, you know, for that more satisfying customer experience.
Can see the man from Amazon Instant knocking on the door of your loo with a few fresh rolls.
(He gained entry to your house using a temporary permissions window setup via G+ and your homes biometric security system.)
Won’t this signal drown out a load of other, weaker signals? I suppose it depends what part of the spectrum it broadcasts in but it’s bound to bleed over into other ones.
Wasn’t this the main issue with that 4G company?
This is of course going to be the main problem with it. We are already getting many different frequencies being used for 4G around the world as nobody has the same bits of the spectrum available.
Surely the one main disadvantage of this, is that it is localised, rather than worldwide. Therefore we’d only be able to get signal where it as deemed economically viable to install a transmitter, which in many cases would be fine (for example, ultra accurate navigation in greater london, NY, etc), but if you’re stuck in the jungle in brazil, GPS is surely always going to win?
Who says you’re restricted to only one or the other? I’d be sensible to keep GPS/GLONASS and add this too