Ground-Based GPS Mimic Is Inch Perfect 140
holy_calamity writes "For several years the U.S. Air Force has used WiFi-router-sized boxes on a New Mexico missile range to create a GPS-like service to track munitions to the nearest inch. Now the Australian company behind the technology is rolling it out for civilians. One gold mine is already using the tech and specifications are being released so that GPS receiver manufacturers can adopt the technology. Locata hopes that construction sites, factories and city governments will all want to install their own high accuracy 'location hotspots.'"
Re:Similar to previous systems of yesteryear (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hasn't this already been done? (Score:4, Informative)
There are several solutions available currently that offer 1" or better absolute accuracy off of GPS signals. They all function by resolving the issue that GPS is precise, but not accurate. By positioning themselves at a known position in space, they calculate the offset from what GPS is telling them, and broadcast that to the nearby area. They end up being much cheaper as all you need is a good GPS receiver.
This solution instead requires accurate local time references, and as such is going to be considerably more expensive. The advantage of this system is that GPS has an incredibly weak signal. It requires line-of-sight, and even trees will block a signal. If inside a building, or down in a quarry, you are likely to not receive enough signals to get an accurate position lock. This uses local transmitters at high power to allow them to operate in less advantageous terrain.
Re:aka Differential GPS (Score:4, Informative)
Re:aka Differential GPS (Score:4, Informative)
What is new here?
Complete lack of dependency upon satellite signals?
Re:Has existed for years, called Differential GPS (Score:4, Informative)
Differential GPS is much different than this system.
This system requires no component of GPS except a similar receiver. That way they can use it in places no satellite signal reaches...like mines and shielded research facilities.