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This tech is widely known and already widely used. The A in A-GPS is short for Assisted. It means that in the mix are added known WiFi signals. GPS (Signals f

This tech is widely known and already widely used. The A in A-GPS is short for Assisted. It means that in the mix are added known WiFi signals. GPS (Signals from satellites) is already supported by WiFi signals that are stored in a database that is updated in your phones memory based on roughly your location. [1] Why do you think a GPS location fix is so quick nowadays? Those satellites didn’t get any better… So why do we even need gps since WiFi signals can get us really far already? There isn’t much WiFi on highways or in nature. Also, a Tomahawk missile should hit a target even if that target doesn’t have WiFi. GPS was invented for the military. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GNSS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GNSS

BuildTheRobots 5y ago
> Why do you think a GPS location fix is so quick nowadays? Those satellites didn’t get any better… The article you linked to doesn't seem to mention using WiFi location data for assisted GPS. It does point out that devices with an internet connection know their time and usually have a pre-seeded copy of the Almanac, both of which make a massive difference in speed of initial lock.
jdsnape 5y ago
Assisted GPS refers solely to receiving the info the device needs to locate the satellites (i.e. the almanac) via another source, rather than directly from the satellites. Receiving it from the satellites directly takes ages because the bandwidth of the communication channel is very low. It has nothing to do with WiFi - the transport of the data can be anything (e.g. mobile network). You are right that devices also use available wifi signals for location, but it's not AGPS. What seems novel about this is the ability to learn more precise room-level locations.