3 ms·

Simply incredible, what devices inside the iphone allow it to extrapolate its position so accurately?

Torn 17y ago
GPS in a well-covered area is accurate to around 10m or so. Combine that with a smartphone's internal compass and it knows what direction you are facing, so can pop up a floating box in roughly the right direction. Simple idea, and quite a nice indication of where things in the Augmented Reality space are going. * Other augmented reality examples: ------- - IBM 'Seer' app for Wimbledon 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VZoDmqcZ34 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VZoDmqcZ34 - Google Sky map for android: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6znyx0gjb4&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eaugmentedearth%2Ecom%2F&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6znyx0gjb4&eurl=http%3A%... - US postal service using augmented reality: http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i388dc3328f74c5ee152e36f2b608b604 http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i388... - Augmented reality t-shirt / twitter mashup: http://www.squidder.com/2009/02/17/papertweet3d-augmented-reality-t-shirts/ http://www.squidder.com/2009/02/17/papertweet3d-augmented-re... ... and there's a lot more products out there - google for: ARSights / D'Fusion / Layar / Project Natal / Releas3D / SixthSense / Wikitude * Development kits / APIs: ------- ARTag - http://www.artag.net/ http://www.artag.net/ ARToolkit - http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/ http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/ FlarToolKit - http://www.libspark.org/wiki/saqoosha/FLARToolKit/en http://www.libspark.org/wiki/saqoosha/FLARToolKit/en NyARToolkit - http://nyatla.jp/nyartoolkit/wiki/index.php http://nyatla.jp/nyartoolkit/wiki/index.php
- dschobel 17y ago
  Sure but getting a decent GPS fix in the metro canyons of big cities isn't a given (even with A-GPS). You could make a lot of money by solving the problem of how to reliably determine location in major cities indoors and out (and not just relying on known wifi-hotspot triangulation like skyhook does).
  - potatolicious 17y ago
    Just off the top of my head: Google can probably do this quite easily, especially in an augmented reality application. They already have street view data that's highly accurate, they also have A-GPS data on roughly where you are. They can refine this by comparing the image coming from your phone to known street view images... The computing power behind this would be pretty insane though.
    - dschobel 17y ago
      Yeah, especially for a mobile device. It's a non-trivial problem and even your solution has the problems as the skyhook solution. The data goes stale and needs to be refreshed continually.
      - potatolicious 17y ago
        Change in landscape occurs more slowly than changes in WiFi networks. But you're right - this is a particularly difficult problem to solve.
- brown9-2 17y ago
  Dumb question but how does the internal compass of a smartphone actually work?
  - Torn 17y ago
    Most likely a solid-state compass: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass#Solid_state_compasses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass#Solid_state_compasses
- clistctrl 17y ago
  interesting, I knew it had a GPS but didn't realize they had a compass in there.

Torn 17y ago

GPS in a well-covered area is accurate to around 10m or so. Combine that with a smartphone's internal compass and it knows what direction you are facing, so can pop up a floating box in roughly the right direction. Simple idea, and quite a nice indication of where things in the Augmented Reality space are going. * Other augmented reality examples: ------- - IBM 'Seer' app for Wimbledon 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VZoDmqcZ34 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VZoDmqcZ34 - Google Sky map for android: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6znyx0gjb4&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eaugmentedearth%2Ecom%2F&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6znyx0gjb4&eurl=http%3A%... - US postal service using augmented reality: http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i388dc3328f74c5ee152e36f2b608b604 http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i388... - Augmented reality t-shirt / twitter mashup: http://www.squidder.com/2009/02/17/papertweet3d-augmented-reality-t-shirts/ http://www.squidder.com/2009/02/17/papertweet3d-augmented-re... ... and there's a lot more products out there - google for: ARSights / D'Fusion / Layar / Project Natal / Releas3D / SixthSense / Wikitude * Development kits / APIs: ------- ARTag - http://www.artag.net/ http://www.artag.net/ ARToolkit - http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/ http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/ FlarToolKit - http://www.libspark.org/wiki/saqoosha/FLARToolKit/en http://www.libspark.org/wiki/saqoosha/FLARToolKit/en NyARToolkit - http://nyatla.jp/nyartoolkit/wiki/index.php http://nyatla.jp/nyartoolkit/wiki/index.php

dschobel 17y ago
Sure but getting a decent GPS fix in the metro canyons of big cities isn't a given (even with A-GPS). You could make a lot of money by solving the problem of how to reliably determine location in major cities indoors and out (and not just relying on known wifi-hotspot triangulation like skyhook does).
- potatolicious 17y ago
  Just off the top of my head: Google can probably do this quite easily, especially in an augmented reality application. They already have street view data that's highly accurate, they also have A-GPS data on roughly where you are. They can refine this by comparing the image coming from your phone to known street view images... The computing power behind this would be pretty insane though.
  - dschobel 17y ago
    Yeah, especially for a mobile device. It's a non-trivial problem and even your solution has the problems as the skyhook solution. The data goes stale and needs to be refreshed continually.
    - potatolicious 17y ago
      Change in landscape occurs more slowly than changes in WiFi networks. But you're right - this is a particularly difficult problem to solve.
brown9-2 17y ago
Dumb question but how does the internal compass of a smartphone actually work?
- Torn 17y ago
  Most likely a solid-state compass: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass#Solid_state_compasses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass#Solid_state_compasses
clistctrl 17y ago
interesting, I knew it had a GPS but didn't realize they had a compass in there.