Musings about my first love - Technology !
Now go GPS by P2P positioning software
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
In Adobe we used to feel that almost every hardware job can be done in 'soft' way i.e. a software can replace almost any hardware. And I must point it out that if you start thinking, it'd be very hard to justify 'almost' here.
And today I struck upon this gold, Navizon, while browsing through the internet wormholes. Frustrated by low performance of GPS in congested cities, Houri and his fa wireless positioning system that works on Pocket PC PDAs by triangulating signals from Wi-Fi access points and GSM cellular towers which means in lay man term that it finds out the current position of gadget holder by location information sent by three different WiFi or GSM signals.
All the user needs to do is to load the software on a Pocket PC with built-in GPS and, ideally, both Wi-Fi and cellular phone functionality. wi-fiplanet.com explains the functionality as.
"As you walk around your city, the device receives broadcast signals from Wi-Fi access points – hotspots, home Wi-Fi networks, company WLANs, Navizon adds cell towers to the mix. The Navizon software takes signal strength measurements from the built-in Wi-Fi and/or cellular radios – at three different locations for each AP or tower detected. Since Navizon knows its own location from the Pocket PC’s GPS, the readings of signal strength are enough, using sophisticated algorithms, to triangulate the position of each AP or tower. The software then records those locations. The Navizon software does all of this automatically. Once the software has built a database of local AP and tower locations, it can accurately calculate its position by triangulating from three or more of them – again by measuring signal strength and applying proprietary algorithms. It works even when GPS doesn’t"
Registering as a user at the Navizon site, which one can do for free and without downloading any software, gives access to the Google Maps the Navizon software uses. One can now define a region by clicking at opposite corners of an imaginary rectangle and see a display of all the known APs and towers in that area. Their locations show up as map pins – red for GSM, green for Wi-Fi.
MSNBC has already said that Microsoft is also planning a similar system of positioning, by recording the position of every address on a giant map, it had created a positioning system that would make it possible for anyone with a WiFi-enabled laptop computer to identify their location to within 30.5 meters.
With GPS systems giving low performance, this methodology for positioning may soon be in vogue.
And today I struck upon this gold, Navizon, while browsing through the internet wormholes. Frustrated by low performance of GPS in congested cities, Houri and his fa wireless positioning system that works on Pocket PC PDAs by triangulating signals from Wi-Fi access points and GSM cellular towers which means in lay man term that it finds out the current position of gadget holder by location information sent by three different WiFi or GSM signals.
All the user needs to do is to load the software on a Pocket PC with built-in GPS and, ideally, both Wi-Fi and cellular phone functionality. wi-fiplanet.com explains the functionality as.
"As you walk around your city, the device receives broadcast signals from Wi-Fi access points – hotspots, home Wi-Fi networks, company WLANs, Navizon adds cell towers to the mix. The Navizon software takes signal strength measurements from the built-in Wi-Fi and/or cellular radios – at three different locations for each AP or tower detected. Since Navizon knows its own location from the Pocket PC’s GPS, the readings of signal strength are enough, using sophisticated algorithms, to triangulate the position of each AP or tower. The software then records those locations. The Navizon software does all of this automatically. Once the software has built a database of local AP and tower locations, it can accurately calculate its position by triangulating from three or more of them – again by measuring signal strength and applying proprietary algorithms. It works even when GPS doesn’t"
Registering as a user at the Navizon site, which one can do for free and without downloading any software, gives access to the Google Maps the Navizon software uses. One can now define a region by clicking at opposite corners of an imaginary rectangle and see a display of all the known APs and towers in that area. Their locations show up as map pins – red for GSM, green for Wi-Fi.
MSNBC has already said that Microsoft is also planning a similar system of positioning, by recording the position of every address on a giant map, it had created a positioning system that would make it possible for anyone with a WiFi-enabled laptop computer to identify their location to within 30.5 meters.
With GPS systems giving low performance, this methodology for positioning may soon be in vogue.
Labels: gadget, Technology
posted by Jas @ 4:00 AM,
