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Navigation has become easier in recent years, thanks to
advances in GPS and smartphones. But a new centimeter-accurate technology could
soon transform the world of geolocation, impacting everything from virtual
reality games to drone delivery.
The GPS-based positioning
system, developed by researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The
University of Texas-Austin, could provide far more accurate global positioning
and orientation on mobile devices.
This could allow virtual
reality (VR) gamers to interact in a whole new way, by using their headsets
outdoors.
When coupled with a
smartphone camera, the centimeter-accurate GPS could be used to build a
globally referenced 3D map of one's surroundings, expanding the radius of a VR
game. VR does not currently use GPS, which limits its use to indoors and
typically a two- to three-foot radius.
RT.com report continues:
“Imagine games where,
rather than sit in front of a monitor and play, you are in your backyard
actually running around with other players,” said Todd Humphreys, assistant professor in the Department of
Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics and the lead researcher.
“To be able to do this
type of outdoor, multiplayer virtual reality game, you need highly accurate
position and orientation that is tied to a global reference frame.”
But it also has more
significant capabilities, including better vehicle-to-vehicle communication
technology which could potentially save lives.
“If your car knows in
real time the precise position and velocity of an approaching car that is
blocked from view by other traffic, your car can plan ahead to avoid a
collision,” Humphreys said.
The system could also
affect consumers who order products online, by allowing drones to deliver
packages to a specific spot on a customer's porch.
The GPS technology's
extreme accuracy is due to a low-cost system which reduces location errors from
the size of a large car to the size of a penny – resulting in data that is 100
times more precise. The system was developed by Humphreys and his team at the
university's Radionavigation Lab.
Though
centimeter-accurate GPS systems are already used in the areas of geology,
surveying, and mapping, the high cost of survey-grade antennas has previously
limited the technology from expanding to mobile devices. Humphreys and his team
tackled that problem head-on, developing a software-defined GPS receiver which
can work from the standard antennas found in mobile devices.
Humphreys' research was
funded by Samsung, which plans to continue sponsoring related projects.
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