Given a decent view of the sky, a GPS receiver can determine your latitude and longitude to a high degree of accuracy as good as a meter or so. But what if the latitude and longitude themselves are in error? That’s the problem faced by the continent of Australia. Every […]
GPS
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Some interesting and informative links from around the net: Via The Art of Manliness, here’s “How to Survive a Lightning Strike,” “Why I Am Not An Environmentalist: The Science of Economics Versus the Religion of Ecology,” by Steven E. Landsburg, excerpted from The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life, Sean […]
Writing an engaging and interesting book on a technical subject poses a significant challenge. Dive too deeply into the technical minutiae and you risk boring non-technical readers. Skim too superficially and you fail to do the subject justice. In his new book, You Are Here: From the Compass to GPS, […]
A couple of years ago, I surveyed the origins of the GPS system in a Sputnik-inspired satellite navigation system that operated using Doppler shift measurements of satellite signals. The TRANSIT or NAVSAT system yielded 100m – 400m location accuracy (accounts vary). The system included several firsts: the first nuclear powered satellite […]
The story seems an improbable fiction: a famous Hollywood actress invents a secret technology so far ahead of its time that it takes decades for the full potential of her idea to be recognized. Yet in 1941, actress Hedy Lamarr, collaborating with pianist George Anthiel, invented frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum technology. The […]
Here are some RTLS news items of interest: Chinese plans to track cell phones raise concerns: Beijing to track people’s movements via their mobile phones – Computerworld. Hat Tip: @TheSchnack Skyhook brings location-awareness to the Sony NGP, including WiFi-only models — Engadget. Computer scientists develop smart, less obtrusive tracking system […]
Here are some recent GPS links of interest: GPS to track truant students in Anaheim. FoxNews.com – Experts Warn of ‘Death by GPS’ as More People Visit Remote Wildernesses. US Air Force raises concerns over LightSquared’s LTE network messing with GPS — Engadget. FAA warns of ongoing GPS issues in […]
Here are some recent links of interest: Amazing how many people were taken in by what appear to be high-tech dowsing rods: Iraqi Treasury Gets Partial Refund on Magic Wands – Lowering the Bar. Remarkably, the company’s website is still up. Spy Tech Surveillance Gear – Top Surveillance Gadgets – […]
In 1955, a Sears Department store in Colorado Springs, CO misprinted Santa’s phone number so children calling for Santa accidentally reached the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline.” Colonel Harry Shoup, Director of Operations, had his staff track Santa by radar and provide updates to the children who […]
With the launch and tracking of Sputnik in 1957, it soon became obvious that the location of the satellite could be tracked by monitoring its Doppler shift. Frank McClure persuaded fellow researchers at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab to devise a satellite navigation and positioning system based on the Doppler […]
You have no right to privacy in public places, and police can observe you to gather evidence without a warrant. But having a detective tail you everywhere you go is expensive. So why not automate the process by hiding a compact GPS tag to monitor your location? The system can […]
Up to 10,000 Air Force GPS units may have been temporarily disabled in January due to a software glitch according to a recent AP story. Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds. The incident highlights the vulnerability of the Air Force to jamming and helps explain the urgency with which the Air Force […]