Researchers in
the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have
developed a centimeter-accurate GPS-based positioning system that could
revolutionize geolocation on virtual reality headsets, cellphones and other
technologies, making global positioning and orientation far more precise than
what is currently available on a mobile device. The researchers' new system
could allow unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver packages to a specific spot on
a consumer's back porch, enable collision avoidance technologies on cars and
allow virtual reality (VR) headsets to be used outdoors. The researchers' new
centimeter-accurate GPS coupled with a smartphone camera could be used to
quickly build a globally referenced 3-D map of one's surroundings that would
greatly expand the radius of a VR game. Currently, VR does not use GPS, which
limits its use to indoors and usually a two- to three-foot radius.
Centimeter-accurate
positioning systems are already used in geology, surveying and mapping, but the
survey-grade antennas these systems employ are too large and costly for use in
mobile devices. The breakthrough by Humphreys and his team is a powerful and
sensitive software-defined GPS receiver that can extract centimeter accuracies
from the inexpensive antennas found in mobile devices -- such precise
measurements were not previously possible. The researchers anticipate that
their software's ability to leverage low-cost antennas will reduce the overall
cost of centimeter accuracy, making it economically feasible for mobile
devices. Researchers have spent six years building a specialized receiver,
called GRID, to extract so-called carrier phase measurements from low-cost
antennas. GRID currently operates outside the phone, but it will eventually run
on the phone's internal processor.
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