Thread: NEW WPS (WiFi Positioning System) ?

Sounds like a good concept, but I don't think it'll be any kind of competition against GPS until the whole world is completely blanketted by WiFi... And I say roll on then... But for now, pretty much useless.

Ahhhhh but there was a story yesterday (may run off to find it later) about intel or someone just made a new chip that allows wifi up to 3 miles, or 30 miles or something, cant remember the details but that would really expand the range!

Yip

I wouldn't say this is trying to replace GPS for in-vehicle navigation, but rather augment it for things its not very good at. GPS hardware is not standard on most PDAs, where WiFi is becoming much more so and is much cheaper. Also GPS works terribly in cities and indoors where this would probably work best.

This could be a relatively cheap and easy way for tracking locations of things indoors. i.e. Setup your own network, give everyone a PDA and you can instantly track where each person is.

I agree. it seems like the two systems could work together in one device, with the WiFi picking up the slack when you were in a city and the GPS was crapping out.

I don't see it replacing GPS by any means (at least not in the current form), because it requires that the exact locations of access points be known, so it would only work in cities that were mapped, and also would have problems if somebody moved their access point around.

however, one use that seems like a big advantage would be tight navigation in city areas... where GPS might not be accurate enough to know exactly what street you're on if they are really close together... or say you're on foot, in the middle of a city, and you're looking for some particular store or restaurant... with GPS, you might not even get a signal at all, let alone a good enough one to give you enough accuracy.

also, it seems like it might be helpful in huge airports (or malls) or whatever, where you can probably get a wifi signal but not GPS, and you're in a hurry and trying to figure out where your next terminal is. now all they need to do is get every person to carry a PDA with tracking on it, and you could walk around any place without ever taking your eyes off the screen... it would just keep track of where everyone else was so you wouldn't run into anyone

as for car navigation... well it would probably improve street-level navigation in big cities where GPS signal quality is poor or nonexistent... but that's probably about the only time you'd benefit. especially those of us who live in places like maine, where they probably wouldn't even come to map the cities

I definatly think thier on to something. I mean think about your local malls, haven't you guys ever wished you could get directions to each store in the mall on your cell phone or PDA, just like you do with street addresses in your current nav software.

There are malls in my region that have something like 70-80 stores and sometimes its diffacult to find where you are, however a wifi position system would be just the ticket for this type of setup.

access points go up and down and get upgraded all the time. I can't imagine that that network devices could provide a realiable solution over the long term. The idea is cool as hell however.

Good idea, but not really workable in a constantly changing environment. If a couple people in one area stop using WiFi, block MACs, or something to that extent, the wps wouldn't work. Also, certain environmental changes can hinder signal strength; rain, snow, fog, etc.

I'd give 'em props for getting it to work, but I'd rather work on magnets or satallites before I go with something like that.