New GPS location software called GRID has been developed that has the ability to track people’s exact locations down to the centimeter.
Researchers in the Radionavigation Lab at the University of Texas Austin developed the new GPS geolocation technology with the financial backing of Samsung Corporation over the course of six years.
GPS technology used in today’s smartphones is cheap, unreliable and not very precise. Location accuracy in current GPS systems can be off by 30 feet or more, which can pose big problems for people, especially in crowded and complex urban areas.
This new precision tracking technology has a wide range of uses in location-based services like virtual reality, collision avoidance software, cell phones as well as navigation and direction systems.
The GRID software would also have big benefits for location-based apps like Uber.
Another anticipated use for this new precise location system is in the operation of drones.
More precise GPS technology already exists, but it is too large and expensive to be useful in the portable electronic devices used by most people.
This new technology solves all of those problems. It is small, inexpensive and extremely precise.
In addition to tracking people and device locations down to the centimeter, this new software can even track the position and orientation of a person’s head.
When the GPS software is paired with a smartphone camera, it can create a three dimensional map of a person’s surrounding area in real time.
The catch is that the GRID GPS software currently only runs on a separate computer and needs antennas that are slightly better than the ones found in today’s smartphones.
However, GRID’s developers think the software and hardware could be available for use in consumer electronic devices in just a few years.
Recently, there have been a number of advancements in GPS technology, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s announcement that they are making progress on creating a GPS location tracking system that does not require the use of satellites and is resistant to signal jamming.