Inertial Sensor Improves GPS Performance of Smartphones

GPS is a power consumer and often receives only weak signals in urban centers. Now, computer scientists have developed an inertial sensor for smartphones to fill this gap.

If you have ever used a smart phone to navigate, you will know that one of the biggest problems is power consumption. The GPS sensor is a significant battery drain, so any relative length journey requires some kind of external power source. In addition, even at towering office buildings in city centres, bridges and tunnels often encounter block signals that make it difficult to receive GPS signals. So definitely need to use a trick to reduce power consumption, while improving the positioning accuracy of the device. Today, Zheng Bo at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and several good friends said that they have developed such a program called SmartLoc and tested it widely and used in this windy city. They said that in the city, GPS has a positioning accuracy of about 40 meters. By comparison, their SmartLoc system accurately positions their position within 20 meters.

How do these guys achieve this improvement? The trick used by Bo and good friends is to use the inertial sensor of the smartphone to determine its location. The way this project works is simple. Imagine a smart phone fixed around the windshield driving a car around the town. Given that reading began with the GPS, the smartphone built-in or online map knows where it is. It then uses an inertial sensor to measure its acceleration, indicating forward movement or turning to the left or right. For its part, this kind of data is very useful because it is difficult to tell whether the vehicle's acceleration has accelerated or exceeded the kyphosis bridge. In order to solve this problem, smart phones check the layout and function of road sections on the map, which may affect sensors, curved roads, traffic lights, humpback bridges and the like. Each of these people has a specific inertial signature phone that can be found. In this way, it can match the road characteristics of the inertial signal at that point. The key here is that each road should have a unique signature. Baihe cooperation has discovered a wide range of inertial signatures, such as deceleration, waiting for a set of traffic lights associated with acceleration, and even changing the gravity when a bridge is crossed. After collecting this data, the SmartLoc program focuses on these signatures while the car is moving. These guys have been tested using the Galaxy S3 smartphone on the city streets and it works very well. They pointed out that in urban centers, GPS signals disappeared by distances of up to one kilometer, which would lead to a complete chaos in a traditional navigation system.

However, SmartLoc just fills this gap, using its inertial signature database and a map of the area. "Our extensive evaluation shows that SmartLoc improves positioning accuracy to less than 20m at 90% or more," they said. This of course looks very convenient. This performance can also help save battery power, allowing the smartphone to periodically turn off the GPS sensor and run using only inertial sensors. Bo explains their plans and their new system. One obvious idea will be to release it as an application, which is obviously uploaded to the Android platform. Another idea is to sell this technology to existing surveying and mapping companies. Maybe they are planning. Whichever goal it is, it seems worth paying attention.

RC Drone

Timeplex is one of the leading manufacturers of metal stamping, plastic injection, Heatsink ,home appliance products,R/C drones, smart electronic toys, complete the solution for OEM/ODM Products and components. It's founded in 1989 , located in Chang An Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province China. It`s near the Shenzhen Airport .

During the past years ,Timeplex has established strong confidence and goodwill with our customers around the world.

We specialize in the below businesses for you :

1.Metal Stamping Components,heatsink.
2.Plastic Injection Components.
3.Various finished goods assembly.
4.OEM/ODM service .

5.R/C drone ,smart electronic toys

Our main customers : OSRAM,BAG Electronics.Inc., Walmart , Homax Products Inc(PPG),Fender UK SkyTV, Hasbro, A.O.Smith, Delta, Vtouch ,E-BI,EWA etc.

Wish to have an opportunity to cooperate with you in the coming days.

More services we offer:

RC Drone,Mini RC Drone,Remote Control Drone,RC Drone With Camera,720P Drone

Timeplex Industrial Limited , https://www.catimeplexhk.com