NAVSOP Navigation System Rivals GPS

dangle writes "BAE Systems has developed a positioning solution that it claims will work even when GPS is unavailable. Its strategy is to use the collection of radio frequency signals from TV, radio and cellphone masts, even WiFi routers, to deduce a position. BAE's answer is dubbed Navigation via Signals of Opportunity (NAVSOP). It interrogates the airwaves for the ID and signal strength of local digital TV and radio signals, plus air traffic control radars, with finer grained adjustments coming from cellphone masts and WiFi routers. In any given area, the TV, radio, cellphone and radar signals tend to be at constant frequencies and power levels as they are are heavily regulated — so positions could be calculated from them. "The real beauty of NAVSOP is that the infrastructure required to make it work is already in place," says a BAE spokesman — and "software defined radio" microchips that run NAVSOP routines can easily be integrated into existing satnavs. The firm believes the technology could also work in urban concrete canyons where GPS signals cannot currently reach."

Comments

Re:Doesn't sound that accurate

[EdIII]

Each position's pattern of signals and signal strength is going to be unique

Unique at that moment in time. I change the wireless in my building and the signature changes. Wireless carrier changes something on a mast and the signature changes.

This can only work if you have a DB of precise locations of wireless signals. Even assuming that is viable, it cannot replace GPS as is.

Personally, I think we need less technology to pinpoint where we are. Trading convenience for security and privacy and all that.....

Re:Doesn't sound that accurate

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Personally, I think we need less technology to pinpoint where we are. Trading convenience for security and privacy and all that.....

As a privacy and security freak I disagree. The problem is not location accuracy. It is information leakage. There are all kinds of great things I can do with my own location info. The problem is all the devices that gleefully hand over my location info to 3rd parties who wish to exploit it for their own benefit.