Blog/20180721 Higher accuracy GPS on mobile phones
- Blog:20200228 Migrating from OSX to Ubuntu
- 20190328 TVET community report
- 20180803 If you like apps do not get the Nokia 2
- 20180721 Higher accuracy GPS on mobile phones
- 20180506 Backing up WhatsApp on the commandline for Android 7
- 20180401 Google Docs Helper bookmarklet
- 20180325 Digital Moves
- 20180310 Publishing only PDF and not your sources is like voluntary entropy
- 20180305 Which Mobile
- 20180221 Open textbooks for K12
- 20171220 MacBook power supply fixed with heat shrink
- 20171215 ssh tunnels
- 20171205 Help mapping Zambia and Ghana
- 20170927 Roaming in Europe
- 20170725 Saving mobile data
- 20170518 Hands on Missing Maps
- 20170425 Teachers Upfront University of Johannesburg
- 20170328 Can We Afford Free Textbooks
- 20170302 T-TEL TPD Programme
- 20161229 Cost of mobile internet
- 20161228 Using SSHelper to backup your internal Android phone memory
- 20160806 Upgrading Word to 2016
- 20160616 Evidence for digital learning
- 20150525 Equitable access to education
- 20150520 WEF and Open
- 20150429 Open Content encyclopaedia entry
- 20150405 OER4Schools ZIM files
- 20150331 PiJuice
- 20150206 OER Schools Conference video
- 20150129 TES goes Creative Commons
- 20150126 Where Its Needed Most
- 20150120 K12 OER calls
- 20150116 AIMS video 10 years on
- 20141218 Getting started with Android
- 20141201 Raspberry Pi GPIO labels
- 20141113 measuring below zero temperatures with DS18B20
- 20141105 OS X Lion 10.7 Internet Sharing with Raspberry Pi
- 20141028 OER Guidance for Schools
- 20141027 Google calendar world clock and timezone
- 20141020 Accessible PDFs
- 20141006 Annotation breaks searching in OS X Preview.app
- 20140923 OER Guidance for Schools and Share Alike
- 20140918 Tablets in Malawi and Ivory Coast
- 20140917 Roaming call charges in the EU
- 20140811 Chesteron Community College Tablet Learning Scheme
- 20140811 New Raspberry Pi model B Plus
- 20140805 new overnightrider ticket
- 20140625 Zambia update
- 20140608 Android battery life
- 20140601 Open data - open references ... further results
Some older entries are here.
Higher accuracy GPS on mobile phones
GPS accuracy of standard phone chips is limited to a few metres ([1]). You cannot get better than that because of the technology employed. However, when travelling by plane, you'll have noticed that often GPS position is lost once your plane reaches a certain speed, which (so I've heard) is due to the processing capabilities of phone chips. So, to make sure that you get the best possible signal, and as a bonus continue using GPS on flights, you could buy the "Dual XGPS150A Bluetooth GPS Receiver" [2]. It doesn't give you better accuracy, but might give you a better antenna position. Cost about $100. Until recently, this was the only reasonably priced option to make the most of the standard technology.
Around 2015, there were movements towards lower cost GPS RTK solutions (using a base-station) [3], [4], [5]. However, a base station is awkward, and systems would cost a few $100. There were also some noises in 2016 about software-based improvements [6], but it's not quite clear to me what became of this.
Now, in principle you can get higher accuracy on GPS by using dual-band GPS. Solutions again were a few $100 and not meant for consumers. Moreover there were issues around the chip design, meaning that the technology wasn't ready for consumer-type applications for various reasons... until late 2017, when Broadcom introduced the "World’s First Dual Frequency GNSS Receiver with Centimeter Accuracy for Consumer LBS Applications", i.e. the BCM47755 chip [7], [8], [9]. [10].
However, it wasn't clear which phone would use this first, until last month (June 2018), when the first phone featuring the chip arrived: the Xiaomi Mi 8 [11]. [12]. GSMArena states [13] that the phone has dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS. The phone costs about around $500 [14]. So for what was the cost of a higher accuracy GPS system previously (that's not necessarily all that easy to use), you're now getting a phone with possibly 30cm GPS accuracy.
But wait - this article [15] (by the author of GPSTest [16]) reviews whether the full capabilities are enabled yet. It doesn't seem to be the case right now. However, no doubt this will happen soon for Mi 8. Moreover, no doubt other manufacturers will follow suit, and use these higher accuracy GPS chips in their flagship phones.
What have we gained? Clearly a few metres of accuracy tell you the road you are on, but not the lane. It doesn't tell you where the pavement is, nor where the row of houses starts. So it works for getting from A to B, but if you need to be in a specific lane, it's tricky. So for travelling, you'll now get the lane you're in. For mapping, you can now map many more features from GPS.
Interesting story about innovation, and putting more power into the average users hands!
2018-07-21 | Leave a comment | Back to blog Share on Twitter Share on Facebook