Satellite based GPS dead in a few years????

Just been reading about a proposed new GPS system, based on the development of a caesium oscillator chip.

Apparently the rubidium ones that they use now in mobile phones have a long wavelength so that even with 4 base stations doing triangulation on your position, they can only get to a maximum accuracy of 150 metres, with 9km being more usual with three stations.

The new chips are cheap (about a fiver) per unit and the immensely shorter wavelength means they can get to 20cm accuracy (lat long and altitude with three stations)

The biggest flaw is that these systems will obviously not work where there's no phone coverage, but anyone who's received a phone call from deep in the Mauritanian wilderness knows that coverage can be pretty good and it's getting better all the time....the theory is that this wavelength will give better coverage anyway

On the plus side though, it'll work indoors (with possible applications for tracking criminals and lost kids in shopping centres) and you won't get the 'lost satellite' message when you go into an area with high rise tower blocks or over-hanging trees

Anyone got some shares in Garmin ?

If the new european system ever goes live I believe it has equal of a ffew inches and when mass production get going I was told that $3 a chip was the target.
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/galileo/index_en.htm

jimbo said:

If the new european system ever goes live I believe it has equal of a ffew inches and when mass production get going I was told that $3 a chip was the target.
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/galileo/index_en.htm

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It's all good news...the more systems there are there, the lower the prices will be for us end users......

With smart phones, faster smaller cooler CPU's and the move towards combined multi function devices (GPS units that think they're MP3 players, phones that think they're both GPS devices and MP3 players etc) I think in a few years time the future will be in a single hand held device that does it all

I just hope it doesn't have an 'i' in front of it

you'll have to subscribe somehow. the current system is free

cookie said:

you'll have to subscribe somehow. the current system is free

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Good point

It'll be interesting to see the prices though.....over the last three years, the Streetpilot 3 has gone from being the dog's danglies to obsolete old tut......the upgrade to a 2610 (even that's obsolete now) would be 2-300 quid and a lot more if you're an 'early adopter'......so there's a fair amount of room maybe for a service subscription deal maybe...particularly as you'd have it on your 'phone which you'd have anyway

Look on the cheap side , you could always navigate Africa from mast to mast and you would'nt need a GPS , just a pair of Binoculars

Fanum said:

It'll be interesting to see the prices though.....over the last three years, the Streetpilot 3 has gone from being the dog's danglies to obsolete old tut......

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Oi..... I like my SPIII. If only it had a faster processor and a CF slot it would be perfect. It's much better built than anything that came after it, with the possible exception of the 376 series that is still in production.

Even Garmin are now building for the mass market. The price has come down significantly but the new units are flimsy in comparison with mine.......

hey - i like that

sp3 at least has something going for it